Three thousand and seven hundred
years old mud tablet was discovered in the south of Iraq. The tablets that go
back to the age of Babylonians in a place was called Sumer, in Mesopotamia
(Iraq today) shows the origins of the mathematics. The discovery of the tablet
has a massive impact on the modern Mathematical system. It also confirmed that
Babylonians developed trigonometry were fifteen thousand years more advanced
than the Greeks! The Sumerian math was very accurate it was even used ancient
Sumerian and Babylonians architects to build the most magnificent temples,
canals, and castles in Mesopotamia. Babylonians used the base of sixty instead
of the ten because merely, the sixty base is much easier to be divided by
three. Many experts and scientists have proven that the base of sixty is more
accurate than the base of the ten (which is used in the modern day). The
Sumerians had their own numbers symbols which is similar to the contemporary
numbers, these Sumerians tablets that describe the trigonometry opens new
possibilities for the modern mathematics research and improves our
understanding of the math as math students around the world.
Your postings about the origins/history of mathematics are so interesting! It is always so amazing to me how the ancient world created and derived mathematics without the advances we have today (or even the common calculator). To this day, we still use some of the same concepts and teachings our ancient civilizations had and we still have evidence of modern marvels (like the pyramids). And to me, that is mind blowing. I have noticed a common thread, now that technology has made our lives so much easier, where people rely on tools rather than the teachings. I count myself fortunate that I grew up at a time where technology wasn't as advanced as it is today so that we had to learn the foundational concepts. I think that has greatly enabled my ability to not just memorize math, but actually know how to apply the concepts to different scenarios/problems.
ReplyDeleteDear Andrea,
ReplyDeleteTrue, mathematics history is fascinating, every time I read about the history of math, it surprises me more. For example, math is the basis that helped Egyptians to build the pyramids. I wrote and posted articles about mathematics to help people learn the origins of math. What you wrote about technology is right, technology is limiting the brains of many students in the modern day, relying on calculates instead of our own brain is a series issue that we need to deal with!