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History of Math PDF

This document provides a summary of the history of mathematics from medieval Europe through the 16th century. It discusses how Asian mathematics flourished while European mathematics stagnated during the Dark Ages. It then describes how knowledge gradually spread back to Europe through trade with the East starting in the 12th century. Key medieval European mathematicians like Robert Chester who translated Arabic works and Leonardo Pisa who introduced the Fibonacci sequence are mentioned. The 16th century Renaissance brought revolutionary advances, including the introduction of mathematical symbols by figures like Luca Pacioli and Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia solving cubic equations. Pythagoras is highlighted as one of the greatest contributors in history for discoveries like irrational numbers and the Pythagorean theorem

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Vanessa Mae Rara
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153 views

History of Math PDF

This document provides a summary of the history of mathematics from medieval Europe through the 16th century. It discusses how Asian mathematics flourished while European mathematics stagnated during the Dark Ages. It then describes how knowledge gradually spread back to Europe through trade with the East starting in the 12th century. Key medieval European mathematicians like Robert Chester who translated Arabic works and Leonardo Pisa who introduced the Fibonacci sequence are mentioned. The 16th century Renaissance brought revolutionary advances, including the introduction of mathematical symbols by figures like Luca Pacioli and Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia solving cubic equations. Pythagoras is highlighted as one of the greatest contributors in history for discoveries like irrational numbers and the Pythagorean theorem

Uploaded by

Vanessa Mae Rara
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HISTORY OF MATH:

SUBMITTED BY: GROUP 7


PEREZ, JOANNE
RARA, VANESSA MAE
SANCHEZ, MARIA ERICKA
SOLIS, JAYCELOU
TABIEN, JUVELLE

BSN – 101
TTh 8:30 – 10:00
Medieval Europe

While Asian mathematics was facing the Golden Ages, European countries and
knowledge centers were confronted with stagnation. During the Dark Ages, scholastic scholars
only valued studies in the humanities, such as philosophy and literature, and spent much of their
energies quarrelling over subtle subjects in metaphysics and theology.

From the 4th to 12th Centuries, European knowledge and study of arithmetic, geometry,
astronomy and music was limited mainly to Boethius’ translations of some of the works of
ancient Greek masters such as Nicomachus and Euclid. By the 12th Century, though, Europe,
and particularly Italy, was beginning to trade with the East, and Eastern knowledge gradually
began to spread to the West.

The great expansion of trade and commerce in general created a growing practical need
for mathematics, and arithmetic entered much more into the lives of common people and was no
longer limited to the academic realm. Numerous books on arithmetic were published for the
purpose of teaching business people computational methods for their commercial needs and
mathematics gradually began to acquire a more important position in education.

Medieval Europe: Contributors

Robert Chester
 Robert Chester was one of the foremost medieval translators of
Arabic scientific works into Latin.
 His translations introduced Arabic algebra and alchemy to Western
Europe.
 The algebra book “Al-Khwarizmi’s” together with the Euclid’s
“Elements” were traslated into Latin in this era.

Leonardo Pisa
 Introduced to Europe a particular number sequence, which has since
become known as Fibonacci Numbers or the Fibonacci Sequence
 His most important contribution to European mathematics was his
role in spreading the use of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system
throughout Europe early in the 13th Century, which soon made the
Roman numeral system obsolete, and opened the way for great
advances in European mathematics.

Nicole Oresme
 He introduced the rectangular coordinate system long before his
world renowned contrymen Rene Decartes, who later popularized
the same idea.
 The first to use fractional exponents, worked with infinite series.
16th Century
Science and art were still very much interconnected and intermingled at this time, as
exemplified by the work of artist/scientists such as Leonardo da Vinci, and it is no surprise that,
just as in art, revolutionary work in the fields of philosophy and science was soon taking place.
The cultural, intellectual and artistic movement of the Renaissance, which saw a resurgence of
learning based on classical sources, began in Italy around the 14th Century, and gradually spread
across most of Europe over the next two centuries.

In this period, the introduction, standardization and use of mathematical symbols such as
the multiplication, division, equals, radical (root), decimal and inequality symbols were notable
It produced several important developments, some of which pointed to definitive resolutions of
themes from earlier centuries and others of which reflected the movement of the subject into
entirely new directions.

16th Century : Contributors


Luca Pacioli
 He introduced symbols for plus and minus for the first time in a
printed book (although this is also sometimes attributed to Giel
Vander Hoecke, Johannes Widmann and others), symbols that were
to become standard notation.
 Published a book on arithmetic, geometry and book-keeping at the
end of the 15th Century which became quite popular for the
mathematical puzzles it contained.

Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia


 He won the 1535 Bologna University mathematics competition by
demonstrating a general algebraic formula for solving cubic
equations (equations with terms including x3), something which had
come to be seen by this time as an impossibility, requiring as it does
an understanding of the square roots of negative numbers.
 He became involved in the arguments about the cubic equation, he
wrote a paper on the application of mathematics to artillery fire. In
the work he described new ballistic methods and instruments,
including the first firing tables.

Gerolamo Cardano
 He published two books on arithmetic embodying his popular
lectures, the more important being Practica arithmetica et
mensurandi singularis (“Practice of Mathematics and Individual
Measurements”).
GREATEST CONTRIBUTOR THROUGHOUT THE HISTORY

Pythagoras of Samos
Our history is rich with mathematicians who helped advance our collective understanding
of math, but there are a few standouts whose brilliant work and intuitions pushed things in huge
leaps and bounds. One of the greatest contributor in mathematics is Pythagoras also known as the
“Father of Numbers”. Pythagoras discovered many concepts that have been used for many years
and still continue to be used by some of the world’s greatest mathematicians. He had many
contributions to the history of math and many of them have found their way into the foundation
of math itself. Noted that his greatest contributions are his discovery and use of irrational
numbers, his own theorem called the Pythagorean Theorem, and his discovery of the relationship
and correlation of music and math. The exploration of why these discoveries are needed and still
used today can help express why Pythagoras’s contribution to society left and continues to leave
such an everlasting impact.

References:
Mastin L. (2010). The Story of Mathematics. Retrived from
https://www.storyofmathematics.com/medieval.html
Wills P. (2019). Notable Contributions Made by Pythagoras to Know on Pythagorean Theorem
Day. Retrived from https://study.com/blog/notable-contributions-made-by-pythagoras-to-know-on-
pythagorean-theorem-day.html
Katz V. (2017) The Mathematical Cultures of Medieval Europe - Mathematics in Catholic
Europe. Retrived from https://www.maa.org/press/periodicals/convergence/the-mathematical-
cultures-of-medieval-europe-mathematics-in-catholic-europe

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