History of mathematics

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A proof from Euclid's Elements (c. 300

BC), widely considered the most influential textbook of all time.[1]

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The history of mathematics deals with the origin of discoveries in mathematics and
the mathematical methods and notation of the past. Before the modern age and the
worldwide spread of knowledge, written examples of new mathematical developments
have come to light only in a few locales. From 3000 BC the Mesopotamian states
of Sumer, Akkad and Assyria, followed closely by Ancient Egypt and the Levantine state
of Ebla began using arithmetic, algebra and geometry for purposes
of taxation, commerce, trade and also in the field of astronomy to record time and
formulate calendars.

The earliest mathematical texts available are from Mesopotamia and Egypt – Plimpton
322 (Babylonian c. 2000 – 1900 BC),[2] the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus (Egyptian c.
1800 BC)[3] and the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus (Egyptian c. 1890 BC). All of these
texts mention the so-called Pythagorean triples, so, by inference, the Pythagorean
theorem seems to be the most ancient and widespread mathematical development after
basic arithmetic and geometry.

The study of mathematics as a "demonstrative discipline" began in the 6th century BC

with the Pythagoreans, who coined the term "mathematics" from the
ancient Greek μάθημα (mathema), meaning "subject of instruction".[4] Greek
mathematics greatly refined the methods (especially through the introduction of
deductive reasoning and mathematical rigor in proofs) and expanded the subject matter
of mathematics.[5] The ancient Romans used applied
mathematics in surveying, structural engineering, mechanical
engineering, bookkeeping, creation of lunar and solar calendars, and even arts and
crafts. Chinese mathematics made early contributions, including a place value
system and the first use of negative numbers.[6][7] The Hindu–Arabic numeral system and
the rules for the use of its operations, in use throughout the world today evolved over
the course of the first millennium AD in India and were transmitted to the Western
world via Islamic mathematics through the work of Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī.[8]
[9]
Islamic mathematics, in turn, developed and expanded the mathematics known to
these civilizations.[10] Contemporaneous with but independent of these traditions were
the mathematics developed by the Maya civilization of Mexico and Central America,
where the concept of zero was given a standard symbol in Maya numerals.

Many Greek and Arabic texts on mathematics were translated into Latin from the 12th
century onward, leading to further development of mathematics in Medieval Europe.
From ancient times through the Middle Ages, periods of mathematical discovery were
often followed by centuries of stagnation.[11] Beginning in Renaissance Italy in the 15th
century, new mathematical developments, interacting with new scientific discoveries,
were made at an increasing pace that continues through the present day. This includes
the groundbreaking work of both Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in the
development of infinitesimal calculus during the course of the 17th century.

Table of numerals

European (descended from the West 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Arabic)

Arabic-Indic ٠ ١ ٢ ٣ ٤ ٥ ٦ ٧ ٨ ٩

Eastern Arabic-Indic (Persian and Urdu) ۰ ۱ ۲ ۳ ۴ ۵ ۶ ۷ ۸ ۹

Devanagari (Hindi) ० १ २ ३ ४ ५ ६ ७ ८ ९

Bengali ০ ১ ২ ৩ ৪ ৫ ৬ ৭ ৮ ৯

Chinese 零 一 二 三 四 五 六 七 八 九

Tamil ௦ ௧ ௨ ௩ ௪ ௫ ௬ ௭ ௮ ௯

Prehistoric
[edit]
The origins of mathematical thought lie in the concepts of number, patterns in
nature, magnitude, and form.[12] Modern studies of animal cognition have shown that
these concepts are not unique to humans. Such concepts would have been part of
everyday life in hunter-gatherer societies. The idea of the "number" concept evolving
gradually over time is supported by the existence of languages which preserve the
distinction between "one", "two", and "many", but not of numbers larger than two. [12]

The Ishango bone, found near the headwaters of the Nile river (northeastern Congo),
may be more than 20,000 years old and consists of a series of marks carved in three
columns running the length of the bone. Common interpretations are that the Ishango
bone shows either a tally of the earliest known demonstration of sequences of prime
numbers[13][failed verification] or a six-month lunar calendar.[14] Peter Rudman argues that the
development of the concept of prime numbers could only have come about after the
concept of division, which he dates to after 10,000 BC, with prime numbers probably not
being understood until about 500 BC. He also writes that "no attempt has been made to
explain why a tally of something should exhibit multiples of two, prime numbers between
10 and 20, and some numbers that are almost multiples of 10."[15] The Ishango bone,
according to scholar Alexander Marshack, may have influenced the later development
of mathematics in Egypt as, like some entries on the Ishango bone, Egyptian arithmetic
also made use of multiplication by 2; this however, is disputed.[16]

Predynastic Egyptians of the 5th millennium BC pictorially represented geometric

designs. It has been claimed that megalithic monuments in England and Scotland,
dating from the 3rd millennium BC, incorporate geometric ideas such
as circles, ellipses, and Pythagorean triples in their design.[17] All of the above are
disputed however, and the currently oldest undisputed mathematical documents are
from Babylonian and dynastic Egyptian sources.[18]

Babylonian
[edit]
Main article: Babylonian mathematics
See also: Plimpton 322
Babylonian mathematics refers to any mathematics of the peoples
of Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) from the days of the early Sumerians through
the Hellenistic period almost to the dawn of Christianity.[19] The majority of Babylonian
mathematical work comes from two widely separated periods: The first few hundred
years of the second millennium BC (Old Babylonian period), and the last few centuries
of the first millennium BC (Seleucid period).[20] It is named Babylonian mathematics due
to the central role of Babylon as a place of study. Later under the Arab Empire,
Mesopotamia, especially Baghdad, once again became an important center of study
for Islamic mathematics.
 Geometry problem on a clay tablet belonging to a school
for scribes; Susa, first half of the 2nd millennium BCE
In contrast to the sparsity of sources in Egyptian mathematics, knowledge of Babylonian
mathematics is derived from more than 400 clay tablets unearthed since the 1850s.
[21]
Written in Cuneiform script, tablets were inscribed whilst the clay was moist, and
baked hard in an oven or by the heat of the sun. Some of these appear to be graded
homework.[22]

The earliest evidence of written mathematics dates back to the ancient Sumerians, who
built the earliest civilization in Mesopotamia. They developed a complex system
of metrology from 3000 BC that was chiefly concerned with administrative/financial
counting, such as grain allotments, workers, weights of silver, or even liquids, among
other things.[23] From around 2500 BC onward, the Sumerians wrote multiplication
tables on clay tablets and dealt with geometrical exercises and division problems. The
earliest traces of the Babylonian numerals also date back to this period.[24]

The Babylonian mathematical tablet Plimpton 322, dated

to 1800 BC.
Babylonian mathematics were written using a sexagesimal (base-60) numeral system.
[21]
From this derives the modern-day usage of 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an
hour, and 360 (60 × 6) degrees in a circle, as well as the use of seconds and minutes of
arc to denote fractions of a degree. It is thought the sexagesimal system was initially
used by Sumerian scribes because 60 can be evenly divided by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15,
20 and 30,[21] and for scribes (doling out the aforementioned grain allotments, recording
weights of silver, etc.) being able to easily calculate by hand was essential, and so a
sexagesimal system is pragmatically easier to calculate by hand with; however, there is
the possibility that using a sexagesimal system was an ethno-linguistic phenomenon
(that might not ever be known), and not a mathematical/practical decision.[25] Also, unlike
the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, the Babylonians had a place-value system, where
digits written in the left column represented larger values, much as in
the decimal system. The power of the Babylonian notational system lay in that it could
be used to represent fractions as easily as whole numbers; thus multiplying two
numbers that contained fractions was no different from multiplying integers, similar to
modern notation. The notational system of the Babylonians was the best of any
civilization until the Renaissance, and its power allowed it to achieve remarkable
computational accuracy; for example, the Babylonian tablet YBC 7289 gives an
approximation of √2 accurate to five decimal places.[26] The Babylonians lacked,
however, an equivalent of the decimal point, and so the place value of a symbol often
had to be inferred from the context.[20] By the Seleucid period, the Babylonians had
developed a zero symbol as a placeholder for empty positions; however it was only
used for intermediate positions.[20] This zero sign does not appear in terminal positions,
thus the Babylonians came close but did not develop a true place value system.[20]

Other topics covered by Babylonian mathematics include fractions, algebra, quadratic

and cubic equations, and the calculation of regular numbers, and their reciprocal pairs.
[27]
The tablets also include multiplication tables and methods for solving linear, quadratic
equations and cubic equations, a remarkable achievement for the time.[28] Tablets from
the Old Babylonian period also contain the earliest known statement of the Pythagorean
theorem.[29] However, as with Egyptian mathematics, Babylonian mathematics shows no
awareness of the difference between exact and approximate solutions, or the solvability
of a problem, and most importantly, no explicit statement of the need for proofs or
logical principles.[22]

Egyptian
[edit]
Main article: Egyptian mathematics

Image of Problem 14 from the Moscow

Mathematical Papyrus. The problem includes a diagram indicating the dimensions of
the truncated pyramid.
Egyptian mathematics refers to mathematics written in the Egyptian language. From
the Hellenistic period, Greek replaced Egyptian as the written language
of Egyptian scholars. Mathematical study in Egypt later continued under the Arab
Empire as part of Islamic mathematics, when Arabic became the written language of
Egyptian scholars. Archaeological evidence has suggested that the Ancient Egyptian
counting system had origins in Sub-Saharan Africa.[30] Also, fractal geometry designs
which are widespread among Sub-Saharan African cultures are also found in Egyptian
architecture and cosmological signs.[31]

The most extensive Egyptian mathematical text is the Rhind papyrus (sometimes also
called the Ahmes Papyrus after its author), dated to c. 1650 BC but likely a copy of an
older document from the Middle Kingdom of about 2000–1800 BC.[32] It is an instruction
manual for students in arithmetic and geometry. In addition to giving area formulas and
methods for multiplication, division and working with unit fractions, it also contains
evidence of other mathematical knowledge,[33] including composite and prime
numbers; arithmetic, geometric and harmonic means; and simplistic understandings of
both the Sieve of Eratosthenes and perfect number theory (namely, that of the number
6).[34] It also shows how to solve first order linear equations[35] as well
as arithmetic and geometric series.[36]

Another significant Egyptian mathematical text is the Moscow papyrus, also from
the Middle Kingdom period, dated to c. 1890 BC.[37] It consists of what are today
called word problems or story problems, which were apparently intended as
entertainment. One problem is considered to be of particular importance because it
gives a method for finding the volume of a frustum (truncated pyramid).

Finally, the Berlin Papyrus 6619 (c. 1800 BC) shows that ancient Egyptians could solve
a second-order algebraic equation.[38]

Greek
[edit]
Main article: Greek mathematics

The Pythagorean theorem. The Pythagoreans are

generally credited with the first proof of the theorem.
Greek mathematics refers to the mathematics written in the Greek language from the
time of Thales of Miletus (~600 BC) to the closure of the Academy of Athens in 529 AD.
[39]
Greek mathematicians lived in cities spread over the entire Eastern Mediterranean,
from Italy to North Africa, but were united by culture and language. Greek mathematics
of the period following Alexander the Great is sometimes
called Hellenistic mathematics.[40]
Greek mathematics was much more sophisticated than the mathematics that had been
developed by earlier cultures. All surviving records of pre-Greek mathematics show the
use of inductive reasoning, that is, repeated observations used to establish rules of
thumb. Greek mathematicians, by contrast, used deductive reasoning. The Greeks used
logic to derive conclusions from definitions and axioms, and used mathematical rigor to
prove them.[41]

Greek mathematics is thought to have begun with Thales of Miletus (c. 624–c.546 BC)
and Pythagoras of Samos (c. 582–c. 507 BC). Although the extent of the influence is
disputed, they were probably inspired by Egyptian and Babylonian mathematics.
According to legend, Pythagoras traveled to Egypt to learn mathematics, geometry, and
astronomy from Egyptian priests.

Thales used geometry to solve problems such as calculating the height of pyramids and
the distance of ships from the shore. He is credited with the first use of deductive
reasoning applied to geometry, by deriving four corollaries to Thales' Theorem. As a
result, he has been hailed as the first true mathematician and the first known individual
to whom a mathematical discovery has been attributed.[42] Pythagoras established
the Pythagorean School, whose doctrine it was that mathematics ruled the universe and
whose motto was "All is number".[43] It was the Pythagoreans who coined the term
"mathematics", and with whom the study of mathematics for its own sake begins. The
Pythagoreans are credited with the first proof of the Pythagorean theorem,[44] though the
statement of the theorem has a long history, and with the proof of the existence
of irrational numbers.[45][46] Although he was preceded by the Babylonians, Indians and
the Chinese,[47] the Neopythagorean mathematician Nicomachus (60–120 AD) provided
one of the earliest Greco-Roman multiplication tables, whereas the oldest extant Greek
multiplication table is found on a wax tablet dated to the 1st century AD (now found in
the British Museum).[48] The association of the Neopythagoreans with the Western
invention of the multiplication table is evident in its later Medieval name: the mensa
Pythagorica.[49]

Plato (428/427 BC – 348/347 BC) is important in the history of mathematics for inspiring
and guiding others.[50] His Platonic Academy, in Athens, became the mathematical
center of the world in the 4th century BC, and it was from this school that the leading
mathematicians of the day, such as Eudoxus of Cnidus (c. 390 - c. 340 BC), came.
[51]
Plato also discussed the foundations of mathematics,[52] clarified some of the
definitions (e.g. that of a line as "breadthless length"), and reorganized the assumptions.
[53]
The analytic method is ascribed to Plato, while a formula for obtaining Pythagorean
triples bears his name.[51]

Eudoxus developed the method of exhaustion, a precursor of modern integration[54] and

a theory of ratios that avoided the problem of incommensurable magnitudes.[55] The
former allowed the calculations of areas and volumes of curvilinear figures,[56] while the
latter enabled subsequent geometers to make significant advances in geometry.
Though he made no specific technical mathematical discoveries, Aristotle (384–c. 322
BC) contributed significantly to the development of mathematics by laying the
foundations of logic.[57]
 One of the oldest surviving fragments of
Euclid's Elements, found at Oxyrhynchus and dated to circa AD 100. The diagram
accompanies Book II, Proposition 5.[58]
In the 3rd century BC, the premier center of mathematical education and research was
the Musaeum of Alexandria.[59] It was there that Euclid (c. 300 BC) taught, and wrote
the Elements, widely considered the most successful and influential textbook of all time.
[1]
The Elements introduced mathematical rigor through the axiomatic method and is the
earliest example of the format still used in mathematics today, that of definition, axiom,
theorem, and proof. Although most of the contents of the Elements were already known,
Euclid arranged them into a single, coherent logical framework.[60] The Elements was
known to all educated people in the West up through the middle of the 20th century and
its contents are still taught in geometry classes today.[61] In addition to the familiar
theorems of Euclidean geometry, the Elements was meant as an introductory textbook
to all mathematical subjects of the time, such as number theory, algebra and solid
geometry,[60] including proofs that the square root of two is irrational and that there are
infinitely many prime numbers. Euclid also wrote extensively on other subjects, such
as conic sections, optics, spherical geometry, and mechanics, but only half of his
writings survive.[62]

Archimedes used the method of exhaustion to

approximate the value of pi.
Archimedes (c. 287–212 BC) of Syracuse, widely considered the greatest
mathematician of antiquity,[63] used the method of exhaustion to calculate the area under
the arc of a parabola with the summation of an infinite series, in a manner not too
dissimilar from modern calculus.[64] He also showed one could use the method of
exhaustion to calculate the value of π with as much precision as desired, and obtained
the most accurate value of π then known, 3+10/71 < π < 3+10/70.[65] He also studied
the spiral bearing his name, obtained formulas for the volumes of surfaces of
revolution (paraboloid, ellipsoid, hyperboloid),[64] and an ingenious method
of exponentiation for expressing very large numbers.[66