The history of mathematics is a topic which I have never really giving much thought, until our lecture the other day. I understand the way mathematics works within in my own country but I had no idea of the process that was involved for mathematics to be the way it is now and how long mathematics has been around for.
No one can know for sure how long mathematics or numbers have been around but it is believed that the working systems and the use of symbols for numbers has been around for about 10,000 years. (Bellos, 2011, p15.) Although there may not have been actual numbers systems prior to this time it is believed that our ancestors would have had some understanding of amounts. For example, they would have been able to distinguish between one animal or two animals’ (Bellos, 2011, p15.) Some of the earliest evidence of numbers are dating back from 35,000 to 20,000 years ago in Africa when they counted on bones. (Mastln, 2010.) This shows that for generations there has been some understanding of amounts and numbers.
Sumer – modern day Iraq – developed the earliest known writing system and were one of the first generations to assign symbols to numbers (Mastln, 2010.) One of the reasons for the development of symbols associated to numbers was a response to the needs of the country and developed agriculture (Mastln, 2010.) They were dealing with larger numbers such as plots of land or taxation therefore they needed symbols for larger numbers. Sumerian and
Babylonian mathematics was a base 60 system, which means that number 60 was the base number. This is still used in modern day society with aspects of mathematics such as time 
(Wikipedia, 2016.) The Babylonians also discovered a mathematics revolution by acknowledging zero as a number and symbolising it (Mastln, 2010.) It also believed there was evidence of some type arithmetic exercises in Sumerian and Babylonian schools. It is believed that Babylonians were one the first to invent multiplication. As their society grew there was a need for more sophisticated mathematics and this led to the invention of multiplication tables. They created multiplication tables on tablets and carried them around to speed up calculations (Marcus du Sautoy, 2014.) Another example of mathematics from thousands of years ago being relevant in today’s society.
There are many different number systems from all over the world and that have developed over time and that play a part in mathematics today. The Egyptians created one of the first fully developed base 10 number systems, the system we use today, as well as fractions (Mastln, 2010.) The Rhind papyrus was discovered by Henry Rhind, in the 19th century. It was a book filled with problems and solutions which included a section on fractions. The Egyptians used fractions such as 1/4, 1/2 and 1/8 (Shuttleworth, 2012.) This is another area of mathematics which stems from thousands of years ago which we use frequently in today’s world. Greek mathematics was based on geometry. The Greek’s have established well known and used theories such as Pythagoras Theorem (Mastln, 2010.)
It is fascinating to see how far mathematics has developed from Babylonian number systems too today’s number system. However, there are still places in the world which are not as numerically developed as us. The Munduruku tribe in the Amazon only have the numbers ‘1 to 5’ after the number five it is just referred to as many (Bellos, 2011, p15.) We live in a society where numbers and mathematics play a large part in our everyday lives that I found the concept of only having five numbers completely alien. Pierra Pica went to live with the Munduruku tribe for many months and on his return he had lost the ability to describe the world in terms of numbers (Bellos, 2011.) I found this fascinating as he was a highly intelligent man living in the 21st century, how can you lose the concept of numbers so quickly? Due to numbers not being a huge part of day to day life such as time or counting, he simply learned how to survive without numbers. This made me wonder, as a society why are we so “obsessed” with numbers and time? Is this due to the fact that we are surrounded by it much more. I am intrigued to experience what life would be like where numbers play a minimal part in your day to day life. If others can live by it and survive, surely we can?
During our lecture we were asked to complete an activity where we had to create our own number system using symbols, and I tell you I take my hat off to those who have created number systems as it is definitely not as easy as you would think. Me and my partner Hannah
thought it would be a good idea to use a circle as our symbol and one whole line within the circle would represent the amount. We quickly figured out that our system was too complex as by the time we reached number five we were both confused. Some of our classmates came up with really good examples and were
very simple to follow.
So how does this all link to Liping Ma’s profound understanding of fundamental mathematics?
Connectedness – In order for me to understand the way different number systems work I had to make connections with different mathematical concepts such as different base systems. I made these connections with concepts which I was familiar with such as time which is a base 60 system to understand my new knowledge in more depth. I also had to make connections with real life in order to understand how number systems have developed over time and how they are different to the numbers I deal with daily.
References
Bellos, A. (2011.) Alex’s Adventures in Numberland. Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, London.
Mastln, L. (2010) 20th Century Mathematics – The Story of Mathematics. Viewed at: http://www.storyofmathematics.com/20th.html [Accessed on 7 October 2016.]
Shuttleworth, M (2012.) Egyptian Mathematics – The History of Mathematics. Viewed at: https://explorable.com/egyptian-mathematics [Accessed on 7 October 2016.]
Du Sautoy, M (2016) The Guardian. Viewed at: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/may/17/ask-a-grown-up-who-invented-times-tables [Accessed on 7 October 2016.]
