History of Mathematics
Mathematics in the Modern World
Overview/ Introduction:
The mathematics that we know in the modern world has its roots in ancient
Mesopotamia, Egypt and Babylonia. Then it was developed in Greece, and
simultaneously in China and in India. This ancient Greek mathematics, along with
some influence of Hindu mathematics spread to the neighboring countries in the
Middle East. It was translated into Arabic and Latin and was adopted by Western
Europe. Western education was spread throughout the world by colonization and
trade. Today’s Mathematics has been enriched by the contributions of different
civilizations and individual mathematicians who unselfishly passed on their
discoveries and knowledge to us. It is therefore fitting for us to look back and
appreciate how Mathematics have developed and who made these developments
possible.
4000-3000 B.C.E. - Sumerians (from Sumer, a region of
Mesopotamia) were the first people to assign
symbols to group of objects to represent
numbers. They developed the earliest known writing system, a
pictographic writing system known as cuneiform script.
3000 B.C.E. - The Egyptians were the first people to develop a
numerical system that was based on
the number 10. Hieroglyphic
Numerals developed in Egypt.
2400 B.C.E. - Babylonians in Mesopotamia used the Sexagesimal
System (base 60).
300 B.C.E. - The major Greek progress in Mathematics was
from 300 BC to 200 AD. During this era,
Euclid wrote the Elements, a
compilation of theorems, axioms in Algebra and postulates and
theorems in Geometry. With this, he gained the
200 B.C.E.- Archimedes of Syracuse, a Greek mathematician,
physicist, inventor and
astronomer derived a range of formulas in
Geometry including the area of a circle, the surface area and
volume of a sphere and the area
under a parabola.
140 B.C.E.- Trigonometry of Hipparchus was developed.
Hipparchus of Nicaea was a Greek astronomer,
geographer, and mathematician
considered as the founder of trigonometry.
775 C.E.- Hindu mathematical works were translated into
Arabic.
830 C.E.- Arabic Algebra and Indian numerals came to Western
Europe through the writings of Muhammad
ibn Musa Al-Khwarizmi. Other Arabic
scholars also cultivated Greek mathematics translating the
writings of Apollonius, Archimedes, Euclid, Ptolemy, etc. into Arabic.
1202 C.E.- Leonardo of Pisa, also called Fibonacci, wrote Liber
Abaci, a book filled with
arithmetical and algebraic information which he
had collected during his travels. This was one of the means by
which the Hindu-Arabic System of Numeration was
introduced into Western Europe. The best
known contribution of Hindu
mathematics to modern mathematics was the decimal position
system. They also introduced the number zero in
mathematics. For the first time in human
history, the concept of “nothing” was
symbolized by a number.
1489 C.E.- Johannes Widmann was a German mathematician.
The + and – symbols first appeared in print in
his book Mercantile Arithmetic published in Leipzig
in 1489 in reference to surpluses and deficits in
business problems.
17th Century- The 17th century saw John Napier, and others greatly
1629 C.E.- Pierre de Fermat was a French lawyer and a
mathematician who is given credit for
early developments that led to infinitesimal
calculus. Fermat, together with Pascal, began the mathematical
study of probability.
Blaise Pascal laid the foundations of the
Probability Theory together
with Fermat. He invented the Pascaline, an early
mechanical calculator. He is also known for the Pascal’s
Triangle, a tool for expanding a
binomial
Rene Descartes was another notable
mathematician of the 17th century. He
invented the Cartesian coordinate system, developed
analytic geometry and laid foundation for the development of
calculus.
1684 C.E.- Leibniz’ first paper on the calculus was published.
18th-19th Century- The most important mathematician of the 18th
Century was Leonhard Euler who,
in addition to work in a wide range of
mathematical areas, started the Graph Theory, the
Calculus of Variations and
Differential Geometry.
Carl Friedrich Gauss German
mathematician, generally
regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time for
his contributions to number theory, geometry,
probability theory,
planetary, and the theory of functions. In 1799, he
proved the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra.
Toward the end of the 18th Century,
an Italian mathematician, Joseph Louie
Lagrange began a rigorous theory of function and
of mechanics. He also played a key role in the creation of the
Metric system of weights and measures.
20th Century
1975 C.E.- Benoit Mandelbrot’s introduced the theory
of fractals. He published “The
Fractal Geometry of Nature” in 1982.
1994 C.E.- Andrew Wiles proved Fermat’s Last
Theorem.
2000 C.E.- Mathematical challenges of the 21st Century
announced.
