Math History

History of Mathematics - an investigation in the mathematical methods and notations to the past

Most Ancient texts

Plimton 322(Babylonian c. 1900 BCE)
Rhind Mathematical Papyrus(Egyptian 2000-1800 BC)
Moscow Mathematical Papyrus (Egyptian c.1890 BC)
These texts concern the so called Pythagorean Theorem
Pythagorean Theorem- most ancient and widespread Mathematical b development after
geometry and arithmetic.
Study of math (discipline)- 6th century BC with the Pythagoreans
MATHEMATICS - “mathema” meaning subject of instruction
Prehistoric Mathematics
Artifacts- Isangho bone (around 20,000 yes old) founded near the waters of nile river
•the Isangho bone shows either the earliest known demonstrations of sequence of prime
numbers or a 6 months lunar calendar.
-Peter Rudman argued because prime number isn't understood for about 500 BC.
-Alexander Marshack said it may have influence later development of mathematics and egypt as
like some entries on the isang whole bone.
Babylonian Mathematics
•Were written using a sexagesimal or basics in numeral system
•400 clay tablets an earth since 1850's,written in cuneiform script; clay was moist, baked hard in
an oven or the heat from the sun. Appeared to be graded homework
Earliest evidence of written mathematics dates back in ancient sumerians
•Who built the earliest civilization -Mesopotamia. They develop a complex systems of metrology
from 3,000 BCE
•From around 2,500 BCE on tablets dealt with geometrical exercises and division problems
earliest traces of the babylonian numerals also date back to this period.
-geometry problem on a clay tablet belonging to a school for scribes; Susa, first half of the
second millennium BCE (2500 BCE)
•sexagesimal or base 60 numeral system: derives modern day usage of 60 seconds in a
minute, 60 minutes and an hour, and 360 (60 * 6) degrees in a circle.
-Base 60 was chosen cause 60 can be evenly divided by 2 3 4 5 6 10 12 15 20 30.
•had a true place value system left column represented larger values matches the decimal
system.
Example:

•the babylonians locked and equivalent of decimal point so the place value of a symbol often
had to be interfered from the context.
And in the seleucid period, babylonians have developed a zero symbol as a placeholder for
empty positions however it was only used for a intermediate positions this zero sign does not
appear in terminal positions does babylonians came close but did not develop a true place value
system.
•babalonians represent fraction as easily as whole numbers
•the babylonian tablet ybc 7289 gives an approximation of the √2 accurate to 5 decimal places.
•tablets from old babylonian period contain the earliest statement of the pythagorean theorem.
•Has no awareness to difference between exact and approximate solutions
•Babylonians made the topics just like the calculation of regular reciprocal pairs.
•babylonian came close but did not develop a true place value system
Egyptian mathematics
•Made in egyptian language
•Most expensive egyptian mathematical text is the Rhind Papyrus or ahmos(the name of
author)papyrus dated in 1650 BC.
-the rhind papyrus is an instruction manual for students and arithmetic and geometry in addition
to giving area formulas and methods for multiplication division and working with unit fractions it
contains evidence of other mathematical knowledge: prime numbers arithmetic geometric and
harmonic means; understandings of the sieve of eratosthenes and perfect number theory (6).
•Moscow Papyrus- from the middle kingdom period (1890BC) consists word problems or story
problems,gives the method of finding the volume of a frustum(truncated pyramid)
•Berlin Papyrus 6619 (1800 BC) shows egyptian could solve a second order algebraic
equation
Greek mathematics (600 BC-529 AD)
•it begun with Thales of Miletus (629-524 BC) and pythagoras of samos (582-507 BC)
•Greek mathematics is inspired by egyptian and babylonian mathematics
•According to legend pythagoras travel to egypt to learn mathematics geometry and astronomy.
•Thales of Miletus- Thales use geometry to solve problems such as calculating the height of
pyramids and the distance of ships from the shore.
Thales Theorem- made him known as the first mathematician.
•Pythagoras of Samos- made the pythagorean school and their motto is all is number
•Pythagoras made the term mathematics
•The pythagoreans are credited with the first proof of pythagorean theorem do the statement of
the theorem has a long history and with the proof of the existence of irrational numbers.
•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 1st century AD(NOW IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM)
•Medieval name: The mensa Pythagorica or the multiplication table.

Plato (428/427 BC- 348/347 BC)

•Platonic academy in Athens- the mathematical center of the world in 14th century BC.
-mathematicians from this school is Eudoxus and Cnidus.
•clarified some of the definitions (e.g. a lign has a breadthless length)
•analytic method is ascribed/belong to plato
Eudoxus (408 to 355 BC)- Made the method of exhaustion and theory of ratios.Made no
technical mathematical discoveries.
Aristotle (384-322 bc)
•Laying the foundations of logic
The Third Century BC
•The premier center of mathematical education and research was the musaeum of alexandra.
Euclid (300 BC)
•Taught and wrote the “elements”- The most successful and influential textbook of all time.
•The elements introduced the mathematical rigor through axiomatic method and is the earliest
example of the format still used in mathematics today, that of definition,axiom theorem and proof
• prove the √2 is a rational and that there are infinitely many prime numbers.
•He also wrote extensively on other subjects such as conic sections optics spherical geometry
mechanics but only half of his writing survived.
Archimedes (287-212 BC) of Syracuse
•Known as the father of mathematics
•Use 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 to dissimilar from modern calculus.
•Use the method of exhaustion to calculate the value of pi
•Made the archimedes screw
•Made the principles of buoyancy
•Known for making the phrase eureka!
Appollonius of Perga (262-190 BC)
•Made significant advances in the study of conic sections
•May the term parabola (place beside or comparison) ellipse (deficiency) and hyperbola ( a
throw beyond)
•His work conics is one of the best known and preserved mathematical works from antiquity
•Some of his work seems to anticipate the development of analytical geometry by descartes
1,800 years later.
Eratosthenes of Cyrene (276-194 BC)
•Devised the sieve of eratosthenes for finding prime numbers
In 3rd century BC- the golden age of greek mathematics
Hipparchus of Nicaea (190-120 BC)
•Founder of trigonometry
•Compiling the first known trigonometric table
•And to him is also due the systematic use of the 360 degrees circle
Heron of Alexandria (10-70 AD)
•Heron's formula- for finding the area of scalene triangle
•First to recognize the possibility of negative numbers possessing square roots
Menelaus of Alexandria (100AD)
•Pioneered Spherical trigonometry through menelaus theorem.
Almagest of Ptolemy ( 90-168 AD)
•Most complete and influential trigonometric work -a landmark astronomical treaties whose
trigonometric tables would be used by astronomers for next thousands of years.
•Also credited with ptolemy's theorem-for deriving trigonometric quantities and the most
accurate value of pi of china until the medieval period 3.1416.
250-350 AD the silver age of greek mathematwomanDiophantus
Diophantine Analysis or indeterminate analysis
“Arithmetica”- a collection of 150 algebraic problems dealing with exact solutions to
determinate and indeterminate equations.
•Influenced Pierre De Fermat who arrived at his famous last theorem after trying to generalize a
problem he had read in the arithmetica (that of dividing a square into two squares)

Among the last great mathematicians

Pappus of Alexandria (4th Century AD)

•Hexagon theorem and centroid theorem
•Pappus configuration and pappus graph
Hypatia of Alexandria (350 - 415 AD)
•First woman mathematician
•Mother of mathematics

•Extra notes
Pythagorean Theorem- pythagoreans are generally credited with the first proof of the
theorem
Papyrus oxyrhynchus 29
•Oldest surviving fragments of a copy of euclid's elements found at Oxyrhynchus, dated to circa
ad100. The diagram accompanies book 2, proposition 5.
•Title page of the 1621 of diophantus’ arithmetica, translated into latin by claude gaspard bachet
de meziriac.
Chinese Mathematics -independent development
•Oldest extant mathematical text: Chou Pei Suan Ching/Zhoubi Suanjing between 1200BC
and 100 BC, Reasonable date: 300 BC
Tsinghua Bamboo Slips-containing the world's earliest decimal multiplication table dated 305
bc during warring states period
(babylonians have ones but with base 60)
The nine chapters on mathematical art (179 AD)
•Created a proof of pythagorean theorem and one of the earliest surviving mathematical text
from china it consists 2 4 6 word problems involving agriculture business employment of
geometry to figure height spans on dimensions ratios for chinese pagoda towers engineering
surveying that includes material on right triangles and values of pi.
Rod numerals- decimal positional notation at china, most advanced number system in the
world at the time. Rod numerals allow the representation of numbers as large as desired and
allowed calculations to be carried out on the suan pan or the chinese abacus.
The date of invention of the chinese abacus is not certain but the earliest
written mentioned dates from AD 190 ,in Xu Yue’s supplementary notes on the
Art of figures.
The Mojing- oldest existent work on geometry in china comes from the philosophical
mohist canon c. 330 BC, compiled by the followers of mozi.
Emperor Qin Shi Huang (Shi Huang-Ti)
•Commanded all books in the Qin empire to be burned except for the sanctioned ones.
Lin Hui (3rd Century AD) gave a value of pi to 5 decimal places.
Zu Chongzhi (5th Century AD)
•Computed the value of pi to 7 decimal places, and the most accurate of almost 1,000 years
•Established a method which could later be called Cavalieri’s Principle.
13th Century - Development of Chinese Algebra
Precious mirror of the four elements by Chu Shih Chien (1280-1303)(Song period)
-contains the solution of simultaneous higher order algebraic equations using a method similar
to horners method. The precious mirror also contains a diagram of pascal's triangle with
coefficients of binomial expansions to the eight power through both appear in chinese works as
early as 1,100.
The chinese also made use of the complex combinatorial diagram known as the magic square
and magic circles describe in ancient times and perfected by Yang Hui (AD 1238-1298)