"All is a Number-" Pythagoras

Most of us have heard the name Pythagoras before in math class. He is the guy who supposedly discovered and proved the theorem that allows us to find the hypotenuse of a right triangle. The infamous equation being: a^2+b^2=c^2, where c is the hypotenuse. Interested in about how Pythagoras came up with this theorem, I decided to do some research on him and found out some information that might be a surprise to most of us that aren’t mathematicians.

Pythagoras (580-500 BCE), grew up on an island named Samos which was in the Aegean Sea (current day Mediterranean Sea) (Rudman 249). Growing up on an island Pythagoras was probably one of the very first to realize the earth was not flat. He could see the circular horizon all around him, as well as see boats sail passed the horizon and come back (Rudman 250). At some point in his life he went onto study under Egyptians and Chaldeans and then opened up a school in Crotona, which is now southern Italy (Mankiewicz 24). This school was more of a cult or secret society in which information would only be passed to a select group of people (Mankiewicz 24). This society has been named the Pythagorean Brotherhood, where he was treated like a god (Rudman 252). Some of his students ended up crediting some of their own discoveries to Pythagoras because of his godlike stature (Rudman 252).

The theorem which was mentioned above was well known way before Pythagoras came along. Pythagoras actually learned this rule from the Egyptians (Mankiewicz 26). Within the last 100 years there has been some archeological discoveries which lead us to believe that the Babylonians where the first ones to understand the concept of a^2+b^2=c^2 (Mankiewicz 21). Plimpton 322 is the name of this stone that proves the Pythagorean theorem; this stone dates around 1800-1650 BC more than 1000 years before Pythagoras is born (Mankieiwicz 21).

Pythagoras is a shady character in the math community. He ran a cult like school who studied math as if they were studying the bible at church. He also seemed to take a lot of things from other cultures and teachers, teach it to his pupils claiming it was his own. But throughout the years we have discovered the truth; the Pythagorean Theorem was not invented nor discovered by Pythagoras. It was the ancient Babylonians who first discovered this and Pythagoras just made it popular in western civilization.

Mankiewicz, Richard. The Story of Mathematics. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2000.
Rudman, Peter. How Mathematics Happened: The First 50,000 Years. New York: Promethus Books, 2007.

Picture Soure-http://www.mathsisgoodforyou.com/images/people/pythagoras1.jpg

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I have always been curious about numbers and where they came from. I have always wanted to know why or who decided that the number one would look like this, “1,” or the number two, “2,” etc. While doing my research I found it hard to point the finger at just one person or one culture that has contributed to the number system we use today. Come to find out, it is actually a collaboration of all the cultures from every generation since the dawn of time. “It is safe to say that soon after the development of language humans began to count, and the fingers and thumbs provided nature’s abacus” (History).

Records have been found from 3000 BC Egypt. The records show a number system using a vertical line for the number 1 and the number 10 is represented as “^.” An example of this would be the number 12 which would become II^, read right to left (History).

Around 300 BC the Arabs showed up on the number scene. The Arabs were more interested in using numbers for mathematics. The Arabs realized that for zero to fulfill its potential in mathematics it was very important for every number up to the base number have its own unique symbol (History). This was achieved first in India and began making its way around the world (History). The Indians used a small dot or circle in place of a digit with no value, this is where we get 0 (History). About 200 years later the Indian digits that the Arabs were writing made it to Europe and began being called Arabic numbers instead of their original name which would have been something like Hindu or Indian numbers (History). Roman Numerals also appeared during this time, and are still in use today. Roman numerals are based on a system of 5. Most of us are familiar with Roman numerals, but one interesting fact that I found is that the reason Roman numerals look the way they do is based on the digits on your hand (Numbers).

Today’s numbers are known as Hindu-Arabic numbers which consist of a combination of 10 symbols, 0-9 (Numbers). These were first introduced by Leonardo Pisano who was educated in North Africa where they used the Hindu number system in combination with their own, Arabic numbers (Numbers). Thus, where are where we are now, we can count as high as our hearts desire. We even have a website named after a number in this system, Google.

Works Cited

“History of Counting Systems and Numerals.” History World. Web. 03 July. 2010. http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab34

“Numbers’ & Numeral Systems’ History and Curiosities.” Archimedes Laboratory. Web. 03 July. 2010. http://www.archimedes-lab.org/numeral.html

A Brief History of Algebra

Algebra is not the work of one person trying to make everybody’s life miserable. It was actually created to make life easier for ancient people. Algebra has been a process which began in Babylonia and Egypt around 1650 BC (Stallings 230). The Babylonians actually came up with a way to use algebra to calculate the size of a reed, which was used to measure the perimeter of a rectangle or trapezoid (Yuste 298). Essentially this was used to determine or survey plots of land. Although the ancient people of Egypt and Babylonia were using a cruel version of the equations we know today it was still the beginning of it all.


Some people believe that algebra was first created by the Greeks, this is not true (Kvasz 290). Although the Greeks did have a way of solving a quadratic equation it did not involve algebra. The Greeks could only solve a quadratic equation with an exponent of 2(a square) or an exponent of 3(a cube), because they used geometry to solve their problems and an exponent higher of 3 does not have a geometric shape in three dimensional space (Kvasz 290).


Algebra as we know it today was first introduced by the Arabs, specifically a guy named Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (Moses). Muhammad al-Khwarizimi is the one that actually came up with the name algebra. This name comes from the Arabic word jabr, which means “setting of a broken bone,” and al-jabr means “science of reunion and reduction” (Moses). I found it quite ironic that the word algebra actually has some meaning that has to do with pain, such as setting a broken bone back into place. That explains the pain most people feel while taking an algebra course.




Works Cited

Kvasz,Ladislav. "The History of Algebra and the Development of the Form of its Language." Philosophia Mathematica 14.3 (2006): 287-317. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 1 July 2010.

Moses, Barbara. "Algebra for a new century." Teaching Children Mathematics 3.6 (1997): 264+. Student Resource Center - College Edition Expanded. Web. 30 June 2010.

Stallings, Lynn. “A brief history of algebraic notation.” School Science and
Mathematics 100.5 (2000), 230-235.1 July 2010. ProQuest. Web.

Yuste, Piedad. "Algebra and Geometry in the Old Babylonian Period: Matters Concerning Reeds." Centaurus 47.4 (2005): 298-315. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 30 June 2010.

Picture source
http://mathsisgoodforyou.com/people/alkhwarizmi.htm

Numbers are Your Friend

Since elementary school I have been intrigued by math and numbers.Threw out all of my years of school there has always been one question that I haven’t been able to find the answer to. I have asked many teachers but none of them seemed to be able to give me the explanation I was looking for. The question I would like to explore is what are the origins of the number system we use today? I would also like to know more information about the people who came up with the mathematics we use today, such as algebra. I would also like to explore the history of mathematics, where did it all start?

In this blog I will explore the origins of the current number system along with the history of mathematics and numbers. During my research I hope to find a lot of interesting facts about math and numbers which will help people better understand the world of numbers. Math plays an integral part in the way we live our lives, from computers to buying a new car. Numbers and math are everywhere, whether it makes you cringe or not. Every piece of information that can be discovered about the world around us can help us live in it more effectively. Hopefully my blog will help people better understand the world of mathematics and where exactly the craziness came from.