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The History of Mathematics Essay

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What is the meaning of history? According to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, history is: past events that relate to a particular subject, place, organization, etc (Merriam-Webster, 2014). Math began in 30000BC and is still changing now in 2014. During each year, something new has happened. From 30000BC to 127BC there were many things happening for the beginning of math. In 30000BC, Palaeolithics in Europe and France recorded numbers on bones. Around 25000BC, there were signs of early geometric designs being used. Egypt was using a decimal number system around 5000BC. Babylonian and Egyptian calendars were being used starting in 4000BC. In 3400BC, the first symbols for numbers by using straight lines were being used in …show more content…

Around 150, Ptolemy made the geometrical results with applications in astronomy. In 263, Liu Hui calculated the value of π by using a regular polygon with 192 sides. Around 500, Metrodorus assembled the Greek Anthology that consisted of 46 mathematical problems. In 534, Japan is introduced to the Chinese mathematics. In 594, the decimal notation is used for numbers in India. Around 775, Alcuin of York wrote the elementary texts on arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. Around 1200, the Chinese started to use a symbol for zero. In 1248, Li Yeh wrote a book that had negative numbers which were shown by putting a diagonal strike through the last digit. In 1336, math became a subject for a degree at the University of Paris (A Mathematical Chronology, 2014). In 1482, Campanus of Novara’s Elements was the first math book to be printed. In 1489, Widman wrote an arithmetic book in German that had the first appearances of the positive and negative signs. In 1572, Bombelli published the first three parts of his algebra. He was the first to give the rules for calculating with complex numbers. In 1595, Pitiscus became the first to employ the term trigonometry in a printed publication. In 1668, Pell made a table to factors for all integers up to 100,000. In 1675, Leibniz used the modern notation for an integral for the first time. In 1685, Kochanski gave an approximate method to find the length of the circumference of a circle. In 1692, Leibniz introduced the term

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