William Dunham 's Journey Through Genius

The Sumerians created and used many mathematical concepts, and a few of them are still in use today, six

For my Art in History Math project, I researched math in the Middle East. The Middle East has a great history of innovation and discovery relating to math. Buildings decorated with complicated geometrical patterns are common. Many such decorations and designs are found at holy sites and in temples. What's more, these geometric designs demonstrate their understanding of math in addition to having religious meaning. Ancient people in the Middle East discovered how to draw three dimensional shapes on a two dimensional surface. Some Middle Eastern religions teach that everything is made from a creator’s thoughts. Furthermore, such art includes purposeful errors in support of the belief that no one but God is perfect. It is also a tradition that

From the mathematical developments made in Mesopotamia, to the pyramids in Egypt, to the intricate black pottery of China, to the highly advanced drainage system in India these ancient cultures have shaped our developments over time. Though they have all contributed to our cultures and thinking, these cultures and cities are unique and very different. Despite this, the overall development and growth of these civilizations follow similar patterns which unite the histories of people all over the world. Ancient cultures and civilization are hard to compare due to their individuality, but despite this the Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Chinese Civilizations are significantly different than that of the Indian

Mathematics and art have always been closely related: Golden ratio, symmetry, proportion and geometry are elements in the art; not surprisingly, many great artists of history have been great mathematicians; they have been supported in mathematics to express reality with an artistic language. By definition geometry comes from the Greek: Ge = earth and Metron = measure. That is, it is the branch of mathematics that studies the measurement of the Earth that is concerned with the properties and relations of points, lines, surfaces, solids, and higher dimensional analogs. (Geometry. (2015).

The ancient Indians had a fair amount of mathematical accomplishments and discoveries, all of which we still use today. The main, most broad accomplishment that they contributed to modern civilization is the naming of the numbers. We are

The Abbasids were the first ones to study and translate important Greek and Indian mathematical book like Euclid's geometry text the Elements. They adopted a very Greek approach to mathematics of formulating theorems precisely and proving them formally in Euclid's ways.

A similarity between the ancient Egyptians and Greek is the use of what is now known as geometry. It is currently thought that the Egyptians had introduced the earliest fully-developed base-ten numeration system, this system was introduced around 2700 BCE, and was based. On people having ten fingers (story of mathematics). A famous document of the time was the Rhind Papyrus, created 1650 BC, and contained information and exercises to show the “Correct method of reckoning, for grasping the meaning of things and knowing everything that is, obscurities and all secrets.” (Washington.edu). The Egyptians had also approximated the area of

In mathematics, the Mayans were quite intelligent. They developed a number system using a combination of dots and bars. These dots and bars were stacked together in piles of twenty, with the dot meaning one and the bar meaning five. They also made the original discovery of the number zero. This is a very important development.

For Greek thinkers, math was not simply a way to calculate amounts but a way of testing reality and understanding the true nature of the world around them. One of the first great Greek thinkers, Pythagoras is believed to have coined both philosophy and mathematics into one. Early Greek mathematics was influenced by its neighbors, especially Egypt. When the ports of the Nile were open for the first time, important Greek figures such as Pythagoras and Thales visited Egypt. They brought back new knowledge and skills back with them.

The Greeks and the Egyptians used triangles as early as 3500 BCE. They used these triangles as rules of thumb. They could apply these rules to specific applications. For example, the Egyptians knew that the 3:4:5 ratio was a right triangle. They could derive this because for them to create a right triangle the Egyptian land surveyors used a rope divided into twelve equal parts, creating a triangle with three pieces on one side, four pieces on the second side, and five pieces on the last side. The right angle was found where the three-unit side came together with the four-unit side. This was a very efficient way to create right triangles. It’s a mystery as to how the Egyptians came up with this, but this was later used by Pythagoras (c.571 -

Egypt of the pharaohs is best known for its great monuments and feats of engineering (such as the Pyramids), but it also made great advances in many other fields too. The Egyptians produced early forms of paper and a written script. They developed the calendar too and made important contributions in various branches of mathematics, such as geometry and algebra, and it seems likely that they understood and perhaps invented the use of zero. They made important contributions in mechanics, philosophy, irrigation and architecture. In medicine, the Egyptians understood the body’s dependence on the brain over 1000 years before the Greek scholar Democritus. Some historians now believe that ancient Egypt had an important influence on ancient Greece, and they point to the fact that Greek scholars such as Pythagoras and Archimedes studied in Egypt, and that the work of Aristotle and Plato was largely based on earlier scholarship in Egypt. For example, what is commonly known as Pythagoras’ theorem, was known to the ancient Egyptians hundreds of years before Pythagoras’ birth.

Ancient Greek mathematicians contributed enormously to fundamental math that built up from practical math such as geometry, engineering, astronomy and the astonishing academic contributions to worldly influences. Greek mathematicians would the one of the earliest civilizations to transform mathematics into rational thoughts when viewing all the concepts in the world. From ancient mathematicians such as the Egyptians and Babylonians, they both viewed their calculations through reasoning and using repeated observations to seek solutions to their equations. There was no real framework of their proof being certain since geometric considerations played a second role in arithmetic formulas. Greek mathematicians were influenced by the Egyptians and

The mathematics had been developed for four thousand years, and Muslim inherited mathematics from Egyptian, Mesopotamians, Sumerian and Babylonian. Greek geometry and Hindu arithmetic and algebra reached at an early stage in Muslim lands and were translated in centers such as Gondeshapur and Baghdad. Starting out at intellectual center of Islam, they soon criticizing those concepts and formulation by finding inaccurate and inconsistent information and adapt their own ideas. At the same period in Western Europe, they still use Roman numerals and abacus to calculate numbers. The Babylonian already had concept of bases sixty computation with place value numerals. Muslim then developed a decimal arithmetic based on place value and joint concept of zero. In the ninth century, Banu Musa brothers who were three gifted sons of Musa, Muhammad, Ahmad, and Hassan ibn Musa lived in Baghdad studied problems in constructing interrelated geometrical figures. Later the characteristic of those line, space of geometrical shape was given intense study and utilized sophisticated geometry in designing waterwheels, in improving farming equipment, in developing new type of weapon used at war. Another person who make significant contribution on mathematics is Muhammad ibn al-Khwarizmi, a Persian born in the eighth century. He was the first person who originated both terms “algebra”, and

Euclid, also known as Euclid of Alexandria, lived from 323-283 BC. He was a famous Greek mathematician, often referred to as the ‘Father of Geometry”. The dates of his existence were so long ago that the date and place of Euclid’s birth and the date and circumstances of his death are unknown, and only is roughly estimated in proximity to figures mentioned in references around the world. Alexandria was a broad teacher that taught lessons across the world. He taught at Alexandria in Egypt. Euclid’s most well-known work is his treatise on geometry: The Elements. His Elements is one of the most influential works in the history of mathematics, serving as the source textbook for teaching mathematics on

Mathematics has contributed to the alteration of technology over many years. The most noticeable mathematical technology is the evolution of the abacus to the many variations of the calculator. Some people argue that the changes in technology have been for the better while others argue they have been for the worse. While this paper does not address specifically technology, this paper rather addresses influential persons in philosophy to the field of mathematics. In order to understand the impact of mathematics, this paper will delve into the three philosophers of the past who have contributed to this academic. In this paper, I will cover the views of three philosophers of mathematics encompassing their