WHAT MATHEMATICS IS ABOUT

*Numbers might be the first thing that comes to our mind when it comes to Mathematics; however it is
just a “tiny part” of Math.

*Carl Friedrich Gauss is known to be one of the greatest Mathematicians ever to have lived. (What
matters in Math is “not notations, but notions”)

*Five number Systems: natural numbers, integers, rationals, real numbers, and complex numbers.

Mathematics can be:

*Operations- something you apply to two or more mathematical object to get a third object. (Addition,
Subtraction, Multiplication, Division)
*Functions- can be a mathematical rule that starts with mathematical object (usually a number) and
associates it with another object in a specific manner.
Note: Operations and functions have similar concepts wherein both of them are processes rather than
things.

* Proving in Mathematics- no statement is considered valid unless it is proved beyond any possibility of
logical error. But there are limits to what can be proved, and how it can be proved.
* Proof in Math – is written in more formal style, it is like telling a convincing story. Like any good story, it
has a beginning and an end, and a story line that gets you from one to the other without any logical holes
appearing.

* Principia Mathematica- written by Bertrand Russell and Alfred North Whitehead, which began with the
idea of a set, a collection of things. They then showed how to build up the rest of mathematics with their
main objective, analyzing the logical structure of mathematics.

Trivia:
- Counting began long before there were symbols like 1, 2, and 3 by means of fingers.
- A number of things ought to be several of them, one was not considered as a number for a long time.
- In Mathematics zero is the concrete idea for “nothing”.