OM

R AN LA M
MAY AN
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EU

TO TI
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S
 ERAS
1. Roman 3. Indian 5. Islam

2. Mayan 4. Chinese 6. Medieval

Europe

Mathematics of

ROME
 The

AN NUMERA
OM LS
R
The well-known numerals originated in ancient Rome. It uses the letters
I,V,X,L,C,D, and M as symbols representing a specific number. In 900 and 800
B.C, the first usage of symbols began.

 The

AN NUMERA
OM LS
R

The following are the Roman numerals and their counterparts:

I – 1, V - 5 , X - 10 , L - 50 , C – 100 , D – 500, M – 1000

 The

ABACUS

Another tool originating from the Romans is the abacus. It served as a tool
for calculating. It features counters that slide along rods or in grooves.

 athematics of
M
MAYA
 ackground
B

Mayans settled down to an agricultural lifestyle sometime around 1800 B.C. Astronomy
was considered critical in foreshadowing the turning of seasons and the expectations
of harvest. It is believed that Mayan mathematics was born directly as a consequence
of Mayan astronomy. They kept track of the movements of Sun, Moon, Venus and other
observable bodies.

 ackground
B

According to later historical evidence, Mayans were already making use of the concept of zero by
36 B.C. which suggests that it was invented a lot earlier. One of the most interesting aspects of Mayan
number system is the use of zero as a placeholder. It is generally thought that it was actually the
Olmecs who invented zero and the Mayans took over the concept from them.

 The

nd-Countin
Ha g

Mayan math started with the counting of fingers and then adding toes. Therefore it is based on 20
units. One of the biggest purpose was to represent large numbers by only using 3 symbols.

 The

Mayan Num ber System

The Mayan number system is basically a vigesimal number system. The use of 20 as base is also
found in later civilizations such as the Aztecs. However, the number system of the Mayans was a bit
more complex in that they used base 5 within the base 20.

However, the Mayans actually had two number systems.

1st, a system that used 5 as its base and only represented number from 1 up to 9.
2nd,a system that used 20 as its base and was used to represent numbers starting from 20.

 The

yan Number Syste

Ma m
 athematics o
M f
INDIA
 CKGROUND
BA

In India, mathematics has its origins in Vedic literature which is nearly four thousand years old. It should
come as no surprise that the concept of number ‘0’ was discovered in India; also, various treatises on
mathematics were authored by Indian mathematicians. The techniques of trigonometry, algebra, algorithm,
square root, cube root, negative numbers, and the most significant decimal system are concepts which
were discovered by Indian mathematician from ancient India and are employed worldwide even today.
Indian geniuses have made revolutionary changes in the world of mathematics; let’s find who they are and
what exactly did they contribute to the world!

 RYABHATA
A
 RYABHATA
A
ERO" AND TH
"Z E"
HE PI
T "

If it wasn’t for Aryabhata, there wouldn’t have been a number ‘0’. Aryabhata was one of the greatest Indian
mathematicians astronomer from the classical era of Indian mathematics and astronomy. He belonged to
the Gupta dynasty and was the one to discover the value the number zero. He also gave to the world the
approximation of the value of pi (3.1416) up to four decimals.

 AHMAGUPT
BR A
 BRAHMAGUPTA
PTA- FIBONACC
AGU I IDEN
HM TI
RA TY
B

He was a renowned mathematician of the past and was the one to invent the Fibonacci Identity. He also gave
to the world the sine table as well as the Pythagorean Triples. His most significant contribution was the
introduction of ‘0’ and the fact that it stood for nothing. In the 7th century, Brahmagupta discovered the first
general formula for solving quadratic equations.

BHASKARA
 BHASKARA
CACULUS

Bhaskara was an Indian mathematician and astronomer born in Bijapur, Karnataka. His work in calculus and
how it is applied to astronomical problems and computations is what makes him immensely popular. Not
just calculus, Bhaskara was an expert in arithmetic, algebra, the mathematics of planets and spheres.

 EMCHANDR
H A
 HEMCHANDRA
CCI SEQUENCE A
ONA ND
IB "N"
F

He was a Jain philosopher, scholar, and an exceptional mathematician. He described the Fibonacci
sequence even before Fibonacci himself. He also worked with the cadences of length n. Well-known as a
prodigy by his generations, Hemchandra earned the title kalikālasarvajña, i.e. “the all-knowing of the Kali
Yuga”.

 ASA RAMAN
NIV UJ
RI AN
S
 INIVASA RAMANUJA
SR N
XICABNU
NUMBER
TA S

Self-taught Indian mathematician who coined the idea of “taxicab numbers”. Ramanujan is most popular
for his contribution in analytical theory of numbers, elliptic functions, continued fractions, and infinite
series. His contributions to the theory of numbers comprise pioneering discoveries of the properties of
the partition function. Ramanujan’s life story, with its humble and difficult beginnings, is as astounding
as his work.

 NDRA NATH
YE BO
AT SE
S
 TYENDRA NATH BOSE
SA
NTUM MECHM
AN
QUA ICS

Best known for his stupendous work in quantum mechanics, Satyendra Nath Bose developed the
statistical mechanics for bosons of a photon gas. He is also popular for his collaboration with Albert
Einstein. Bose also worked on the Bose-Einstein statistics and the theory of Bose-Einstein condensate.

Mathematics of

CHINA
 ACKROUND
B

Chinese society nourished long before those Greece and Rome. In 1400 BCE, they were already keeping
records of astronomical events on bone fragments and already had a positional numeration system that
used 9 signs. However, with the scarcity of reliable sources of information, the history of the ancient
orient was almost completely sealed. Additionally, preservation of books in Ancient Chinese times was
difficult.

 KS DISCOVE
O RE
BO D:

"Suan Shu Shu" or "Book on Numbers and Computation" (written between 202 BC and 186 BC and
discovered on December–January 1983–1984)

"Jiuzhang Suanshu" or "Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Arts" (discovered on 150 BC)

 E ROD NUM
ES ER
IN AL
CH S

Chinese Rod Numerals are small bars that were used in calculation. These are made from shapes of
counting rods. - these are a true positional numeral system with digits for 1-9 and blank for 0 (475 BCE to
the 16th Century). It is written in two positions, vertical (called Zongs) and horizontal (called Hengs). It
also represents integers (negative and positive numbers).

 ESE ROD NUMERA

CHIN LS
 HEMATICIA
AT NS
M

Jing Fang (202 BC - 220 AD) is better known with his musical works - he works about the musical tuning
with Pythagorean comma calculation.
Zhang Heng (78 AD) gave an approximation of pi = 3.1724 which he used in comparing the celestial circle
to the mechanics of the diameter of the Earth.

 HEMATICIA
AT NS
M

Liu Hui (220-280 CE) - was the first Chinese mathematician to provide a rigorous algorithm for calculation of π to
any accuracy. Liu Hui's own calculation with a 96-gon provided an accuracy of five digits π ≈ 3.1416.
Yang Hui - worked on magic squares, magic circles and the binomial theorem, and is best known for his
contribution of presenting Yang Hui's Triangle. This triangle was the same as Pascal's Triangle, discovered by
Yang's predecessor Jia Xian (11th century).

Mathematics of

ISLAM
 CKGROUND
BA

The Islamic Empire, which included much of present-day Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Syria,
Afghanistan, Pakistan, southwestern India, and northern Africa and western Europe,
contributed significantly to the development of mathematics. They melded the mathematical
developments of ancient Greece and India. Because of the Islamic prohibition on depicting the
human form, structures were often decorated with elaborate geometric patterns, elevating
mathematics to the level of an art form. Islamic artists eventually uncovered all the 2-D
symmetry shapes. Islamic science and mathematics flourished from the ninth through the
fifteenth century, owing to the Quran's encouragement of learning.

 CKGROUND
BA

. The House of Wisdom in Baghdad, which began translating Greek and Indian mathematical
and astronomical texts into Arabic in the year 810, is widely credited for advancing these fields
in the Islamic world. One of the most accomplished early Muslim mathematicians was
Muhammad Al-Khwarizmi, a Persian who lived in the 9th century. The Hindu numeral system (1
through 9 and 0) was embraced by Al-most Khwarizmi because he saw its potential to
transform Islamic (and, subsequently, Western) mathematics.

 CKGROUND
BA

The entirety of the Islamic world quickly embraced it, followed by Europe. The concepts of
"reduction" and "balance" were introduced by Al-Khwarizmi, and he gave a detailed
description of how to solve polynomial equations up to the second degree. To help people see
the big picture, he contributed to the development of the robust abstract mathematical
language in use today.

 THE

MIAL THEOR
INO EM
B

Al-mathematical Karaji's induction proved the binomial theorem. (x + y)^2 is a binomial that
can only be added, subtracted, multiplied, and exponentiated by positive whole numbers.
Expanding a binomial forms Pascal's Triangle, named after 17th-century French mathematician
Blaise Pascal. Al-Karaji had researched this triangle centuries before Pascal in India, Persia,
China, and Italy.

 THE
AL TRIGONOM
RIC E
HE TR
SP Y

It is possible that Nasir Al-Din Al-Tusi, a Persian astronomer, physicist, and mathematician
from the 13th century, was the first to study trigonometry as a distinct mathematical subject
from astronomy. His work was the first comprehensive explanation of spherical trigonometry,
and it built on that of Greek mathematicians like Menelaus of Alexandria and Indian work on
the sine function.

 THE
AL TRIGONOM
RIC E
HE TR
SP Y

He also provided the first enumeration of the six different examples of a right triangle in
spherical trigonometry. Though the sine law for spherical triangles had been established
earlier by 10th century Persians Abul Wafa Buzjani and Abu Nasr Mansur, one of his main
contributions to mathematics was the formulation of the renowned rule of sines for plane
triangles, a(sin A) = b(sin B) = c(sin C).

 athematics of
M
IEVAL EURO
ED PE
M
 CKGROUND
BA

After the fall of Roman Empire, Europe went through a great decline in terms of knowledge and
education. Most of this was due to the relative lack of peaceful times during which books and
texts could be salvaged and copied. It is partly due to its geography that England seems to
have lost less than the rest of Europe.

 (480-524)

BOETHIUS

A Roman Mathematician and philosopher who wrote texts on geometry and arithmetic.
He translated Aristotle’s logical works into Latin, written commentaries on them as well aslogical
textbooks, and used his logical training to contribute to the theological discussions of the time.
 (480-524)

BOETHIUS

He’s one of the main sources of material for the Quadrivium, an educational course introduced into
monasteries consulting of 4 topics: Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy and Theory of Music.
 (60-120)

CHUS OF G
MA ER
O AS
IC
N

A
He’s a Pythagorean, and was one of leading members of Pythagorean school.
He wrote Arithmetike eisagoge (Introduction to Arithmetic) which was the first work to treat
arithmetic as a separate topic from geometry.
 (60-120)

CHUS OF G
MA ER
O AS
IC
N

A
Boethius also translated his book “Introduction of Arithmetic”. He also wrote the Manual of
Harmonics which is a work on music that shows the influence of Pythagoras but also
Aristotle’s theory of music.
 1170-1250)
(
O PISANO FI
D BO
AR N
N A
O

CC
LE

I
Born on Italy but was educated in North Africa where his father Guilielmo had a diplomatic post.
He wrote Liber abaci (1202) or known as The Book of Calculation and was dedicated to Scotus.
 1170-1250)
(
O PISANO FI
D BO
AR N
N A
O

CC
LE

I
The book was based on the arithmetic and algebra that Fibonacci had accumulated during his
travels. It waswidely copied and imitated, and introduced the Hindu-Arabic place-valued decimal
system and the use ofArabic numerals (which became known as Algorism and simultaneous linear
equations) into Europe.
 323-1382)
(1
OLE ORESM
NIC E

A French Mathematician who invented coordinate geometry long before Descartes. It was the first
to use a fractional exponent and also worked on infinite series. The De proportionibus
proportionum contains the first use of a fractional exponent but not in a modern
notation.
 323-1382)
(1
OLE ORESM
NIC E

Oresme was rewarded by appointing him as a Bishop of Lisieux in 1377 for advising Charles on
financial matters as well as translating from Latin into French Aristotle’s Ethics, Politics and On the
Heavens and the Aristotle’s work Economics. (Charles, his friend became a King of France on 8 April
of that year and Oresme was appointed as Charles’ Chaplain and Councilor.)
 OM
R AN LA M
MAY AN
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ISEDIEV
NDIAN OF MATHE M ROP
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EU

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