Jamil Rei S.

Tacbad
ARCH - 2E

HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS

History of Mathematics helps us to develop a deeper understanding of mathematics by

seeing how it was developed over time and in various places. And have a broad
concept of the mathematical sciences. This documentary film by Marcus du Sautoy
covers a comprehensive history of mathematics. The journey through time to explore
the evolution of mathematics across different civilizations is very informative as it
highlights the detailed contributions of prominent mathematicians and different
approaches or techniques to develop a solution/answer.

Patterns are most-likely considered as the fundamental concept or set as foundation for
various mathematical concepts even in early times. Patterns help ancient people to
make predictions, recognize regularities and provide a way to generalize observations.
Some notable discoveries I find very interesting and informative in different civilizations
are the following:

 In Egypt, they use their bodies as a measurement for areas of land. A palm is the
width of a hand, a cubit is an arm length from elbow to fingertips. Land cubits is a
strip of land measuring a cubit by 100 used by pharaoh’s surveyors to calculate
areas.
 One of the interesting parts for me in Egyptian Mathematics was the Eye of
Horus. In which each part of the eye represents a different fraction.
 The Babylonians invented their number system by using their fingers but in a
more intriguing way. They used the 12 knuckles on one hand and the five fingers
on the other.

Overall, patterns have been integral to the development of early mathematics in various
civilizations. These observations and explorations of patterns provided the basis for
mathematical concepts and methods that were later refined and expanded upon by
subsequent generations.