Math is the most fundamental science. Think about it; where would we be without it? We couldn’t build cars or roads, plan cities, or know the weather. We wouldn’t even be able to tell the time! Mathematics is fundamental to human society, and it has been since we first settled into villages and towns. The agricultural revolution was just as much about mastering mathematics as it was about mastering farming. From Mesopotamian calendars, Mesoamerican astronomy, and the ancient Greeks' geometry, mathematics has been the basis of human development for as long as we’ve been able to count.
The first known instance of math comes from one of the very first civilizations, Ancient Sumeria. The Sumerians kept excellent records of trade and supply, allowing us to see how exactly their number system worked and how it was used practically. Their number system was base sixty, meaning they wrote numbers using factors and fractions of sixty. We have also recovered evidence that the Sumerians had their own system of Algebra, with tablets describing how to approximate imperfect square roots and how to do long division. They even had a rudimentary form of the quadratic formula we still use today! We even have evidence that the later Babylonian civilization may have figured out an equivalent to Pythagoras’ famous formula for finding the lengths of a right triangle nearly 1200 years before Pythagoras was born!
A Babylonian tablet depicting their method of finding Pythagorean triples and approximating square roots, titled Plimpton 322.
(Word Press. (2017). Plimpton 322 [Online Image]. In Scientific Gems. https://scientificgems.wordpress.com/2017/08/27/the-plimpton-322-tablet-re-examined/)
Another culture notable in the development of mathematics was the Mayans. They also invented their own number system, theirs being base 20. Their mathematics was generally used in the same way for practical purposes like record keeping, calendars, and for educational purposes. The Mayans used this system of mathematics to accurately calculate how long Earth takes to revolve around the sun: 365 days. This means that their civil calendar is remarkably similar to ours, although they had eighteen months of twenty days instead of the twelve we use today. We also have evidence of the Mayans tracking and predicting the movements of distant planets like Mars and Venus. We even have records of them tracking and predicting (though inaccurately) solar and lunar eclipses.
Arguably the most well-known examples of ancient math come from Ancient Greece. We of course have Pythagoras’ famous theorem, but what else can we credit them for? We can thank the Ancient Greek mathematician Euclid for the field of geometry. He invented what we now call “Euclidean geometry”, which is geometry on a flat plane. Archimedes was also a major Ancient Greek mathematician. He is credited with discovering how to approximate pi and how to calculate the force of a lever. He is perhaps most famous for shouting “Eureka!” after accidentally discovering how to measure volume using water when he caused his bathtub to overflow.
Many people think that math is only important in the classroom, or that it is localized within the modern day. In reality, students have been dreading math tests for nearly six thousand years! Math is just as inherent to humanity as art, music, and science. The next time you feel hopeless on a math test, just remember: students from Sumer, the Mayan Empire, and Ancient Greece all went through the same thing.
About the Author
Jacob is a Junior at Northwood High School who enjoys playing the saxophone and learning new things. He hopes to study to become a particle physicist after graduation.
Sources
Casselman, B. (n.d.). Plimpton 322. Personal.math.ubc.ca. Retrieved May 28, 2024, from
Mathematical Treasure: Clay Tablets from Sumer | Mathematical Association of America.
O’Connor, J. J., & Robertson, E. F. (2000a). Mayan mathematics. Maths History.
O’Connor, J. J., & Robertson, E. F. (2000b, December). Babylonian mathematics. Maths
The Archimedes Palimpsest. (2019). The History of Archimedes. Archimedespalimpsest.org.
Wardhaugh, B. (2021, June 29). Who was Euclid? Press.princeton.edu.
Word Press. (2017). Plimpton 322 [Online Image]. In Scientific Gems.
https://scientificgems.wordpress.com/2017/08/27/the-plimpton-322-tablet-re- examined/
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