Three Suprises from Introduction to Math History

After reading Crest of the Peacock by George Joseph, there were three things that I found to be quite surprising. When I first began reading the introduction, I really didn't have a great idea about math history, other than the Babylonian base 60 system that we had covered last week. One of the first things I was surprised by was the great impact that India had on the evolution of mathematics throughout history. It was stated in this piece that Indian and Arab influences have had a hand in helping to further mathematics and teaching mathematics. Another thing that I found surprising was how information about mathematics was shared between countries. I found this very surprising since they didn't have telephones or the internet back then so it was very hard to spread information and communicate with other people from different countries. The communication between European and Middle Eastern nations really helped further the entire world's understanding of mathematics and plays a crucial role in helping us be where we are today! The last thing that surprised me was how the central American Mayan civilization helped in shaping the world's understanding of astronomy, time, and zero. I found this especially surprising since this piece states that they only had access to very rudimentary instruments, however, they were able to construct very precise observations of space and time and figure out that zero existed. After learning about their findings, I was encouraged to seek more information independently on the internet. I was fascinated by the findings made by the Mayan civilization, I wondered how they were able to construct such precise estimates without any optical devices. I hope to learn more about the Mayan findings throughout the semester to further my own understanding of not only mathematics but space and time as well.

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