Investigating Mathematics - Assignment Example

Investigating Mathematics Mathematics is arguably one of the most perplexing subjects but the students who get engrossed in it start liking it very much. If the etymology of the word mathematics is to be tracked, it will be found that the word came from the Greek word mathema which means learning and studying science. This paper will expansively present what caused men to investigate mathematics and what is the outcome of using mathematics. “Most of the mathematical notation in use today was not invented until the 16th century.

” (Various Mathematical Symbols) “The evolution of mathematics might be seen as an ever-increasing series of abstractions, or alternatively an expansion of subject matter. The first abstraction, which is shared by many animals.” (Abstract Representations) People made use of maths in painting, trading and other important activities in earlier days. The systematic study of maths actually began between 600 and 300 BC when Greeks took keen interest in maths. The absence of mathematics was the driving factor that made men investigate mathematics, there were several problems in areas like commerce, land measurement and other important areas that could not have been ignored and the same was a telling factor that provoked men to investigate and put an end to all the problems caused by the absence of logic and that logic is now served by mathematics.

A classic example of the same is, land measurement, without the measuring degree i.e. Acres, the value of the land can’t be measured so to measure the land and to value its price mathematics plays a pivotal role and the same was a good enough reason for men to dwell into mathematics.Outcome of using MathematicsMaths is all about logic and in life everything must be logically in order to comprehend something, mathematics ensures that logic prevails in everything which involves the use of mathematics.

The biggest outcome of using mathematics is gratification, an example will back this up, in earlier days there was barter system under which people exchanged goods but they did not realize the actual value of those goods as a result of which they thought that they were probably cheated and there was no satisfaction and clarity. But once mathematics came into existence all that stopped, each entity was assigned a measuring unit and the people realized the value of commodity which never happened earlier because of limitations, this goes to show that mathematics has turned our life around and it has given us more things than one to cheer about.

Even though the subject is tough when taught to students in schools in colleges, our life will never be the same should we stop making the use of the subject in our day to day life. To conclude it is very fair to say that the outcome of using mathematics is nothing but gratification and further progress in the subject will only ensure more gratification than ever. Works CitedS. Dehaene; G. Dehaene-Lambertz; L. Cohen (Aug 1998). "Abstract representations of numbers in the animal and human brain".

 Trends in Neuroscience 21 (8): pp. 355-361.Various Mathematical Symbols (2009). Jeff http://jeff560.tripod.com/mathsym.html (Accessed on 3 September 2009)