How concerns of commerce and business spur on the development of mathematics - Essay Example

The term mathematic was derived from the Greek word mathema to mean an instructional subject. Mathematical methods were further refined by Greek mathematics and that lead to expansion of the subject matter. The value system was a contribution by Chinese mathematics whereas the numeral system and its operational rules were from the Hindu (Kline 200). The roots of mathematics lie within the concepts of magnitude, number and form. The number concept has been gradually evolving with time and has lots of support from languages existence that provide distinction between numbers like one and two or many (Menninger 77).

The most ancient demonstration of prime numbers and sequences is thought to have been from the Ishango bone, which was found in Congo near the Nile river headwaters (Avner 87). That bone was approximately 20,000 years old and it had a series of carved tally marks running in three columns as per the bone length. There are arguments that the prime number concept came after division concept. It has also been claimed that, geometric designs were represented pictorially in 5th millennium BC. Other geometric ideas like ellipses, circles and Pythagorean triples were incorporated in England and Scotland monuments (Menninger 77).

The history of mathematics is explained further by the contribution of different countries believed to have been involved in its development. Babylonian mathematics defines mathematics of Sumerians, people from Mesopotamia (Hoyningen et al. 42). Its name relates with Babylon’s central role of study. Sumerians who drafted tables of multiplication on clay tablets, solved division problems and geometrical exercises evidenced written mathematics (Avner 87). Most of the clay tablets that were recovered included cubic and quadratic equations, fractions, algebra and calculations of pairs of regular reciprocal.

Quadratic and linear equations solutions were also included. Egyptian mathematics is defined as mathematics in Egyptian language (Avner 87). The Rhind papyrus is its extensive text and it is a manual of instructions for students in geometry and arithmetic. It gives multiplication methods, area formulas, working out unit fractions and division. It also shows knowledge of composite, prime numbers, and arithmetic. It also describes how geometric series and linear equations are solved (Hoyningen et al. 42). Greek mathematics is also called Hellenistic mathematics.

It was more complicated than other mathematical genres. Others used inductive reasoning and repeated observations for rule establishment but Greeks used deductive reasoning (Mumford 105). Calculations of volumes and areas of curvilinear figures were introduced and great advancement in geometry reached. The Euclidean geometry theorem introduced subjects of the time as algebra, number theorem and solid geometry (Kline 200).This theorem proved infinity of many prime numbers and the irrationality of the square root of two.

This theorem was also thorough on subjects such as optics, conic sections, mechanics and spherical geometry (Hoyningen et al. 42). In Chinese and Middle Eastern advances, there was pie estimation by circumscribed and inscribed polygons. They were also particular in notation of the decimal system, development of the Chinese algebra and