History of Mathematics

-

 

THE HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS



The history of mathematics deals with the various mathematical discoveries that many people from all over the world, made over many years.  Its history is different from other histories, as it represents a unique aspect of human thought (Boyer & Merzbach, 1991).


You can trace the origin of different mathematical disciplines back to ancient civilizations such as Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Chinese, Indian, Islamic Empires, Mayan, and Medieval European, all the way to the Renaissance and more modern discoveries.

 

The earliest evidence of prehistoric mathematics is in the form of numbers and patterns from more than 20,000 years ago (Boyer & Merzbach, 1991). In 1970 during an excavation at the Border Cave in the Lebombo Mountains between Swaziland and South Africa, a fibula of a baboon was found, which had 29 defined marks on it, and was dated to be 37,000 years old (Williams, 1997). This is believed to be the earliest evidence of mathematical use, and therefore provides evidence of an understanding of the concept of numbers in that region during that time.

 
Prior to the development of mathematical texts, the sharing of mathematical ideas was limited and it could take centuries for ideas to develop further. The earliest mathematical text is from the Babylonian empire and is dated circa 1,950 BC (Friberg, 1981).

 


Over the next 4,000 years mathematics would evolve into a discipline that is integral in all aspects of life – medicine, astronomy, geology, physics, economics, finances, communication, etc.

 

Mathematics was born out of human curiosity and the will to solve a problem. People wanted to know why the sun went down, where does the water flow, how can we build a shelter, is there a universe? People had questions and ideas, and created mathematics to help them, and others to understand it. As the ability to share mathematics grew, others were able to take these mathematical ideas and use them to create new mathematics. As the human mind is always going to be curious and seeking answers, the History of Mathematics is still being written.

 

This blog will focus on the History of Measurement in Mathematics and its use in Health Care.


References

Boyer, C. B., & Merzbach, U. C. (1991). A history of mathematics. Wiley.

Florian Cajori. (2022). History of Mathematics. American Mathematical Society.

Friberg, J. (1981). Methods and traditions of Babylonian mathematics. Historia Mathematica, 8(3), 277–318. https://doi.org/10.1016/0315-0860(81)90069-0

Williams, S. W. (1997). OLDEST Mathematical Object is in Swaziland. Www.math.buffalo.edu. http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/Ancient-Africa/lebombo.html



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Planned Lesson Activities

-
Image
  PLANNED LESSON ACTIVITIES In this blog I will provide three separate planned activities for students that relate to teaching measurement. For variety, I will provide an activity for Primary, Middle, and Senior Secondary schooling, following the progression of the development of measurement throughout history as discussed in previous blog posts.   Primary / Early learning – Year 3 – Measuring Jumping! – MAST pedagogy Australian Curriculum – Content Descriptor:          Measurement and Geometry - Measure, order and compare objects using familiar metric units of length, mass and capacity  (ACMMG061)         Recognise and explain the connection between addition and subtraction  (ACMNA054) Learning intention: Develop skills in measuring in meters and centimetres. Developing numeracy skills. Summary of lessons: Teacher is to teach Mathematics as Storytelling for these lessons to make them engaging for all studen...
Read more

Florence Nightingale - Statistics in Health Care

-
Image
  FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE - STATISTICS IN HEALTH CARE Measurement in health can also be the use of statistical data to either highlight a potential health issue, or aim to predict possible outcomes. Florance Nightingale, who was born in May 1820, is credited with revolutionising nursing through her introduction of statistics in health care. Nightingale is greatly known for her distinction as a nurse caring for soldiers throughout the Crimean War, and her education on sanitary reform (Wikipedia, 2020).  However, Nightingale also produced famous diagrams, which showed the high proportion of soldiers that were dying due to diseases rather than battle wounds. Nightingale also designed questionnaires to gather data on the British armies stationed in India, on their sanitary conditions, and predict potential health problems. Nightingale also studied the mortality rates of Australian First Nations people and stated that a health problem can only be addressed once its dimensions were rel...
Read more

Aristotle, the godfather of evidence-based medicine

-
Image
  THE GODFATHER OF EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE Aristotle is a well-known Greek philosopher and scientist born in 384 BC (Amadio & Kenny, 2019). He is considered one of the greatest intellects in history, and a lot of his philosophical work is still embedded in Western thinking (Amadio & Kenny, 2019). However, many may not realise the impact Aristotle had on our health system, as being the godfather of evidence-based medicine. Aristotle’s logic and philosophy was the main reason medicine transitioned from superstition towards a more scientific method (Sallam, 2010). One of his main contributions was the introduction of the concept of “logic”, where all natural phenomena and laws were to be based on common sense (If A = B, and B = C, then A = C) (Sallam, 2010).   The concept of evidence-based medicine grew over the centuries to expand health care, and a subsection of evidence-based medicine is measurement-based care. Measurement-based care uses methodical and routine a...
Read more