What is Math?

Math to me is the means of providing the most precise way of representing what everything is and how all things interact.  One way of illustrating this could be to take a normal object such as a baseball and and its interaction of being thrown and then hit by a bat.  The ball is a sphere with 108 stitches, weighing 5 oz., made up of x molecules...  The ball can be thrown at up to about 105 mph at the bat which can be swung at about 100 mph creating a collision of so many Newtons over so many seconds.  Nearly every interaction can be quantified and an attempt to explain it with math can be made.

Every object, movement, collision, thought, or decision can be measured in various ways.  We can define things like a bit of information that the brain takes in to the ones it puts out resulting in actions or thought to a rock that is sitting at a bottom of a lake.  The bits can be numbered, paths taken by the bits can mapped out, actions can be measured, and the rock can be weighed, or the pressure exerted upon it by the water can be calculated.  The closer you look the more the math appears, kind of like wrinkles.

Biggest moments in math history:

1. The first standardized measurements.  I'm not sure who was first to adopt standardized measurements, but I'm sure this led to many practical improvements such as a better system of trading and many not as practical ones such as "the neighbor's livestock is within too many (insert ancient unit measurement) of my garden."

2. The first standardized monetary system.  Although this isn't inherently something mathematicians would probably point to as a great accomplishment, I feel it is intertwined enough with math and certainly had a huge impact on ancient economies.

3. The advancement of building through measurements and trigonometry.  This would involve things like pi and the trigonometric ratios of course.  I would imagine that this led to an explosion of builders attempting new things or at least figuring out weight loads and correct angles to make buildings much safer.

4. Gaining understanding of the size of us relative to the entire universe and to the smallest parts of the universe.  This could be counted moreso as a scientific achievement than a mathematical one, but I see the math involved as such an integral part of it that I deemed it appropriate for my list.

5. The first powerful computer calculator.  The most recent of large math innovations should be something to do with technology in my opinion and the calculators and computing systems we have today are quite impressive.

Comments

  1. John GoldenSeptember 8, 2017 at 5:31 PM

    Measurement is great to see in these lists! I think that's the real start of math, quantizing amounts and wanting to know more about how much you've got or how far to go.

    ReplyDelete

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