The Math Book by Clifford Pickover

Below are highlights of and reflections on some of the greatest events in mathematical history. Given the vast amount of time and information covered, I categorized my notes based on time period and recorded ideas that I found especially remarkable. 150 million B.C. 180 B.C. The timeline begins with a description of ants reliance on math to survive. Studies were done to prove that these tiny creatures which we consider to be simple have inner computers that allow them to travel impressive distances and return to their nests in one direct path. It was discovered that ants count their steps in a steady pace and also use the sun to figure out which direction to head. Even ants in remote, deserted areas are able to rely on this method of living. This information shocked and impressed me. I have never thought of ants as intelligent or mathematical. Now I give them credit and see them as less of pests! Experiments and training have shown that animals like birds, rats, and especially primates are able to count objects. While reading this section, I kept wondering what it would be like to watch animals act and interact back in 30 million B.C. Unlike several of the events in this book, there are no artifacts to show us what animals used or did, and we obviously have no other way of communicating with them besides gestures. It would be so interesting to know what animals would do or say if they were able to communicate with humans. Ishango bones (baboon bones with markings) were found and dated back to 18,000 B.C. and believed to be used by Africans in the Stone Age. First assumed to be simple counting tallies, further observations show signs of doubling, halving, categorizing, and multiplying numbers. Again, I cant help but wonder what the creators of these bones would confirm or deny about our theories. Dice date back to 3000 B.C.! They are so universal and basic to us today, but it amazes me how traditional they are. A die is one of the earliest known tools used to randomize numbers. Initially, dice were used by ancient gods to make a variety of serious decisions. Magic squares, which we recently worked with in class, were first created in China in 2200 B.C. This time period is the first to mention numbers/symbols physically marked and arranged using familiar forms of calculation that we use today. Plimpton 322 is another mind-boggler. It is a clay tablet that contains lists of Pythagorean triples. Traced to the Babylonians around 1800 B.C., this artifact mystifies and interests mathematicians everywhere. Games similar to Tic Tac Toe originated in Egypt around 1300 B.C. In 600 B.C., nearly 1200 years after Plimpton 322 was created, Pythagoras did immense work with triangles and coined the Pythagorean Theorem. Although he recorded his thoughts and gave them ownership, it is believed that the Babylonians and Hindus were a step ahead of him.

Aristotle came around in 350 B.C. and wrote the Organon, which contains a variety of approaches to using scientific reasoning and logic. He organized logical statements of the form, All reptiles are animals. Lizards are reptiles; therefore, lizards are animals. In 300 B.C. Euclid made his debut with Elements, which made a serious impact on societys understanding of geometry. He blew peoples minds with his ideas and essentially ruled the world of math for centuries. In 250 B.C., circles had their time in the spotlight with the discovery of pi ().

150 1572 Claudius Ptolemaeus wrote Almagest, which introduced people to the world of astronomy and described his findings on planets movement using trigonometry. In the year 340, Pappus of Alexandria puzzled people with his Hexagon Theorem. This theorem stated: If three points A, B, C are located anywhere along one line, and three points D, E, F are located anywhere on a second line, then the intersections X, Y, Z of opposite sides of a crossed hexagon A,F,B,D,C,E lie on a straight line. I stared at the representation of this theorem in the books picture and found myself drawing similar lines and crossings to better understand its meaning. Very interesting stuff! The first mention of a woman doing math in history is in 415. Hypatia of Alexandria studied Pythagoras and Diophantus and introduced their ideas to her students. Hypatias importance as a mathematician further angered her Christian neighbors, who already were not fond of her differed religious beliefs. A group of strict Christians brutally attacked and murdered Hypatia. Her death became infamous and caused a hesitant state of math in Greece for several years. In 650, zero was discovered and used by the Indians (especially Brahmagupta) as an actual symbol similar to our modern 0. Our buddy Al-Khwarizmi conquered algebra in 830 with The Compendius Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing. He became known as the father of algebra along with fellow mathematician Diophantus. Side note: The mathematical works created during this time were so beautifully named. It is clear that mathematicians were proud of their work and wanted the world to know how awesome math is. (The Compendius Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing , The Dazzling in Algebra, Compendium of the Essence of Mathematics, Of the Great Art, or The Rules of Algebra) Fibonacci published Liber Abaci in 1202 and amazed European mathematicians and businessmen alike with the Hindu-Arabic number system (still used today!). The Golden Ratio is very interesting and new to me. I plan to further study it as a weekly write-up. It is apparently present throughout several aspects of mathematics and also in nature. Gerolamo Cardano wrote Ars Magna in 1545, tackling cubic and quartic equations and even touching on imaginary numbers.

The year 1556 was big for America, since it was the year that the first mathematical work was published there (Juan Diez wrote it in Mexico). Sumario compendioso was mainly written for merchants dealing with gold and silver.

1611 1769 John Napier is a new name for me, but it turns out he is credited for discovering logarithms (thanks but no thanks, John) and creating Napiers bones, which were tools used to ease multiplication of numbers, in 1614. In 1621, the slide rule was created. From what I read, it seems like this tool is quite the helping hand for math calculations (multiplying, dividing, square roots). I am very curious to see and use one in real life. This early form of the calculator was used for the duration of over 300 years. In the late 1900s, our modern calculator arose as an incredible competitor and caused the slide rule to go extinct. In 1637, Pierre de Fermat tortured mathematicians for centuries with Fermats Last Theorem. This theorem states that the equation has no non-zero integer solutions for x, y, and z when . After seven years of brainpower, British-American Andrew Wiles solved Fermats Last Theorem by finding it false. I had trouble wrapping my mind around Torricellis trumpet, which has finite volume yet infinite surface area. In 1654, Blaise Pascal introduced the world to Pascals triangle, which still has incredible impact on mathematics today. In 1665, calculus was discovered by Isaac Newton and Gottfriend Wilhelm Leibniz. A puzzle that was explored in 1702, called the rope around the earth puzzle, still puzzles me! It claims that in order to adjust a tight rope around a sphere so that it is one foot from the spheres surface in all directions, the ropes length would need to increase by 2. It is surprising that this value is constant, no matter how large o r small the sphere. The book compared a basketball to the Earth! In 1727, Euler made waves with his number, e. He would go on to awe me with all of his contributions to math that I was not aware of prior to reading this book. It is also surprising that he achieved so much in a short amount of time. o Discovery of , a value that relates to exponentials and logarithms (1735) o Knigsberg Bridges (1736) o Goldbach conjecture (1742) o Formula for polyhedral (1751) o Polygon division (1751) o Knights tours (1759) o Minimal surface (1774) o Latin Squares (1779) In 1769, Benjamin Franklin created a beautiful magic square that measured 8x8 and repeatedly contains sums of 130 and 260.

1774 1874 In 1789, Sangaku geometry came about in Japan. It seems like everyone (mathematicians and non-mathematicians alike) participated in this craze. During this time, people solved geometry problems and inscribed their solutions onto colorful tablets used to decorate temples. I like this tidbit of history because its a fun spin on doing math and even children made history! From 1795 to 1801, Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss made a name for himself. At just 18, Gauss worked on least-squares analysis. A year later he successfully created a regular heptadecagon (17 sides!) for the first time. The next year he went on to write the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra. And in 1801, he exhibited his expertise with number theory and congruence in Arithmetic Disquisitions. Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel had no formal education after the age of 14, yet discovered intricate Bessel functions which concern gravitational pulls on and movement of the planets. In 1829, more than 2000 years after Euclids Elements, Russian mathematicians discovered non-Euclidean geometry.