Sunday, November 17, 2013


 Travel Back To...........
           The Language of the Universe is the first part of the movie series about the History of Mathematics, presented by the Oxford professor Marcus de Sautory. This movie shows the connection between the 3 great ancient places of the world and the History of Mathematics. First stop is Egypt, he interpreted and undiscovered the unique history of decimal system in the fingers of the hand. As he explores Mesopotamia he discovers that the  way we track our time today is based from the Babylonian Based 60 number system. In Greece he acknowledge the contribution of the 4 great mathematicians Plato, Euclid, Archimedes and Pythagoras in the transformation of mathematics, begins with the tool for counting in the analytical subject we know today.
         Since we started going to school we study history of the world and mathematics in a two very different fields.As we read the our 500-page history books  we never encounter even a simple paragraph linking mathematics and the structure of the Pyramids of Egypt,or  the connection between our present calendar and the flooding of Nile river, the amazing patterns in the work of arts and the birth of shapes.
         After seeing the movie I was dumbfounded by my realization, I've been studying history since level one, I've been amazed by those great structures, patterns, landscapes I saw and read in my history books and yet I was blinded by my thought that ancient people only apply maths in trading but never in the field of art. I never thought that they do math better than we do today, that the techniques and patterns they develop and discover are so amazing and critical that I even have a slight difficulties in understanding it. 
         They applied math in all aspects of life, in agriculture, arts, religion and so much more. It's just so amazing that those techniques and patterns they develop will be the bases of  the modern math, that 1 0 1 of the Binary System is the biggest discovery leading to a greater discoveries today such as technologies we humans depend on now. 
         The movie is so in reaching ,even it only lasted for more than an hour it felt like a part of me is completed but at the same time floods of questions are running through my brain as I travel back to those ancient times. Is there a possibility that the mystery of the past can be solved by math? Is there a connection between myths and math? and so much more. 
        I hope to see another episode of this movie series but I think it'll be much better and comfortable for us viewers if there will be a subtitle attached in the movie considering the viewers who have difficulties in understanding British English , also aside from arts, agriculture and trading it can  it will add to the interest of the viewers if the movie will also feature the application of math in the field of unresolved crimes and mysteries.


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