Who invented math? It’s a deceptively advanced query—loads tougher than 2+2. Math has been round eternally, however we’re at all times studying extra about it.
Brief reply: Many various folks invented math, together with historic societies and plenty of well-known mathematicians who got here alongside later.
The lengthy reply: It depends upon what sort of math you’re asking about. Beneath is a have a look at the historical past of arithmetic and the individuals who contributed to growing math as we all know it in the present day.
Soar to:
What’s math?
Based on Britannica Youngsters, math is the examine of numbers. It’s a type of language that we use each day to calculate distances, inform time, construct issues, and so forth.
Mathematicians take into consideration math in two areas: pure and utilized. Pure math is learning math for its personal sake. Determining tips on how to resolve a specific algorithm or tackling a concept, for instance. Utilized math is utilizing math to unravel real-life issues, like constructing a home or predicting an earthquake.
There are many various kinds of math: arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, statistics, and extra.
So, since math is already part of the world, the primary query is, can math be invented in any respect?
Was math found or invented?
Some mathematicians assume that math is invented, as folks title features of math or create new methods of fixing issues. Different folks assume that math is at all times there—the ideas and concepts exist in nature, simply ready for us to find them.
So, who invented math?
Right here’s a have a look at the historical past of math and lots of the societies and individuals who contributed to its improvement.
Early Societies
Math has developed over hundreds of years, with enter from hundreds of mathematicians. We don’t know precisely how prehistoric people handled math issues (like counting what number of berries they picked, or determining the space between two locations), however researchers consider that individuals have been utilizing addition, multiplication, and different math ideas in early China, India, and Mesopotamia.
In truth, the oldest clay tablets we’ve with math inscribed on them are greater than 4,000 years outdated. They’re from Mesopotamia. We even have Egyptian papyrus sheets with math written on them. So, there’s proof of math from the 2 oldest societies on the planet.
Round 1800 B.C.E., the traditional Babylonians developed a quantity system primarily based on the quantity 60 (it’s nonetheless used in the present day to consider angle measurement). They have been the primary folks we all know of to make use of precise numbers to signify quantities.
It’s clear that, contemplating the pyramids and their society, the Egyptians used math. They undoubtedly understood geometry and even had a formulation for calculating the amount of a truncated pyramid.
The Historic Greeks
There’s extra details about who invented (or found) math ideas as human society developed. The Greeks, greater than 2,500 years in the past, began doing extra superior math. Plato, Euclid, and Archimedes are nonetheless remembered for his or her mathematical achievements. For instance, Pythagoras studied triangles and he invented what we study triangles, known as the Pythagorean theorem.
We additionally know that in historic Greece, math turned one thing to review, and mathematicians began fascinated with particular theories and constructing on each other’s work.
After Historic Greece
After historic Greece, mathematicians continued making new discoveries and new theories and fixing new issues. In Seventeenth-century England, Sir Isaac Newton developed the sector of calculus on his personal. On the similar time, in Germany, Gottfried Leibniz was additionally concerned in growing calculus. Some mathematicians have created issues and hypotheses which have by no means been solved, like Bernhard Riemann, who created the Riemann speculation, which has been tried however by no means confirmed.
And all through historical past, girls have additionally studied math and invented math ideas. For instance, Emmy Noether gained recognition for her improvements in superior algebra, and Katherine Johnson calculated and analyzed flight paths for spacecraft that despatched astronauts to the moon. Mathematicians of coloration who’ve made vital contributions to arithmetic embrace Fern Hunt, who created math fashions to explain completely different sorts of motion, and Mark Dean, a mathematician and laptop scientist who holds patents on the pc that each one PCs are primarily based upon.
As math has developed, persons are constructing on what we all know to create new sorts of math and new methods to make use of math, like making use of math to construct computer systems and create recreation concept, a department of utilized arithmetic. So, possibly the query isn’t who invented math, however what’s going to math invent subsequent?
Movies Concerning the Invention of Math
Use these movies to discover how completely different math ideas took place.