History+of+Math

Through the use of [|abstraction] and [|logical] [|reasoning], mathematics evolved from [|counting], [|calculation], [|measurement], and the systematic study of the [|shapes] and [|motions] of physical objects. Knowledge and use of basic mathematics have always been an inherent and integral part of individual and group life. Refinements of the basic ideas are visible in mathematical texts originating in the [|ancient Egyptian], [|Mesopotamian], [|Indian], [|Chinese], [|Greek] and [|Islamic] worlds. [|Rigorous arguments] first appeared in [|Greek mathematics], most notably in [|Euclid]'s [|//Elements//]. The development continued in fitful bursts until the [|Renaissance] period of the [|16th century], when mathematical innovations interacted with new [|scientific discoveries], leading to an acceleration in research that continues to the present day.[|[6]] Today, mathematics is used throughout the world in many fields, including [|natural science], [|engineering], [|medicine], and the [|social sciences] such as [|economics]. [|Applied mathematics], the application of mathematics to such fields, inspires and makes use of new mathematical discoveries and sometimes leads to the development of entirely new disciplines. Mathematicians also engage in [|pure mathematics], or mathematics for its own sake, without having any application in mind, although applications for what began as pure mathematics are often discovered later.[|.....................................................................................[]...http://library.thinkquest.org/22584/press dots to see the history of mathEvery culture on earth has developed some mathematics. In some cases, this mathematics has spread from one culture to another. Now there is one predominant international mathematics, and this mathematics has quite a history. It has roots in ancient Egypt and Babylonia, then grew rapidly in ancient Greece. Mathematics written in ancient Greek was translated into Arabic. About the same time some mathematics of India was translated into Arabic. Later some of this mathematics was translated into Latin and became the mathematics of Western Europe. Over a period of several hundred years, it became the mathematics of the world. There are other places in the world that developed significant mathematics, such as China, southern India, and Japan, and they are interesting to study, but the mathematics of the other regions have not had much influence on current international mathematics. There is, of course, much mathematics being done these and other regions, but it is not the traditional math of the regions, but international mathematics. By far, the most significant development in mathematics was giving it firm logical foundations. This took place in ancient Greece in the centuries preceding Euclid. See [|Euclid's //Elements//]. Logical foundations give mathematics more than just certainty-they are a tool to investigate the unknown. By the 20th century the edge of that unknown had receded to where only a few could see. One was David Hilbert, a leading mathematician of the turn of the century. In 1900 he addressed the International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris, and described [|23 important mathematical problems]. Mathematics continues to grow at a phenomenal rate. There is no end in sight, and the application of mathematics to science becomes greater all the time.
 * Mathematics** (colloquially, **maths** or **math**) is the body of knowledge centered on such concepts as [|quantity], [|structure], [|space], and [|change], and also the academic discipline that studies them. [|Benjamin Peirce] called it "the science that draws necessary conclusions".[|[2]] Other practitioners of mathematics maintain that mathematics is the science of pattern, and that [|mathematicians] seek out patterns whether found in numbers, space, science, computers, imaginary abstractions, or elsewhere.[|[3]][|[4]] Mathematicians explore such concepts, aiming to formulate new [|conjectures] and establish their truth by [|rigorous] [|deduction] from appropriately chosen [|axioms] and [|definitions].[|[5]]