Mathematics - Topics

Mathematics - A scientific field

Mathematics - The world of numbers and equations

Mathematics has long been considered as ‘the queen of sciences’. Should it really hold such prestige? We will try to find the answer below.

Mathematics - where can we find its beginnings?

Like most fields and disciplines created, mathematics also has its beginnings in ancient Greece. It was here that outstanding – not only for those times, but also highly valued nowadays – thinkers met in their group(s) to debate. The term (in Greek) itself mathematikos means “learning, lesson, cognition”, while manthanein is a verb meaning “to learn, to find out”. In other words, every pupil, student or scientist tries to get to know the world around them through the medium of mathematics.

The contribution of the ancient Greeks to the origin and development of the aforementioned scientific discipline

It is worth mentioning that the study of mathematical thought was done only by men (i.e., ‘thinkers’). In the pages of history, this period will go down as the golden age of science. Furthermore, the ancient Greeks made a great contribution to the development of this scientific discipline – among others, special mention should be given to the theorem of Thales and Pythagoras on the sum of angles in triangles.

It was the aforementioned Pythagoras who stated that “numbers rule the world, and so numbers explain the world”. Even in ancient Greece, it had already been noted that a new scientific discipline made it easier for everyone to function, formulate conclusions and be able to prove them all. Pythagoras was so sure of his opinion that he not only imparted his teachings to others (the famous Pythagorean schools), but – together with his disciples – created the so-called ‘foundations’ of this scientific discipline. Moreover, they developed the classification of numbers – thanks to which, we now know that there are even and odd numbers, as well as measurable and incalculable numbers. They also introduced the decimal system and, to the horror of all learners, invented the multiplication table!

Another famous Greek was Euclid – thanks to whom, we are familiar with the commonly known segment and its assumptions. Menecheumus, for his part, contributed the ellipse, the parabola and the hyperbola. Hipparchus is considered as the creator of trigonometric tables. It is also of note that the extraordinary ingenuity and perceptiveness of these three ancient Greek mathematicians, who formulated three mathematical problems, that these problems cannot be solved unless you have a compass and a ruler. Heron of Alexandria came up with the formula for the area of a triangle.

The famous Archimedes also did not remain passive – he created axioms, which are now known as ‘Archimedes' axioms’ (theories about the length of segments). He was the first person in history to state the approximate value of pi (3.7). In addition, he also transferred his influence to physics when he discovered the famous law of buoyancy.

Following the ancient track, we can assume that in Greece and the world, they needed a mysterious ‘something’ to define their world. They, therefore, created a science that had the tools not only to form, but also to receive concrete answers to the conclusions of the given assumptions. In this way, they combined one or two things together to produce a concrete result. Consequently, the whole process of reasoning proceeded correctly and led to the desired goal.