Who Invented Math: Who Really Invented Maths?

Who Invented Math: Get an Overview First

The word "mathematics" comes from the Greek "mathema." Its meaning is knowledge. The Greek mathematicians are credited with developing mathematics. Several topics from different parts of the world were contributed at the same time by numerous mathematicians. So, nobody is called an inventor of mathematics. But the father of mathematics, Archimedes, is widely regarded.

Greek mathematicians were the first to share their discovery of mathematics with the rest of the world. Because of this, the word "mathematics," which means "knowledge," is derived from the Greek word "mathema." The study of mathematics is concerned with the logical connection between reason, quantity, order, and shape. It was discovered by a team of mathematicians working simultaneously from all over the world, not just one. However, when did it start? The various branches of mathematics that we currently study, such as algebra, geometry, and calculus, are only the beginning. 

Was Math Discovered or Invented?

When was math discovered, as opposed to "when was math invented"? If something was preexisting, such as the physical laws, was it simply discovered and understood as opposed to being created? Numerous people contend that mathematics was around long before we discovered it and began using it. Many claim that ancient civilizations like Greece, India, China, Egypt, and Mesopotamia were the first to use mathematics. Therefore, it's possible that math wasn't invented but rather that people simply discovered it, just as we do with other scientific disciplines. 

 Interesting Facts of History for Math

There are numerous mathematical truths and proofs that made sense long before mathematicians could. The Sumerians were the first civilization to create a counting system. Many scientists concur that addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division are among the oldest and most fundamental mathematical operations, having been used for more than 4,000 years. Books used on the clay tablets were used as textbooks back then. Egyptian papyrus, an ancient form of writing, contains evidence of mathematical advancements made by the Egyptians as far back as 4,000 years.In southwestern America, the Mayans were using mathematics to further their understanding of astronomy. They developed elaborate calendars. The Mayans of Central America used mathematics to deepen their understanding. When mathematical disc The ancient Greeks laid some of the groundwork for arithmetic and geometry, as well as the first explanations for natural phenomena, which greatly accelerated the development of applied mathematics. As the ancient Greeks began discovering explanations for natural phenomena and laid some of the foundations in arithmetic and geometry, the discoveries in applied mathematics began to greatly accelerate. The concept of geometry allows for the construction of structures, vehicles, and cities.

Also read about: Ancient Mathematicians of India and Difference Between Invention and Discovery.

History of Who Discovered Maths

The first people to use mathematics for counting were in antiquity! We use mathematics to count many times a day. Similar to how people today use mathematics without even realizing it, people in ancient times used mathematics unconsciously to count, add, subtract, and divide.  

Table of Numerals

Babylonian

Any form of mathematics used by the inhabitants of Mesopotamia (now Iraq) between the Sumerian and Christian eras is referred to as "Babylonian mathematics." The first examples of mathematics in writing date back to the Sumerians, who established the first civilization in Mesopotamia. They developed a comprehensive system of metrology in 3000 BCE. The Sumerians recorded division problems, geometry difficulties, and multiplication tables on clay tablets in 2500 B.C. The first documentation of Babylonian numbers also comes from this time frame.

Egyptian

Egyptian mathematics is the study of mathematics in the Egyptian script. The Rhind papyrus, which is dated to approximately 1650 B.C. but is likely a copy of an earlier document from the Middle Kingdom between 2000 and 1800 B.C., contains the most extensive Egyptian mathematical work. It is also sometimes called the Ahmes papyrus after its author. It serves as a manual for math and geometry students. It gives proof of other mathematical skills, such as composite and prime numbers, arithmetic, and geometry, in addition to area formulae and methods for multiplication, division, and working with unit fractions. Additionally, it provides examples of how to solve first-order linear equations as well as arithmetic and geometric series.

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Greek

Greek mathematics was far more sophisticated than the math developed by primitive nations. Inductive reasoning, or the use of repeated observations to create rules of thumb,ise evident in all of the pre-Greek mathematics that has survived. Greek mathematicians, on the other hand, used deductive reasoning. The Greeks used rigorous mathematics to prove the correctness of their conclusions and logic to infer them from definitions and axioms. They were probably influenced by Babylonian and Egyptian mathematics, though the extent of this influence is contested.

Roman

During the Roman Republic and subsequently the Empire, Greek mathematics was revived. Elementary mathematics was also necessary for the creation of the Roman calendar. According to legend, the first calendar had 356 days plus a leap year every other year during the eighth century B.C. era of the Roman Empire. The Romans were adept at using mathematics to start and uncover financial fraud as well as manage taxes for the Treasury.

Chinese

The Tsinghua Bamboo Slips, which date to around 305 BC and contain the first known decimal multiplication table (the Babylonians had tables with a base of 60), are perhaps the earliest pieces of Chinese mathematical literature still in existence. The adoption of "rod numerals," a decimal positional writing system that used separate ciphers for integers between 1 and 10 as well as additional ciphers for powers of 10, is notable in Chinese mathematics.

Indian

The earliest mathematical texts from India that have survived are appendices to religious texts that date from the eighth century B.C. to the second century A.D. These documents give straightforward instructions for constructing altars in a variety of shapes, including squares, rectangles, parallelograms, and others. They also express the Pythagorean theorem, compute the square root of 2 to many decimal places, and provide a list of Pythagorean triples.

Also read more about the Difference Between Cube and Cuboid.

Islamic

It has been said that mathematics have been preserved in the Islamic world. The Islamic Empire established in Persia, the Middle East, Central Asia, North Africa, Iberia, and parts of India contributed significantly to mathematics in the ninth century. Even though Arabic is the language used in the majority of Islamic mathematical literature, Arabs did not create them. The Persian mathematician Muhammad ibn Ms. al-Khwarizmi produced significant works on Hindu-Arabic numerals and equation-solving strategies in the ninth century.

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Who Invented Maths as a Discipline During the Scientific Revolution?

Below is the detailed information about revolution in math over the centuries-

17th century

Europe experienced an unheard-of increase in mathematical and scientific ideas during the 17th century. Using a telescope modeled after a toy imported from Holland, Galileo observed the moons of Jupiter orbiting that planet. The positions of the planets in the sky were described mathematically in great detail by Tycho Brahe. Johannes Kepler was first exposed to and actively engaged with the subject of planetary motion through his role as Brahe's assistant. The contemporaneous development of logarithms by John Napier and Jost Bürgi facilitated Kepler's calculations. Kepler was successful in identifying the mathematical rules governing planetary motion. René Descartes' (1596-1650) analytical geometry made it possible to plot those orbits in cartesian coordinates on a graph.

18th century

Leonhard Euler (1707–1783), who lived in the 18th century, was probably the most important mathematician of the time. His contributions include standardizing many contemporary mathematical terms and notations as well as founding the field of graph theory with the Seven Bridges of Königsberg problem. He popularized the use of the Greek letter to stand for the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, for instance, and gave the square root of minus 1 the symbol i. Numerous theorems and notations bearing his name attest to his numerous contributions to the fields of topology, graph theory, calculus, combinatorics, and complex analysis.

19th century

The 19th century saw a rise in the abstraction of mathematics. This pattern is best exemplified by Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855). Leaving aside his numerous contributions to science, he performed ground-breaking research on the convergence of series, geometry, and functions of complex variables. Additionally, he provided the first successful justifications for the quadratic reciprocity law and the algebraic fundamental theorem.

The parallel postulate of Euclidean geometry is no longer valid in the two non-Euclidean forms of geometry that have developed this century. In hyperbolic geometry, where uniqueness of parallels no longer holds, the Russian mathematician Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky and his rival, the Hungarian mathematician János Bolyai, independently defined and studied the subject. In this geometry, the total of a triangle's angles is not greater than 180°. The German mathematician Bernhard Riemann created elliptic geometry, where there is no parallel and a triangle's angles add up to more than 180 degrees. A manifold is a concept that generalizes the concepts of curves and surfaces. Riemann also created Riemannian geometry, which unifies and greatly expands the three types of geometry.

Also Read- What is the Area of a Parallelogram?

20th century

In the 20th century, mathematics emerged as a significant profession. Numerous positions in teaching and business were open, and there were thousands of new math Ph.D.s awarded each year. In Klein's encyclopedia, there was an attempt to list the branches and uses of mathematics. David Hilbert listed 23 unsolved mathematical puzzles in a 1900 speech to the International Congress of Mathematicians. These issues, which cut across many branches of mathematics, served as the main focus of 20th-century mathematics. Currently, 10 have been resolved, 7 have been partially resolved, and 2 remain unresolved. The remaining 4 are too ill-defined to be classified as either solved or unsolved. 

Important historical hypotheses were ultimately proven. It was controversial at the time because Wolfgang Haken and Kenneth Appel used a computer to demonstrate the four color theorem in 1976. In 1995, Andrew Wiles proved Fermat's Last Theorem by building on prior research. The continuum hypothesis was shown to be independent of (could not be both proved and disproved from) the fundamental axioms of set theory by Paul Cohen and Kurt Gödel. Thomas Callister Hales established the Kepler hypothesis in 1998.

21st century

The seven Millennium Prize Problems were revealed by the Clay Mathematics Institute in 2000, and Grigori Perelman solved the Poincaré conjecture in 2003 (though he declined to accept an award because he was critical of the mathematics establishment). The majority of mathematical journals now have both print and online editions, and numerous online-only journals are being launched. Open access publishing is becoming more popular, thanks in large part to arXiv.

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Modern Day Mathematicians 

There is no denying that one of the most important academic disciplines has always been mathematics. Further research is being conducted with the aid of the revelations of the classical mathematicians. Terence Tao, a former child prodigy who falls under the category of individuals with the highest I.Q., is one of the best mathematicians working today. The list of the top mathematicians in the world today also includes Keith Devlin and Andrew Sarnak.

Archimedes is regarded as the founding figure of mathematics. But the question of who created mathematics has no clear answer. In many centuries and by many people, it was discovered. We think it's more accurate to say that humanity discovered mathematics and that mathematics belongs to the entire planet.