The first chapter from The Crest of the Peacock is very interesting to read. The author tries to assemble and make connection of developments in mathematics across the world in a timely fashion. The perspective of the author is non-Eurocentric, which provides alternative way to see how mathematics has been developed as a global effort. There are many details in the first chapter I encountered for the first time. I would like to share a few things I find surprising to know.
· Human body of knowledge including mathematics is almost negligible
in any measure (magnitude, depth, speed) compared to the size of knowledge and
data stored in the natural universe. Our development in science and mathematics
results in not just improvement in our living, but also destruction of the
planet earth and its environment which is our only world and which is not our
design and construction. Science and mathematics are also used as tools in
hegemony, colonization, and other conflicts such as wars, data and media
control. So it was a surprise to find that enormous magnitudes of affords
in creating history, arts, and activities have been used to make Europe
superior for its achievement in science and math in the last 400 years. This
tells something about our human nature.
- Even
though I graduated from the major in Operations Research which comprises mostly
optimizations utilizing programs and algorithms. I never know that the word
“algorithm” was from the famous Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi. I knew al-Khwarizmi’s books about algebraic equation
solving and the number system but I never realized this special connection. He
definitely influenced the western world deeply by introducing the decimal
system in his mathematics text books.
- I
was surprised by the importance of having a “meeting place” for ancient
scholars to gather and discuss their research. The “meeting place” served as
crucial role of hosing big ideas from big peoples. Places like Alexandria or
Jund-i-Shapur acted as huge research schools where knowledge was created,
synthesized, upgraded, refined, and if possible, translated. It is interesting
to know that scholar like Pythagoras even traveled to India to learn their
mathematics. The idea of international students studying at a foreign
university can be traced back more than two thousand years ago!
- I
was surprised by the fact that the academic exchanges between China and India
was scarce before the spread of Buddhism into China. I always thought
geographically, neighboring countries should have more chance to exchange
information. Also, I didn’t know that Indian astronomers were hired to teach at
Astronomical Board of Changan (the place I am from)! When I was doing elementary school in China,
we were taught that Chinese mathematics also was influenced greatly by the Islamic
world. However, different from India, Islamic religion didn’t spread across
China like Buddhism did. This is a wonder for me considering both India and the
Islamic world being neighbors of China.
- According
to the author, the principle of place value was discovered independently about
four times in the history of mathematics! Mesopotamian used place-value
notational system to base 60; Chinese used positional principles in rod
numerical computations; Indian used place-value decimal system; and the Maya
used positional number system to base 20. In particular, I found that the Maya
was one of the two civilizations where the concept of zero originate (another
is India which I knew). I was also surprised by the accuracy on Maya’s
astronomical observations and calendar constructions (without having proper
equipment, how amazing!).
Beautiful! What a fascinating post, with so many interesting threads. It's wonderful that you're from Changan and can connect with the history of astronomy and math there. All the points you make here are worth following up on, and you might choose some of them as the focus for your upcoming assignments!
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