The war is a staple issue in Europe in the study of history, but there is a major conflict in the history of most history books do not teach you, the struggle between equals, “=”. These two parallel lines, in fact, were the source of the main conflict between European mathematicians in the mid-Decade. This is one of many historian history Mathematical language: stories behind the symbols According to the author and mathematician Raúl Rojas. There, Rojas explores complex and sometimes uncertain, history Mathematical symbolism.
It has been another discussion for centuries, for example, who invented the zero symbol, “0.” Over the years, competing camps discussed by taking one or the other Notation for different parts of mathematics. Rojas’s stories guide us through the historic arch of Mathematics, interspersed its evolution with the cultural, philosophical and practical needs of society that set up and trust.
American scientific He talked about this history, to play the deep humanity and the definition of mathematics Mathematical language We provide today.
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(It follows the edited transcript of the conversation.Diagnies
What inspired you to write this book Stories behind these symbols?
I started teaching in 1977, and during my nearly 50 years, I saw the students were always interested in math history. When you teach algebra or linear calculus, it is important to develop concepts to students and how they developed concepts. I started seminars on the history of mathematical notation and all students studied a symbol and explained the origin. Students that are sleeping in the class suddenly awakened when I found that you add the human story behind the abstract symbol.
Throughout the book, you will discuss the symbols that have failed to be the standard path we know today. How did these things decide?
One of the most interesting things about the history of mathematical notation is a regional variation for centuries. Italy was a kind of notation, another in Germany, the UK and France. All of these different regions were producing symbols, and with the arrival of print press, the explosion of proposals occurred. So how did it normalize the only symbol?
A good example is a symbol of equality, “=.” This relationship was mostly expressed with words at the beginning. Later (René Descartes started using the Taurus rotating symbol, “Gottfried Wilhelm) used to use Wedgelike shape in Germany. And (before Descartes and Leibniz) invent signs of equality we use by Robert and UK) He was now found in a kind of arithmetic symbols based on arithmetic symbols based on fame based on the fame. Outstanding competition “+” and “” versus “p” and “m”,“The Italians preferred to deny the operations. Finally, the plus signs and minus signals became universal, as the English symbol made it for equality, but it performs a competition to implement trends than decades of renowned maths.
Is there a specific symbol How we think about abstract concepts that significantly affect mathematics history?
There is a symbol with a very long history that has not yet been written: “0.” How was it created? We know that Babylonians used them, but they didn’t write “0” as we know. Base-60 systems worked with positive and simply leaving the blank we would write 0. This was a natural way to show zero: if nothing, you don’t have to write anything.
Later, through the conquests of the Great Alexander, the Greeks took the Posing Number System of India, where Hindus Culture “0.” developed the first representation. The writing is a helpful competition between the anthropologists who work to find the oldest instances. Every five or six years, someone finds an older record. This is wonderful every simple symbol we think of this day, without thinking, has a historian … the history of thousands of years.
For all symbols of Gerhard Jentz “,” you describe “Picasso could paint it from an eye”. What is the story behind that notation?
The life of the jent is very tragic for me. It was an extraordinary mathematician, as many more in German hazards, committed to the regime. If he had never been a political person, he became a member of the Nazi party and then entered SS, the criminal arm of the regime. He absorbed his work, made these commitments to get his career. After the war, he did not write guilty, that he was not a soldier that did nothing bad. He took a position at the University of Prague, however, to displace others under the Nazi occupation. Eventually, he chose to escape after war, he was caught and starved in prison.
It is not an excuse for his actions, but his life remains tragic from start to finish, especially considering what he could do, considering that he took another path. It is wonderful that such a simple symbol – “A” is not such a complex and hard history.
What do you expect readers, especially outside of the math community removal from your book?
It is important to understand that it is a historical process of mathematics, as is any social science or policy. Mathematics is not completed and ended through the work of a single mathematician; It has a cultural history for many years. For centuries, we have been looking at the sky or computer. They teach school, add and multiplication, but rarely explain the origin or history of symbols. This wide history is Undold, but the excitement of doing mathematics comes from this area of fascinating people developed in a framework developed for thousands of years.
