Math formula |
- Mathematics has been called "the queen of knowledge."
- Mathematics is a tool which helps man know how much, how many, how large, how fast, in what direction, and with what chances.
- Mathematics is also a way of thinking and a form of logical reasoning. From this manner of reasoning about numbers and space, ideas and conclusions can be developed.
- Arithmetic is one branch of the science of mathematics. Among the many other branches are geometry, algebra, trigonometry, and calculus.
- Probably the Egyptians first discovered how to find the area of a square and then of a rectangle (CU).
- The Greeks found geometry very useful for surveying, astronomy, navigation, and architecture, just as we do today. In 240 B.C. the Greek astronomer Eratosthenes, by using geometry, calculated that the Earth is 24,000 miles around. This figure is fairly close to the right answer.
- While thousands of great mathematicians have excelled in this discipline, some feel that the greatest were Archimedes, Isaac Newton, and Carl Friedrich Gauss.
- The ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans all had number signs. But it was easier to add, subtract, multiply, or divide with a counting frame, or abacus, than with their written numerals.
- From India came the ancestors of the number signs we use today. The Mathematicians there probably invented zero and developed the use of fractions. The Arabs adopted the number system of India and
- brought it to Europe during the Middle Ages. This system made calculating easy.
- The Arabs developed algebra. It is a sort of mathematical shorthand. By using algebra we can state many mathematical ideas with just a few letters and signs. If we want to say, for example, that in any circle the diameter is twice the radius we can write: D = 2R.
- One of the recent advances in mathematics are computers. In a fraction of second a computer can solve a problem that it might take a man one thousand years solve by himself.
CURIOUS FACTS ABOUT MATHEMATICS
The largest prime number is 9,808,358 digits long; more than the number of atoms in the universe.
111 111 111 x 111 111 111 = 12345678 9 87654321
2 and 5 are the only primes that end in 2 or 5.
Pi (3.14159...) is a number that cannot be written as a fraction.
The billionth digit of Pi is 9.
The opposite sides of a dice cube always add up to seven.
If you add up the numbers 1-100 consecutively (1+2+3+4+5...) the total is 5050.