Mathematical Connection Project

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  • Topic: Mathematics, Euclid's Elements, Euclid
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Mathematical Connection Project
University of Phoenix
MTH 110

The Impact of Mathematics on Daily Social Activities
In society today people deal with some kind of problem solving method that involves math. Thanks to the mathematicians from the past and present we are able to evolve as a society with advancements on medicine, technology and able to travel into space. The impact that Euclid, Al-Khwarizmi, Rudolf Laban, William Higinbotham, Galileo Galilei have had in our society has magnified our appreciation for their hard work and dedication to mathematics. They have not only had great contributions, but also serve us as role models and inspirational personas who with a lot of knowledge and not much to work with they figured out great part of what we have now in our daily lives; things like cars, register machines, calculators and most importantly, computers. Without the mathematicians of the past all this would have taken many more years instead these geniuses have made our life, today easier than it was for them.

Whether one is buying a house, following a recipe, or planning for grocery shopping, all these activities require the use of math principals. People have been using these same principals for thousands of years from nation to nation across continents. Whether one is driving a car, sailing a boat off the coast of Africa, or building a railroad in Japan, math is being used to get things done. How is Mathematics related to daily social activities? Some people think mathematics is a divine field, some adore Mathematics, while others are scared of it; some study mathematics, while some worship it. For example, Aryabatta, an ancient Indian mathematician worshipped mathematics and lived for it out of devotion and not because of any material benefits.

Ancient men felt their concern with mathematics, motivated by their social needs; they had done their best on the computational front of their life. It has been found that Babylonians possessed the knowledge of multiplication and division of numbers, taking square and square root of numbers, finding areas of certain geometrical figures ( The Egyptian civilization is also owed to mathematics. According to Aristotle, mathematics was born in Egypt, owing it to the idea that the religious group had leisure time for its study; and built pyramids at a very early period. The basis of both the Egyptian and the Mesopotamian civilizations were agriculture. In an agricultural economy, a reliable calendar, accurate with respect to both astronomy and arithmetic, is a necessity. Thinking of Greek civilization, one cannot help but remember the great mathematicians, like Ptolemy, Archimedes (287-212 B.C), Plato (429-348 B.C), Pythagoras (580-500 B.C), Thales (640-546 B.C), Diophantus, Apollonius, Pappus, etc. In addition, going through history, one can further see the immense mathematical contributions from Romans, Chinese, Japanese, Arabs and Indians among others. History continues to reveal the fact that ancient civilizations are very much related to the development of mathematics. This paper has just discussed historical background of various mathematicians’ contributions to the development of mathematics. This paper will also discuss contributions that affected their society and contributions that affected the modern society.

One of the impacts of mathematics on daily social activities is in the area of technology and science. Al-Khwarizmi (780-580 CE), a renowned mathematician, geographer as well an astronomer, is considered the father of algebra and the grandfather of computer science; which in the 21st Century became the age of Information Technology (IT) and modern computers that have become ubiquitous and essential in everyday life, are the foundations of IT. Payrolls for instance, benefit from the use of algebra by calculating the pay of...
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