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The word mathematics comes from the Ancient Greek word máthēma (μάθημα), meaning ' something learned, knowledge, mathematics ', and the derived expression mathēmatikḗ tékhnē (μαθηματικὴ τέχνη), meaning ' mathematical science '. It entered the English language during the Late Middle English period through French and ...
The history of mathematics deals with the origin of discoveries in mathematics and the mathematical methods and notation of the past.Before the modern age and the worldwide spread of knowledge, written examples of new mathematical developments have come to light only in a few locales.
Greek mathematics constitutes an important period in the history of mathematics: fundamental in respect of geometry and for the idea of formal proof. [44] Greek mathematicians also contributed to number theory , mathematical astronomy , combinatorics , mathematical physics , and, at times, approached ideas close to the integral calculus .
[8] [9] Islamic mathematics, in turn, developed and expanded the mathematics known to these civilizations. [10] Contemporaneous with but independent of these traditions were the mathematics developed by the Maya civilization of Mexico and Central America, where the concept of zero was given a standard symbol in Maya numerals.
The origin of the word, according to Papert, is not from "mathematics," but from the Greek, mathēmatikos, which means "disposed to learn." He feels this word (or one like it) should become as much part of the vocabulary about education as is the word pedagogy or instructional design .
Many areas of mathematics began with the study of real world problems, before the underlying rules and concepts were identified and defined as abstract structures.For example, geometry has its origins in the calculation of distances and areas in the real world; algebra started with methods of solving problems in arithmetic.
Greek letters are used in mathematics, science, engineering, and other areas where mathematical notation is used as symbols for constants, special functions, and also conventionally for variables representing certain quantities. In these contexts, the capital letters and the small letters represent distinct and unrelated entities.
Rather than characterize mathematics by deductive logic, intuitionism views mathematics as primarily about the construction of ideas in the mind: [9] The only possible foundation of mathematics must be sought in this construction under the obligation carefully to watch which constructions intuition allows and which not. [12] L. E. J. Brouwer 1907