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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.
[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.
In mathematics education, ethnomathematics is the study of the relationship between mathematics and culture. [1] Often associated with "cultures without written expression", [2] it may also be defined as "the mathematics which is practised among identifiable cultural groups". [3]
A great many professional mathematicians take no interest in a definition of mathematics, or consider it undefinable. There is not even consensus on whether mathematics is an art or a science. Some just say, "mathematics is what mathematicians do". [166] [167] A common approach is to define mathematics by its object of study. [168] [169] [170 ...
In mathematics objects can be defined exactly and logically related, but the object need have no relationship to experimental measurements. In physics, definitions are abstractions or idealizations, approximations adequate when compared to the natural world.
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.
The History of Mathematics consists of seven chapters, [1] featuring many case studies. [2] [3] Its first, "Mathematics: myth and history", gives a case study of the history of Fermat's Last Theorem and of Wiles's proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, [4] making a case that the proper understanding of this history should go beyond a chronicle of individual mathematicians and their accomplishments ...
Mathematics makes up that part of the human conceptual system that is special in the following way: It is precise, consistent, stable across time and human communities, symbolizable, calculable, generalizable, universally available, consistent within each of its subject matters, and effective as a general tool for description, explanation, and prediction in a vast number of everyday activities ...