Question

Was math discovered or invented?

Answer 1

hehe it posts to the whole math section...

Answer 2

disvented :P

Answer 3

that is a good question...

Answer 4

Im with @ganeshie8 its a little bit of both.

Answer 5

Hehehe I am telling you it was discovered. After all, who would know it better than one who discovered it ?

Answer 6

my argument is that the Pythagoreans were doing math, and yet they were not doing it correctly.

Answer 7

Actually many historians and mathematicians believe that man was as old as humans as they started counting using sticks

Answer 8

like they didn't believe in irrational numbers ....

Answer 9

Depends on what you think definition of math is ?

Answer 10

Sorry, I meant math not man (in my second comment)

Answer 11

If you consider even counting to be math, then , it was very very before (at least many decades before I was born).

If you consider advanced topology to be math, well they did not have that much good luck. :(

Answer 12

based on that logic we can fit everything into discovery i guess - no inventions in math. even the poets discover poems, they never invent ?

Answer 13

but the topology was always there, but it didn't mean anything until someone talked about it.

Answer 14

Yeah, but than geometry must be the oldest branch. Because many of them would have been drawing strange geometrical figures during sleep... ;) (jk)

Answer 15

Actually, I think I just found out what I am going to work in.. geometrical figures most drawn during sleep :P

Answer 16

On serious note, I don't think we can say that math was "discovered" or "invented", I think it was just renamed.

Answer 17

math is so strange. I think about extending the real numbers to the complex numbers

we have some set of real numbers and we want a solution to x^2=-1 so we "invent" i
then we just throw it and all its scalar/additive multiples and call it C. I mean the construction of the complex numbers from the real numbers is as simple as saying

Let it be.

Answer 18

It was present in the beginning but never had any proper name. Its just that it caught the attention of humans many years later.

Answer 19

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/derek-abbott/is-mathematics-invented-o_b_3895622.html

Answer 20

Yeah some things are better "let be so..."

Answer 21

there is a great book called "is god a mathematician" that is about this very subject.

Answer 22

^^^nothing to do with religion.

Answer 23

Question worth writing a book on - "Is god a mathematician"

Answer 24

anyway, for posing the question.

Answer 25

not to give away the ending, but he does not answer the question.... lol

Answer 26

Mario Livio ?

Answer 27

NOOOOOOOO !! Please tell its wrong..

Answer 28

I was planning to read it ... :'(

Answer 29

the first thing you get on it when you google is

Jan 6, 2009 - In Is God A Mathematician, Mario Livio tries to explain the ...... (but makes no effort to answer) t

Answer 30

it prob says it on the cover...

Answer 31

Who searched on google ? I have my own site for searching books ;).

Answer 32

But, I am not going to reveal its name. I don't want to be caught for copyright issues (hint, hint)

Answer 33

I am saying that he might tell you that on the first page of the book. he makes it clear that the question is unanswerable, and does come to some conclusion that is a semi answer in his opinion, of which I wont share:P

Answer 34

Hey, thats not fair.

Answer 35

its a good read:)

Answer 36

You read it ?

Answer 37

A few years ago, I was giving a talk at Cornell University. One of my PowerPoint slides read: “Is God a mathematician?” As soon as that slide appeared, I heard a student in the front row gasp: “Oh God, I hope not!”

LOL

Answer 38

Arrest this student. He inspired him to write this book....One more book !

Answer 39

lots of great history, like the fact that L'hospital was not a good mathematician and the Bernoulli brothers came up with the famous theorem with his namesake. he gave them money so they didnt have to go to work, and they in return put his name on a little lemma they came up with.

Answer 40

Really ? ^^

Answer 41

yeah:)

Answer 42

Where did you read that? I too want to..

Answer 43

I think its in that book.

Answer 44

I took some math history classes as an undergrad also, so it might have came up in there, but I think it was in there.

Answer 45

but I think it was in that book*

Answer 46

I watched a doco called 'the story of maths' i think it was produced by the BBC and it was full of awesome maths history.

Answer 47

Okay, but *9 chapters* on maths history.. Its really boring . :(

Answer 48

damn british and their "maths"

Answer 49

:D

Answer 50

I love math history, that stuff is crazy.

Answer 51

people died over square root of 2

Answer 52

what do you call it

Answer 53

the pythagoreans would not pick something up if they dropped it, would not light fire next to a mirror, would not eat beans, would not kneel, would not....

Answer 54

Such a stupid thing to die for.. at least they could have died over sqrt(9), they would have did happy thinking that they gave the most accurate value possible

(just joking)

Answer 55

we use x because it looks like khi which they used because the Spanish does not have a sound for sh which is what the original Arabic word for variable started with

Answer 56

and khi and sh were the closest

Answer 57

Damn.. I cannot pursue maths as got selected for BE. Otherwise, I would have been preparing for a degree in that by now.

Answer 58

i knw the x story lol reminds me of @ikram002p 's post few days ago

Answer 59

there is some proof that newton was in the same country as lebinitz at the same time.

Answer 60

Why @ganeshie8

Answer 61

Ahh differentiation laws ?

Answer 62

I bet Fermat had a 2 page proof for that famous theorem.

Answer 63

With the advent of calculators why do they still insist on rationalizing the denominator to this day? If doing by hand I can understand evaluating sqrt(2) / 2 is easier than evaluating 1 / sqrt(2).

Answer 64

its good practice to understand how exponents work

Answer 65

But not enough space in the side of his notebook :P

Yeah I remember that. I still laugh on that. How can someone say that ?

Answer 66

*Fermat's theorem

Answer 67

but Fermat was going green that time, he must have had proof in his head lol

Answer 68

one of the 1000's

Answer 69

Sorry, *Fermat's last theorem

Yeah @ganeshie8. You cracked the mystery Sherlock

Answer 70

that guy was such an a**hole
he would prove things for himself and then send out a note to all the other mathematicians asking if they could do it, and never giving the answer.

Answer 71

he was not even a mathematician, he studied law and had people executed

Answer 72

Yeah and then saying I didn't have enough space for proof

Answer 73

he just did the math on the side for fun......lol

Answer 74

he was a lawyer, he was not allowed to carry luggage to court everyday

Answer 75

haha lolz history of mathmatics
+ x story nothing better :3

Answer 76

Euler was blind and could recite math books from memory

Answer 77

because he was not always blind....

Answer 78

O.O ?

Answer 79

Not always blind ? Did he have some switch ?

Answer 80

people go blind...

Answer 81

lol

Answer 82

lol

Answer 83

hahaha

Answer 84

if the rest of your body lasted, so would you.

Answer 85

That's one of the best @zzr0ck3r

Answer 86

:)

Answer 87

shhh no talking about eluer lol
he was amazing guy

Answer 88

I think Fermat is my favorite mathematician, because he just did that simple math stuff on the side....and Euler is my second because he is......Euler.

Answer 89

:P

Answer 90

Because he was Euler O.o

Answer 91

did you know that there is a president that made his own proof for the Pythagorean theorem?

Answer 92

Yup

Answer 93

its one of the famous 100 or so proofs

Answer 94

Me !

Answer 95

crazy, and then he got shot:(

Answer 96

No not at all me

Answer 97

I am still alive.. thank you very much