Summary:
In this part of the book famous names of mathematicians are referred to such as Bede. One of the interesting facts about this man was that his counting method ignored zero. For example he would count -3 ,-2, -2, 1, 1,2, 3 because he did not believe in zero. The author starts to talk about how we still have this in our mind and how we constantly avoid zero. Say you are going on on a ride. The countdown would usually start 10, 9, 8.....1 and liftoff!No zero. Some people were afraid of this idea, but not all people like the east ( Indian and Arab). As they started to evolve in their number system society noticed numerals being changed all the way from Brabmi to Diirer. Other problems that some ancients did not pay much attention to was negatives. They disregarded it because their brain told them that if you have 2 of something, you cant take away 3 of that object. Soon the Muslims started to conquer land around them such as India and who ever they over powered, they wanted to obtain their knowledge as well. This soon became a religious thing where people questioned the existence of a higher power if zero is nothingness. One of the most valuable things made by a man from Europe named Descartes was the Cartesian coordinates(coordinate grid). In this part of the book we start to get closer and closer to a point were the existence of zero can not be denied.
Quote:
"...the symbol (4,) represents a point four units to the right and two units upward"( Seife 94 ).
Reaction:
This quote is referring to plotting something on a graph and its exact location via coordinate points. My reaction to this was that I was surprised in how people used this fact to come up with the fact that their is a zero out there because these points are based on the origin(0,0). People in the ancient times who ignored this idea would have to start to believe now. Their process to accepting this was near and using a cooordinate grid to enlighten this idea was nice.
No comments:
Post a Comment