History of Mathematics - Yubin

 Personally, I interpret practicality as the ability to put an idea into concise language which can be agreed and practiced by everyone into real-life situation. In contrast, my interpretation of abstraction is some ideas or concept that brings up inquiry, discussions, and debates where it cannot be put into a simple form of representation yet that everyone can agree on or apply it to real-life situation. Hence, practicality and abstraction sound like they are two contrasting term. Although, they do not seem to be as contrasting when applied to mathematical context. The idea of applied mathematics is known to be the "practical" one whereas pure mathematics is known to be the "abstract" one. However, I believe that the basis of every mathematical concept holds abstract nature as mathematics is not something that involves discoveries of physical object. It is rather a discovery of a method or a way to represent an abstract idea. Hence, applied mathematics and pure mat...

The quote, "A concise and meaningful definition of mathematics is virtually impossible." stopped me from the reading. This quote was surprising at first sight, however, after having few seconds to think about it I had to agree with it. This quote represents the abstract nature of mathematics which embraces and relates to every element of the world. Adding on to that, the immense history behind it that humans yet to have the full grasp on further proves this quote is true. It made me realize that I am only viewing small aspects of mathematics and there is enormous space left for me to travel still within the world of mathematics.  Another thing that surprised me was that how different countries from different continents are interconnected through thousands of years of history within mathematics. It is very interesting that the study of mathematics evolved as the civilization grew and mathematical exchange happened between different groups and places as an important part of civ...

Speculative phase: One of the possible reason that 60 might be more convenient and significant base number than 10 is that 60 has more factors. 60 has 12 factors, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, and 60, whereas 10 only has 4 factors, 1, 2, 5, and 10. Having more factors indicates that 60 is divisible by more numbers than 10 which can be vastly convenient to use it in a system. Also, 60 might have been a more suitable base number than 10 because it represents greater quantity. Assuming that counting and recording numbers were great labour for Babylonians, having a greater base number would have been favourable to manage collected data. One of the examples of the base number 60 in our daily lives is time. One hour is 60 minutes, one minute is 60 seconds. Hence when we talk about time, we can divide up an hour into different units, such as half an hour and quarter of an hour. Research phase: In our contemporary world, the significance of 60 can be found in a circle as circles have 3...

        I believe that incorporating history of math within math education will enable unconventional approach to mathematical concepts. The history of math can provide information about why and how a mathematical concept was discovered and studied. Also, variations between the modern language and the historical expression within a mathematical context can be helpful to learn different perspectives and methods from what is being taught in a traditional math class. Hence, I think that learning the math history will allow students to explore mathematical concepts in depth and beyond numbers, symbols, and formulas.      From the article, I related the most to the quote, "mathematics is not a rigidly structured system of results, but a continuously evolving human intellectual process," as I strongly agree that mathematics is a process of identifying problems, finding solutions, and explaining it in its language. The history of math is a part of that proces...