One, two, or three, all alone they have almost no value, but when combined, they start valuating. Sounds pretty obvious right? But what if I tell you that for the longest time, math was considered a forbidden knowledge! Yes, Math as we see now is only the tip of the iceberg, that’s why today we will learn something different. We will not discuss some random Pathagoros theorem or derivatives, instead, we will have a look back, learn all about mathematics, and why is it loved by scholars, but hated by the rest.
What is the full form of Mathematics?
Let’s remove the obvious from the equation first, so what is the full form of maths? Well, it is simply Mathematics. There is no secret involved, it was known as Mathematics for a long time, which came from the ancient Greeks and it means, "that which is learned" or "the art of learning/knowledge." Now that that’s out of the way, let’s begin the main chapter of this story.
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What is math?
This is the most important question that scholars from around the world have been wondering about. What even math is? The full form of maths is mathematics, so does it mean that it is just a subject in class? Then why almost everything is counted with the numbers we learn from math? How we can make unrealistic things like Space Ships using formulas? Well, there is no clearer answer to any of that. Because maths is not something we invented, instead we only found it by using a single word, “Why”.
We all know if we through something up in the air, it will come back. But, why? No one had the brain power to answer that question, so it was left up to the genius brains like Albert Einstein. He used the term gravity, which changed the world. That doesn’t mean he invented gravity, it was always there, he only described it in a way that an ordinary person could understand. The same goes for planets revolving around the sun. Can you believe that everyone believed the earth was in the center until late 1500 when Nicolaus Copernicus debunked it in his De Revolutionibus. Again, that doesn’t mean he forced the sun to go in the middle and other planets to orbit around it.
The main point is that, math is a mystery that seems to have an answer to everything. All we need to do is find it. Just like we did with Black Holes, Gravitational Waves, Antimatter, The Atom, and so on. That’s why, even though math stands for Mathematics for most, we still like to call it as the Language of Cosmos, a well-deserved name don’t you think?
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Types of Maths
Let’s leave the mystery aside, and see what are the main types of maths, and why:
- Pure Mathematics: Explores the beauty the maths as a whole without worrying too much about the real-world application of it. Think of it as a scholar's dream.
- Applied Mathematics: This is the opposite of pure mathematics, where only those kinds of maths are learned that have a real-world value. Like physics, engineering, biology, economics, and so on.
From the point of view of exact branches, there are again many. A lot of them are taught in schools, and some of them are exclusive to only some institutes because of their vast complexity. Still, if we had to name the most common ones, it would be one of these:
- Arithmetic or The Number System
- Algebra
- Geometry
- Statistics and Probability
- Trigonometry
- Mensuration or 2D/3D Objects in Geometry
These are the small stuff, and if you are wondering about the real tough applications of maths, then these are the ones you are looking for:
- Number Theory
- Topology
- Complex Analysis
- Numerical Methods
- Optimization
- Mathematical Logic
Frequently asked questions
Q1. Was math an invention of mankind? Or is it something else entirely?
Ans. We all know that math is known as the Language of the Cosmos. This means, a mathematician can predict the cosmic events right from his desk. He doesn’t need to be an astronaut, or see the events unfolding to predict. Just like Gravity and Black Hole, which were theorized long ago, and we have only just discovered that those crazy talks were all true. So the end answer is, No, we don’t know it ourselves.
Q2. Why Prime Numbers are one of the unsolved mysteries?
Ans. Prime numbers seem an easy topic to most, but it still has one uncertain thing which was never solved, and it’s randomness. Like the usual gap between two prime numbers is 2, but when we jump to 3 digits, it starts going up. For example, the prime number after 113 is 127, that’s a 14-number gap. But 2 and 3 have only one number difference. We can go on and on about the weirdness of prime numbers, but the point is that no one has ever solved it.
Q3. Who discovered math?
Ans. Sadly, that is another question that has no answer. Because no single person found out about math, It was not something that people saw on tablets, until they did after discovering ruins. The same goes for numbers, and everything else in math as a whole. So it’s not that these formulas did not exist before, they all did, and we humans only realized them. So, the question shouldn’t be about who discovered math, instead, it should be how many people discovered it.
