Mathematics & everyone everyday Essay Example for Free

Mathematics everyone everyday Essay Mathematics is used in the lives of everyone everyday. Whether it is used by engineers designing a machine or by clothes shopper determining how much they will save, all use math and mathematic concepts. Mathematics has also been used for at least seven millennia by many of the early great civilizations. Many of those civilizations became very dependent on the use of math to create their great empires. The importance of math has not diminished since its infant years. Because of its importance how it is presented to students has become equally important. Only 30 years ago most students did not have calculators to aid them in learning. Today, high-tech calculators can carry out extremely complex mathematical equations in a fraction of a second. This has created a debate on whether or not the use of calculator benefit or hurt students. More specifically the debate is about how much use of the calculator should be used in the classroom. There is much debate on the research as to whether it truly helps or hurts students to over use or under use calculators. Much of the debate is based on subjective approaches to the research data as each side is trying to claim as much ground as they can in this debate. Both sides wish the best for the students want to see the students excel. However, they cannot agree on whether the calculators advance their mathematical education. History of Math Mathematics is a concept that has been around since the earliest records of written language. The oldest archeological mathematics discovery was found in Swaziland, Africa where a 170,000 year old Lebombo bone with notches chipped into it (Williams, 2005). These marks seem to indicate days in a month by adding a notch for every day that passes. Unfortunately, much of the history of how math developed is left to interpretation of archeological finds. Some speculate that the designs of monuments and buildings seem to have a geometric understanding, but that is entirely up to interpretation. As civilizations began to emerge two in particular developed complex mathematical systems: the Babylonians and the Egyptians. Around 1850 BC, the Babylonians developed a base-60 system of mathematics. This system seems to be modeled after how the Babylonians viewed time. They divided the day into 24 hours, with each hour having 60 minutes and each minute having 60 seconds. This is the same system that is used to describe modern time. This base-60 model seems more complicated compared to the modern base-10 system, but the Babylonians only had to learn two characters as opposed to learning 10 characters in the base-10 system (St Andrews, 2000). This mathematical system helped sustain one of the most powerful civilizations of the ancient world. The Egyptians also developed their own form of mathematics. They developed a base-10 system around 2700 BC. Part of the Egyptians desire to learn mathematics had to do with understanding time. The annual flooding of the Nile River was a very important event in Egypt. The Nile River was the lifeblood of the entire civilization and its annual flood ensure that the ground would be fertile enough to grow crops. Because of this important event, it became necessary for the Egyptians to find a way to calculate when the annual flooding would occur. Once their mathematical system was born, it was applied to other areas of their civilization, particularly in building. The result can still be seen with the Pyramids. The Greeks took mathematics to a high level along with the Chinese and the Indians. The biggest contribution the Greeks gave to math was removing unknown concepts and applying logic to math. Math and logic have definite similarities in that both have problems with absolute answers. The logic minded Greeks applied these concepts to mathematical principles. However, the Greeks logic limited their use of irrational numbers. This made their form of Algebra somewhat inadequate and some speculate that it set back mathematical progress several centuries (UL, 2008). Both the Chinese and the Indians were able to calculate the formation of pi. However much of early Chinese mathematics was destroyed during the book burning before 202 BC. Much of what as written is speculation based on works written after the burning. The significance of Chinese mathematics is how well it thrived while its western counterparts fell into a dark period. The Indians developed the concepts of trigonometry and would later develop an early form of calculus (Dutta, 2002). With the exception of the Muslims, mathematics entered a dark period. Throughout Europe, math was neglected along with many other sciences. However, in the 12th century, many European scholars sought after scientific texts the Arabs had translated. The created a rebirth in European interests in mathematics. With the Arab texts, the Hindu-Arab numerals were introduced and eventually became the norm of mathematic script. By the time the Renaissance period began, the interest in mathematics exploded. Navigation brought an interest in detailed maps. This spawned a need for trigonometry. From this point forward, math advanced continued to expand. In the 17th century, Isaac Newton discovered both the laws of physics and modern calculus. John Napier developed the concept of decimals which helped replace the limitation of fractions. Since the 17th century, many more development is the field of mathematics has been made. Math is now applied to most fields of science. Scientists have found that math has proven particularly accurate in the fiends of chemistry, astronomy, and physics. Along with reading math has become the foundation of all learning. History of Calculators The earliest form of calculators was known as abacuses. These simple devices helped in the arithmetic calculations. They were often made with a wood frame with beads strung across the frame. Each string would represent a different base unit. One string would represent an individual unit, another 10 units, another 100, and so forth. The Roman and Chinese abacuses were very similar in this respect. So much that some speculate whether the two were developed together through trade. No evidence has been found to support this other than the similarities (Messina, 2008). These early calculators can be found in some places today where technology is not thriving such as rural town in the Far East. The first mechanical calculator was invented in 1623 by William Schickard. He invented a machine called the Calculating Clock that could do simple adding and subtracting up to 999,999. Beyond that, a bell would indicate a numeric overflow error. Although this machine could only add and subtract, John Napier, in 1617, discovered a logarithm that could calculate multiplication and division through adding and subtracting (Smart Computing, 2008). In 1822, Charles Babbage came up with the idea called a difference engine. This mechanic device could store up to seven numbers of 31 characters each. He later developed another model called an analytical engine. This device was steam driven and was around 100 feet by 30 feet in size. This machine could hold 1000 number of 50 digits. All four arithmetic operations plus square roots could be calculated by this machine. Unfortunately, eight years after Babbage died in 1871, the British Association for the Advancement of Science recommended against the machine and thus no government funding would be provided to complete the machine (Stanford, 2008). Other calculator inventions came during the 19th century but it was in the 20th century that the calculator can into its own. Mechanical calculators began to be more prevalent in major suppliers. Two World Wars helped advance calculators through the use of computers and microelectronics. In 1955, IBM introduced the first transistorized calculator (IBM, 2008). Three years later, Casio introduced the first compact calculator. However, it was Texas Instruments in 1967 that introduced what is the predecessor to the modern hand held calculator. By the 1970s, pocket calculators began to enter the market place. First in Japan, these calculators could perform simple computations. The only problem was the calculators were very expensive, a tape display, and its power supply was limited. These problems were fixed through several innovated solutions. First was the Liquid Crystal Display screen, or LCD. The LCD allowed the calculator to display the results on a screen that can change rather than using thermal paper that was both cumbersome and needed constant replacing. Another novel concept was the use of replaceable batteries. This meant the calculator could truly be portable and not limited to an electrical outlet. Over time the power consumption of the calculator was reduced and solar panels were able to power the pocket calculators. This further freed users to use the calculators where ever they needed them. Calculators have now becomes commonplace in homes, businesses, and schools. Calculators have become powerful enough that pocket calculators can now calculate complex algebra and calculus equations in a fraction of a second. Computers and the Internet allow for even more levels of complexity.