Numbers, Numerics & Numerals

A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. A numeral system (or system of numeration) is a writing system for expressing numbers; that is, a mathematical notation for representing numbers of a given set, using digits or other symbols in a consistent manner. The same sequence of symbols may represent different numbers in different numeral systems. Whereas, numerics is an uncountable notion of measured or expressed numbers.

Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi was a 9th-century Muslim mathematician and astronomer is known as the "father of Algebra", a word derived from the title of his book, Kitab al-Jabr.

The first trigonometric table was apparently compiled by Hipparchus of Nicaea, a Greek astronomer, geographer, and mathematician (c.190-120 BC), who is consequently now known as the "father of Trigonometry", a branch of mathematics which studies the angles of sides of triangles.

Greek mathematician Archimedes of Syracuse, Sicily, Italy, a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer (c.287-212 BC), widely considered by many to be the "father of Mathematics." He is regarded as one of the leading scientists in classical antiquity and is credited with designing numerous innovative machines, including the screw pump and siege engines.

Pythagoras of Samos (c. 570-495 BC) an Ionian Greek philosopher, often called the first "true" mathematician, and eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism is credited with being the “father of Geometry” as well as the “father of Music”. He discovered the musical intervals and taught that you could heal using sound and harmonic frequencies.

As far as the invention of digits 1-9 is concerned, these are believed to be invented by Arabs, as these digits are known as Arabic numerals.

Numbers are known today as Arabic numerals, but they could more appropriately be called Indian numbers, since supposition that it was the Indians who invented them, as the Indians have been using “Arabic” numbers since about 500 BC.

Even though the first positional numerical system was allegedly developed in Babylon in the 2nd millennium BC.

"We are looking for the bridge between Indian philosophy and mathematics." "Zero and its operation are first defined by Indian astronomer and mathematician Brahmagupta (598-668) in 628, as he developed a symbol for zero: a dot underneath numbers.”

Said Peter Gobets, secretary of the ZerOrigIndia Foundation, in the Netherlands.

Such origins most likely date back to the “Fertile Crescent” of ancient Mesopotamia. When Sumerian scribes used spaces to denote absences in number columns as early as 4,000 years ago, but the first recorded use of a zero-like symbol dates to sometime around the third century BC, in ancient Babylon. Where, the Babylonians got their number system through the Akkadians from the Sumerians, who are the first people known to have developed a counting system. While, some say the Mayans invented it independently circa fourth century AD, and was later devised in India in the mid-fifth century, then spreading to Cambodia near the end of the seventh century, and into China and the Islamic countries at the end of the eighth.

It should be noted that once zero was invented it transformed counting and mathematics, in a way that would change the world.

Which to some is assumed to have been invented by Aryabhata of Kusumapura (476–550 AD) the first of the major mathematician-astronomers from the classical age of Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy.

René Descartes (1596-1650) the Swedish mathematician, is generally regarded as the “father of Analytical Geometry”. His name in Latin is Renatius Cartesius, thus you can see that our terminology “Cartesian plane” and “Cartesian coordinate system” are derived from his name!

Despite the fact that, the Hittites invented "Parabolic and Hyperbolic Mathematics", it is widely accepted that these mathematical contributions have been made by the Greeks. But Decartes discovered proof that the Hittites had used these mathematics way before the Greeks.

On another level, numbers have long been considered sacred and the patterns and connections that they make hold some serious clues as to the formation and creation of this Universe.

If you look at nature there is always a pattern, always a geometry to the structure of flowers, leaves and plants. The same goes for our human body. There is a delicate mathematics to the entire shape and structure of our bodies and world, which, is actually truly remarkable.

When you start to notice numbers or patterns in your environment, it is often a sign that you are in sync with the harmonies of the Universe. Different numbers will always mean different things to different people...

Challenges for thought!