Mathematics

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This article is about the field of study. For other uses, see  Mathematics (disambiguation) and Math
(disambiguation).

Greek mathematician Euclid (holding calipers), 3rd century BC, as imagined by Raphael in this detail from The School of
Athens (1509–1511)[a]
Mathematics
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Mathematics (from Greek: μάθημα, máthēma, 'knowledge, study, learning') includes the
study of such topics as quantity (number theory),[1] structure (algebra),[2] space (geometry),
[1] and change (mathematical analysis).[3][4][5] It has no generally accepted definition.[6][7]

Mathematicians seek and use patterns[8][9] to formulate new conjectures; they resolve the

truth or falsity of such by mathematical proof. When mathematical structures are good models
of real phenomena, mathematical reasoning can be used to provide insight or predictions
about nature. Through the use of abstraction and logic, mathematics developed
from counting, calculation, measurement, and the systematic study of
the shapes and motions of physical objects. Practical mathematics has been a human activity
 from as far back as written records exist. The research required to solve mathematical
problems can take years or even centuries of sustained inquiry.
Rigorous arguments first appeared in Greek mathematics, most notably in Euclid's Elements.
[10] Since the pioneering work of Giuseppe Peano (1858–1932), David Hilbert (1862–1943),
and others on axiomatic systems in the late 19th century, it has become customary to view
mathematical research as establishing truth by rigorous deduction from appropriately
chosen axioms and definitions. Mathematics developed at a relatively slow pace until
the Renaissance, when mathematical innovations interacting with new scientific
discoveries led to a rapid increase in the rate of mathematical discovery that has continued to
the present day.[11]
Mathematics is essential in many fields, including natural
science, engineering, medicine, finance, and the social sciences. Applied mathematics has
led to entirely new mathematical disciplines, such as statistics and game theory.
Mathematicians engage in pure mathematics (mathematics for its own sake) without having
any application in mind, but practical applications for what began as pure mathematics are
often discovered later.[12][13]

Contents

• 1 History

• 1.1 Etymology

• 2 Definitions of mathematics

• 2.1 Three leading types

• 2.2 Mathematics as science

• 3 Inspiration, pure and applied mathematics, and aesthetics

• 4 Notation, language, and rigor

• 5 Fields of mathematics

• 5.1 Foundations and philosophy

• 5.2 Pure mathematics

• 5.3 Applied mathematics

• 6 Mathematical awards

• 7 See also

• 8 Notes

• 9 References

• 10 Bibliography

• 11 Further reading

History
Main article: History of mathematics

The history of mathematics can be seen as an ever-increasing series of abstractions. The first
abstraction, which is shared by many animals,[14] was probably that of numbers: the
realization that a collection of two apples and a collection of two oranges (for example) have
something in common, namely quantity of their members.
As evidenced by tallies found on bone, in addition to recognizing how to count physical
objects, prehistoric peoples may have also recognized how to count abstract quantities, like
time—days, seasons, or years.[15][16]

The Babylonian mathematical tablet Plimpton 322, dated to 1800 BC.

Evidence for more complex mathematics does not appear until around 3000 BC, when
the Babylonians and Egyptians began using arithmetic, algebra and geometry for taxation
and other financial calculations, for building and construction, and for astronomy.[17] The most
ancient mathematical texts from Mesopotamia and Egypt are from 2000–1800 BC.[18] Many
early texts mention Pythagorean triples and so, by inference, the Pythagorean
theorem seems to be the most ancient and widespread mathematical development after basic
arithmetic and geometry.[19] It is in Babylonian mathematics that elementary
arithmetic (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) first appear in the archaeological
record. The Babylonians also possessed a place-value system, and used
a sexagesimal numeral system [19] which is still in use today for measuring angles and time. [20]

Archimedes used the method of exhaustion to approximate the value of pi.

Beginning in the 6th century BC with the Pythagoreans, the Ancient Greeks began a

systematic study of mathematics as a subject in its own right with Greek mathematics.
[21] Around 300 BC, Euclid introduced the axiomatic method still used in mathematics today,
consisting of definition, axiom, theorem, and proof. His textbook Elements is widely
considered the most successful and influential textbook of all time. [22] The greatest
mathematician of antiquity is often held to be Archimedes (c. 287–212 BC) of Syracuse.[23] He
developed formulas for calculating the surface area and volume of solids of revolution and
used the method of exhaustion to calculate the area under the arc of a parabola with
the summation of an infinite series, in a manner not too dissimilar from modern calculus.
[24] Other notable achievements of Greek mathematics are conic sections (Apollonius of
Perga, 3rd century BC),[25] trigonometry (Hipparchus of Nicaea (2nd century BC),[26] and the
beginnings of algebra (Diophantus, 3rd century AD).[27]

The numerals used in the Bakhshali manuscript, dated between the 2nd century BC and the 2nd century AD.

The Hindu–Arabic numeral system and the rules for the use of its operations, in use
throughout the world today, evolved over the course of the first millennium AD in India and
were transmitted to the Western world via Islamic mathematics.[28] Other notable
developments of Indian mathematics include the modern definition and approximation
of sine and cosine,[28] and an early form of infinite series.
 A page from al-Khwārizmī's Algebra

During the Golden Age of Islam, especially during the 9th and 10th centuries, mathematics
saw many important innovations building on Greek mathematics. The most notable
achievement of Islamic mathematics was the development of algebra. Other notable
achievements of the Islamic period are advances in spherical trigonometry and the addition of
the decimal point to the Arabic numeral system.[29][30] Many notable mathematicians from
this period were Persian, such as Al-Khwarismi, Omar Khayyam and Sharaf al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī.
During the early modern period, mathematics began to develop at an accelerating pace
in Western Europe. The development of calculus by Newton and Leibniz in the 17th century
revolutionized mathematics.[31] Leonhard Euler was the most notable mathematician of the
18th century, contributing numerous theorems and discoveries. [32] Perhaps the foremost
mathematician of the 19th century was the German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss,
[33] who made numerous contributions to fields such as algebra, analysis, differential
geometry, matrix theory, number theory, and statistics. In the early 20th century, Kurt
Gödel transformed mathematics by publishing his incompleteness theorems, which show in
part that any consistent axiomatic system—if powerful enough to describe arithmetic—will
contain true propositions that cannot be proved. [34]
Mathematics has since been greatly extended, and there has been a fruitful interaction
between mathematics and science, to the benefit of both. Mathematical discoveries continue
to be made today. According to Mikhail B. Sevryuk, in the January 2006 issue of the Bulletin
of the American Mathematical Society, "The number of papers and books included in
the Mathematical Reviews database since 1940 (the first year of operation of MR) is now
more than 1.9 million, and more than 75 thousand items are added to the database each
year. The overwhelming majority of works in this ocean contain new
mathematical theorems and their proofs."[35]
Etymology
The word mathematics comes from Ancient Greek máthēma (μάθημα), meaning "that which is
learnt,"[36] "what one gets to know," hence also "study" and "science". The word for
"mathematics" came to have the narrower and more technical meaning "mathematical study"
even in Classical times.[37] Its adjective is mathēmatikós (μαθηματικός), meaning "related to
learning" or "studious," which likewise further came to mean "mathematical." In
particular, mathēmatikḗ tékhnē (μαθηματικὴ τέχνη; Latin: ars mathematica) meant "the
mathematical art."
Similarly, one of the two main schools of thought in Pythagoreanism was known as
the mathēmatikoi (μαθηματικοί)—which at the time meant "learners" rather than
"mathematicians" in the modern sense.[38]
In Latin, and in English until around 1700, the term mathematics more commonly meant
"astrology" (or sometimes "astronomy") rather than "mathematics"; the meaning gradually
changed to its present one from about 1500 to 1800. This has resulted in several
mistranslations. For example, Saint Augustine's warning that Christians should beware
of mathematici, meaning astrologers, is sometimes mistranslated as a condemnation of
mathematicians.[39]
The apparent plural form in English, like the French plural form les mathématiques (and the
less commonly used singular derivative la mathématique), goes back to the
Latin neuter plural mathematica (Cicero), based on the Greek plural ta mathēmatiká (τὰ
μαθηματικά), used by Aristotle (384–322 BC), and meaning roughly "all things mathematical",
although it is plausible that English borrowed only the adjective mathematic(al) and formed
the noun mathematics anew, after the pattern of physics and metaphysics, which were
inherited from Greek.[40] In English, the noun mathematics takes a singular verb. It is often
shortened to maths or, in North America, math.[41]
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