Cameron Dunlap’s Reviews > An Introduction to the History of Mathematics > Status Update

I am finishing my time reading this book through, as it is still perplexing me further. I have finished reading on the development of ever increasingly accurate values for pi until modern times.

Still quite dull, but I have just reached a new chapter. It is currently going over briefly the history of diplomatic and combative affairs of Greece with neighboring nations, especially the war with the Persian empire.

The book at this point currently discusses the feats of the Pythagoreans. Most recently that I recall, they discovered the existence of highly controversial (and nowadays trivial) irrational numbers. I have begun to lost interest, though, as a lot of this book transcends my understanding.

The book is still discussing ancient civilized people’s and their sophistication through mathematics. Apparently the Babylonians found a large number of primitive Pythagorean triples before phythagoras lived, all in base 60 as well. Hopefully it will get to the Greek and Roman mathematics shortly.

So far, the discussion has been the ancient counting systems of various civilized peoples. Many of these systems work in ways that seem odd in the modern base 10 system, such as the Babylonian sexagesimal scale (Used today in measurements of minutes and seconds). So far some things peak my interest and I find the numerous visual examples to be a great aid.