History of mathematics
The study of how mathematical ideas, methods, and institutions developed across cultures and historical periods.
Babylonian mathematics: Mathematics practiced in ancient Mesopotamia, including base-60 calculation, tables, and methods for solving problems. Its cuneiform tablets preserve some of the earliest extensive mathematical records.
Prehistoric numeracy: The use of counting, grouping, and quantity concepts before written records. It marks the deep roots of mathematical practices beyond documented civilizations.
Euclid: An ancient Greek mathematician associated with the systematic geometry presented in the Elements. His work became a durable model for organizing mathematics deductively.
Mathematical proof: A deductive argument establishing that a mathematical statement follows from accepted assumptions and rules. Changing standards of proof help explain differences among mathematical traditions.
Algebra: A branch of mathematics that studies operations and relations using symbols and general rules. Its historical formation joined diverse equation-solving traditions into a broad discipline.
Egyptian mathematics: Mathematical practices of ancient Egypt, documented in sources such as the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus. Its surviving texts reveal practical arithmetic, measurement, and fraction methods.
Cuneiform: A writing system made by pressing wedge-shaped marks into clay, used across ancient Mesopotamia. Clay tablets written in cuneiform preserve early mathematical procedures and tables.
Al-Khwarizmi: A ninth-century mathematician and scholar whose works helped establish algebra and Hindu-Arabic calculation in the Islamic world. His writings transmitted influential methods for equations and computation.
Numeral system: A set of symbols and rules for representing numbers and performing operations. Different numeral systems shaped which calculations were practical and efficient.
Calculus: A branch of mathematics concerned with change, accumulation, derivatives, and integrals. Its emergence altered mathematical analysis and the quantitative study of nature.