| Every culture on earth has developed some mathematics. In
some cases, this mathematics has spread from one culture to
another. Now there is one predominant international mathematics,
and this mathematics has quite a history. It has roots in
ancient Egypt and Babylonia, then grew rapidly in ancient
Greece. Mathematics written in ancient Greek was translated
into Arabic. About the same time some mathematics of India
was translated into Arabic. Later some of this mathematics
was translated into Latin and became the mathematics of Western
Europe. Over a period of several hundred years, it became
the mathematics of the world.
There are other places in the world that developed significant
mathematics, such as China, southern India, and Japan, and
they are interesting to study, but the mathematics of the
other regions have not had much influence on current international
mathematics. There is, of course, much mathematics being
done these and other regions, but it is not the traditional
math of the regions, but international mathematics.
By far, the most significant development in mathematics
was giving it firm logical foundations. This took place
in ancient Greece in the centuries preceding Euclid. See
Euclid's Elements. Logical foundations give mathematics
more than just certainty-they are a tool to investigate
the unknown.
By the 20th century the edge of that unknown had receded
to where only a few could see. One was David Hilbert, a
leading mathematician of the turn of the century. In 1900
he addressed the International Congress of Mathematicians
in Paris, and described 23 important mathematical problems.
Mathematics continues to grow at a phenomenal rate. There
is no end in sight, and the application of mathematics to
science becomes greater all the time. 1 2
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