Numbers

In this section you’ll learn from what did the math start developing as exact science. First thing you need to start dealing with are numbers.

Of course, as you may guess, numbers are one of the most important things that people came up with in ages. First people used lines as numbers, for counting almost anything. They marked the amount of food they had compared that with numbers they used to mark and then they knew exactly how many food they needed in order to survive long winters or trips. Of course, today we use numbers in many different modern ways. Just try to picture a world without numbers, you would never know what time is it, you wouldn’t know how much something costs, you couldn’t count, measure, almost nothing. If people never came up with an idea of writing the amounts of something or measure things they see, none of the most important sciences would exist today.

For the world we know today it wasn’t enough only to write numbers and possess the knowledge of counting. As the market evolved, trading was replaced with buying and selling goods with coins. For these two operations it was necessary to know how to add and subtract money. As you can imagine, subtracting and adding wasn’t so easy to invent. People used many things that can help them in that process, like abacus or sticks and stones.

Arithmetic evolved a lot through the years, as the need for larger numbers and different operations emerged. As the businesses of people evolved the hierarchy of employers and employees came to be, and the salaries had to be paid. For this, the money earned had to be fairly divided between the workers. For this need, people developed multiplication and division. In one time of history, people knew only of these four operations. Again, this wasn’t enough. When things couldn’t be equally divided into a set number of parts, fractions and decimals came on the stage. Just think how magnificent it is that from these simple operations whole math and the world evolved. Of course, not everything was simple. Everyone that dealt with math had to put everything they had into creating something new. Starting from the scratch is never easy, but think of how their effort made living easier and that with learning what they discovered is benefiting you and enriches your brain. 

As your knowledge of mathematics grows, you’ll get to know many different kinds of numbers, some you already know and can find in nature, some less common and some you maybe don’t quite understand why they exist. Don’t worry if you have any questions or doubts, we are here to help.

Come with us on an exciting adventure through the world of numbers and the first steps in understanding everything.