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The history of mathematics deals with the origin of discoveries in mathematics and the mathematical methods and notation of the past.Before the modern age and the worldwide spread of knowledge, written examples of new mathematical developments have come to light only in a few locales.
The origin of a Cartesian coordinate system. In mathematics, the origin of a Euclidean space is a special point, usually denoted by the letter O, used as a fixed point of reference for the geometry of the surrounding space. In physical problems, the choice of origin is often arbitrary, meaning any choice of origin will ultimately give the same ...
Many areas of mathematics began with the study of real world problems, before the underlying rules and concepts were identified and defined as abstract structures.For example, geometry has its origins in the calculation of distances and areas in the real world; algebra started with methods of solving problems in arithmetic.
Although mathematics is extensively used for modeling phenomena, the fundamental truths of mathematics are independent of any scientific experimentation. Some areas of mathematics, such as statistics and game theory , are developed in close correlation with their applications and are often grouped under applied mathematics .
Within the counting system used with most discrete objects (including animals like sheep), there was a token for one item (units), a different token for ten items (tens), a different token for six tens (sixties), etc. Tokens of different sizes and shapes were used to record higher groups of ten or six in a sexagesimal number system.
Later, René Descartes (17th century) introduced the modern notation (for example, the use of x—see below) and showed that the problems occurring in geometry can be expressed and solved in terms of algebra (Cartesian geometry). Equally important as the use or lack of symbolism in algebra was the degree of the equations that were addressed.
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Greek mathematics refers to mathematics texts and ... The development of mathematics as a theoretical discipline and the use of deductive reasoning in proofs is an ...