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Was math invented or discovered?

"Why was math invented? How was it invented?," asked a student at the Schaumburg Township District Library's Summer Science program.

Steve Condie, math teacher at the Illinois Math and Science Academy in Aurora, asks readers to consider these two perspectives: "Are there numbers, lines, shapes, etc. in nature? Did humans just discover and describe these mathematically, or did humans invent these things?"

Ancient cultures as far back as 50,000 years ago developed the concept of more or less - math at its very beginnings.

"The more advanced the culture, the more advanced and sophisticated the math is in that culture. The great civilizations in antiquity had very advanced math knowledge," Wilfredo Romero Urbino, associate professor of math at Chicago's Roosevelt University, said in describing the evolution of math. "The Egyptians, the Babylonians and the Persians had important advances in math. With the Greeks, thanks to their great development in geometry and the deductive model in math, the basis of today's math was born. Important advances were obtained in China and in India; for instance, the decimal number system, which was introduced by the Arabs in Europe, but it was developed in India."

Math knowledge has grown as civilizations exchanged ideas. Around A.D. 1,000, Al-Biruni, a math, astronomy and physics expert from the Middle East, adopted the centuries-old Indian numbering system, which included the concept of zero. Zero was first used to show increasing place values like 10, 100, and 1,000. Zero then became a designated symbol for no value.

Condie assigns credit for math's evolutionary process to a host of notable mathematicians.

"History is full of men and women who worked very hard to describe the world using mathematics," he said. "These people are the 'inventors' of mathematics: Euclid, Gauss, Newton, and even currently people like Terence Tao and Maryam Mirzakhani; look these people up to find out about their incredible mathematical discoveries."

Condie encourages students to discover the fun in math.

"Mathematics is used in many fields, including engineering, all the sciences, computer programming, and many others. However, to my way of thinking, we study mathematics to sharpen our mental processes and learn about the history of thought. There are lots of ways to strengthen mathematical thinking skills that are fun. Read books by Martin Gardner, John Conway, Ian Stewart or even Lewis Caroll; play games such as Set, Go, Chess, or Blokus; do mathematical puzzles like Rubik's Cube or those topological puzzles where you have to remove a ring or separate two pieces that seem inseparable."

Steve Butler, assistant professor in the math department at Iowa State University, a top-ranked math and engineering school, confirms math helps us to hone problem-solving skills and draws a connection between mastery of math skills and mastering any challenge.

"In this sense, mathematics is somewhat like climbing in the mountains. We see in the distance a beautiful peak that we want to get to, so we start moving towards it following the well-worn paths of people who have come before us," Butler said. "As we move closer to the top, the paths disappear and soon we are working hard, stumbling around, occasionally getting lost. But eventually, if we keep working hard enough, we make it to the top. Once we are there we quickly catch our breath and then look around and see another interesting peak, and off we go again."

The Illinois Math and Science Academy, a state-funded boarding school for 10th through 12th graders, invites top-performing students to experience a rigorous, STEM-focused academic curriculum. Math courses include Mathematical Investigations, Number Theory and Differential Equations. Students also take classes in foreign language, fine arts, English, social studies and social science and develop independent research projects. Founded in 1985, IMSA's models of teaching and learning are recognized nationally and abroad. The school consistently is a top-performer in state scholastic bowl competitions and math contests.

Condie, an IMSA faculty member for the past 20 years, says he learns as much from IMSA's students as they learn from him.

"The students here have great curiosity and creativity that keeps me on my toes constantly," he said. "They have great enthusiasm for learning and our graduates are literally changing the world."

Check it out

The Schaumburg Township District Library kidsZone suggests these titles on math:

• "Wild Fibonacci: Nature's Secret Code Revealed" by Joy N. Hulme and Carol Schwartz

• "Ancient Computing (Ancient Technology)" by Michael Woods

• "The History of Counting" by Denise Schmandt-Besserat

• "The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos" by Deborah Heiligman

• "Fun with Roman Numerals" by David A. Adler

Math competitions

Clifford Bergman, Janson professor of mathematics and department chair at Iowa State University, suggests these math competitions for middle and high school students to help them add on to their math skills:

• Mathematical Association of America: <a href="http://www.maa.org">www.maa.org</a>. Exams for middle and high school students. High school exams are qualifiers for the International Math Olympiad U.S. team selection.

• Mandelbrot Competition: <a href="http://www.mandelbrot.org">www.mandelbrot.org</a>. Resuming in 2017, this program offers individual and team high school competitions.

• The USA Mathematical Talent Search: <a href="http://www.usamts.org">www.usamts.org</a>. Competitions for middle and high school students.

• The Purple Comet: <a href="http://purplecomet.org">purplecomet.org</a>. Free team math competitions for middle and high school students.

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