16 replies to this topic

[Plenoptic]

Well the other day in my study hall after math, our teacher or watever his real title is, started talking about his course in "The History of Math." He brought up the point that at one point, math wasn't really used. If they were trading a goat for two cows but they wanted 4 cows, they would make two different trades. They wouldn't just trade 2 goats for 4 cows because math didn't occur. I don't really know if I got that story right but I think you see the point.

So after hearing that, I started thinking, would life really be all that simple without math? I mean we don't really know what we are missing until it's missing. But there wouldn't be equations or anything to figure out problems. Proper dimensions when building something wouldn't really be available. Systematic systems in factories based on precision wouldn't really be available. It's sort of hard to imagine or even for me to explain. There wouldn't really be a currency, just trading one thing for another maybe.

That'd be one less course to learn in school, in fact a lot less. You wouldn't have physics, not really much of chemistry, or other equations in science. Anything in which math is involved in the creation of will not be existant. But would we miss it? Of course, even back thousands of years there was a math of some sort, just counting is math. Someone would come up with something eventually because it makes our lives easier and that's what people strive for.

[Tetraca]

Without math we'd be reduced to simple huns, if that. Without math, there is no architecture, no computers, no currency, and possibly even greater complications due to the lack of even simple arithmatic.

[cangor]

Yeah, pretty much everything nowdays is based on math. I mean, no math means no measuring, which means no delicious cheezy puffs sold by weight, and so they'd have no way to sell cheezy puffs fairly. Plus, you couldn't design cheezy puff making machines with out math (as Tetraca said, architecture) because you couldn't design any type of complex machine, so there wouldn't even be delicious cheezy puffs in the first place.

Basically, no area of life would remain the same.

[vintedois]

There´s no World without math, it is the language of nature, everything can be explained by numbers. It explains it all, and everything can be explained by it even grammar or art.

Like, why do we like DaVinci´s paintings? Because it matches the Fibonacci Mask...

If you apply number variables to classes of words, you´ll be able to create a formula to sentences, and it would be always 100% correct...

Don´t take math for granted, it´s in everything and everywhere...

Cheers.

[Striker9099]

Plenoptic, on Jul 12 2007, 01:33 AM, said:

Well the other day in my study hall after math, our teacher or watever his real title is, started talking about his course in "The History of Math." He brought up the point that at one point, math wasn't really used. If they were trading a goat for two cows but they wanted 4 cows, they would make two different trades. They wouldn't just trade 2 goats for 4 cows because math didn't occur. I don't really know if I got that story right but I think you see the point.

So after hearing that, I started thinking, would life really be all that simple without math? I mean we don't really know what we are missing until it's missing. But there wouldn't be equations or anything to figure out problems. Proper dimensions when building something wouldn't really be available. Systematic systems in factories based on precision wouldn't really be available. It's sort of hard to imagine or even for me to explain. There wouldn't really be a currency, just trading one thing for another maybe.

That'd be one less course to learn in school, in fact a lot less. You wouldn't have physics, not really much of chemistry, or other equations in science. Anything in which math is involved in the creation of will not be existant. But would we miss it? Of course, even back thousands of years there was a math of some sort, just counting is math. Someone would come up with something eventually because it makes our lives easier and that's what people strive for.

Well the way I see it, life would be impossible! ok now I hate math so much and I wish it wasn't there at some points when my teacher starts talking about stuff I just can't understand... but we have to admit that math is the mother of all other sciences. everything needs math to complete it and make it better. physics and chemistry wouldn't exist without math. houses would fall on our heads if there wasn't such thing called math. alot of things would've changed. our life would be very primitive as if we were cavemen! moreover, math equals logical reasoning, so without math we won't have logic and without logic even our values and principles would be messed up.

[TikiPrincess]

Math is simply a way for us to translate and categorize the things that occur naturally. People had houses before the discovery of simple arithmatic. Yeah, so they didn't have skyscrapers or the Internet, but they eked out a living.

On a side note, one of my math instructors talked about the usefulness of numbers as opposed to Roman numerals. Can you imagine having to multiply XLCIII by M?

[AndrewM]

I don't like math, but, if there was none at all, I mean, what would life be like?

So yeah, basically without numbers, equations, etc, we would be hundreds of years behind technology, possibly thousands! I don't get what you ment by the 4 cows 2 goats thing though lol

[linekill]

i commend you for this wonderful topic. !!


What will be the world without math? (Although its inevitable for humanity to not discover math, it still is a good question.) We'd be reduced to just being savages. We'll only live to eat and be eaten. We'd only be like a pack of animals looking for ways to survive on earth.

And also, w/o math we wont be having this thread thinking what the world will be w/o math...

[mandyyx]

A world without math.. Hm. That's hard to imagine. Everything would just fall apart without math. Or, they wouldn't be there to begin with. Most of the things we have today, like technology and such inventions wouldn't be here right now if there wasn't such a thing as math. And as much as I hate math, because it's so difficult, I can see why the world needs it.

[amit nigam]

hello friends,

the topic started by my dear friend plenoptic is, i can say, quite awry..... quiet sort of inconceivable... why??? because mathematics is so much entrenched in our life that it is tough to even think of a situation when there is no mathematics...

by the way i am a firm believer in the fact that mathematics is not just the language of the world but the whole universe.... again yuo can ask why??? because of the fact that everything around us in the universe fits so well in terms of mathematics, after we discover in mathematical terms about that particular thing, that i feel that mathematics is not something invented by us humans, but it is some sort of inherent property of the universe that we just discovered and are still discovering in certain areas....

because if mathematics would have been something invented by us then i feel that each and every region in the world must have been having there own form of mathematics, like we have different languages... but since mathematics was discovered, therefore whether it was calculus discovered by newton in England or value of pie discovered by aryabhatta in India, all are consistent... because mathematics is the common language throughout the universe...

that is why one of my favorite pictures is "contact", because the same point is used in there....

by the way i feel that, as in the topic, if there would have been no mathematics in our lives then i feel that there would have been no difference between a human being and say aaaaaaaaa rattle snake...

ok bye friends.... keep writing..