Thursday, September 20, 2007

Humorous short history of mathematics

Enjoy:

A Very Short History of Mathematics

This is how it starts:

MATHEMATICS is very much older than History, which begins* in +1066, as is well known; for the first mathematician of any note was a Greek named Zeno, who was born in -494, just 1,559 years earlier. Zeno is memorable for proving three theorems: (i) that motion is impossible; (ii) that Achilles can never catch the tortoise (he failed to notice that this follows from his first theorem); and (iii) that half the time may be equal to double the time. This was not considered a very good start by the other Greeks, so they turned their attention to Geometry.

continue here...

Hat Tip to Let's Play Math.

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