Although for some people the world of mathematics may seem convoluted and the problems, numbers and operations may not seem very attractive, the truth is that mathematics is very interesting. Here are some curiosities that you may have never heard of, pay attention!
- More than 400 years ago the English mathematician Robert Recorde invented the two dashes = that we use in any operation, to indicate equality because “two things cannot be more equal than two parallel lines”.
- Negative numbers originated in India in the year 628, when the Indian mathematician and astronomer Brahmagupta considered that they could be an indicator of debts.
- Zero was born in India, but spread to Europe thanks to the Italian mathematician Fibonacci, who popularized its use to designate an empty quantity. The word comes from the Arabic sifr meaning void, passed into Latin as zephyrum, then as zefiro in Italian and finally zero.
- Carl Gauss, one of the greatest mathematicians in history, wrote a letter to his friend in which he stated that mathematics is “the queen of the sciences and number theory is the queen of mathematics”.
- The number Pi was calculated by Archimedes of Syracuse, who, absorbed in his work, did not notice the entrance of the Roman soldiers in the then Greek city of Syracuse. Pi Number Day coincides with Albert Einstein’s birth date, March 14, 1879.
Have you heard of any of these curiosities before? Which ones did you find most interesting? Perhaps on the Smile and Learn platform you will find other interesting curiosities in our math games section. If you haven’t tried our educational platform yet, you can do it for free by filling out the following form this form.
