The Summary - carina-wirtley/Group-Wiki-Project-1 GitHub Wiki

In Greece, Pythagoras made a huge impact on mathematics, creating a religion called Pythagoreanism around them. He believed numbers to have a divine quality. The Greeks did not accept the number 0. They did not think it had any purpose. Due to this they were unable to understand infinity either. Despite that, they made great mathematical advancements. The most noticeable is by Pythagoras, who had a religious belief in numbers themselves.

In India, Indo-Aryan people migrated from modern-day Iran to India in around 1500 BC, establishing the Vedic Religion, a polytheistic sacrificial religion involving the worship of numerous male divinities, most of whom were connected with the sky and natural phenomena. This era, known as the Vedic age, produced the Vedas, sacred texts that provide early evidence of Indian culture and mathematics. Jainism began to rise in the 6th century AD, which introduced advanced concepts like multiple infinities and early permutations and combinations. Around the 6th century AD amid political turmoil, the previous mathematic advancements for the past thousand years were being summarized by a mathematician, Aryabhata, and initiated a 600-year era of intellectual resurgence in India.

In the Americas, the Mayans developed a rich culture marked by advanced mathematical and astronomical knowledge, deeply intertwined with their religious beliefs. Their numerical system, utilizing dots and lines to represent numbers and incorporating a placeholder for zero, was effective for calculations and essential for their complex calendrical systems. They created three distinct calendars: the Tzolk'in (a 260-day sacred calendar used for rituals), the Haab' (a 365-day solar calendar), and the Long Count calendar, which tracked historical time. Their astronomy was remarkably accurate, enabling them to calculate celestial events and align them with their religious practices. Overall, Mayan mathematics and astronomy were crucial for creating calendars that governed both daily life and spiritual rituals, reflecting a connection between their scientific pursuits and religious beliefs.

Hypatia, born around 355 AD, is known as the first female mathematician. She was the daughter of Theonand, who was involved in the famous Euclid's Elements, and she became a respected teacher who kept her students entertained in her lectures. She practiced paganism despite rising Christianity and in doing so, faced hostility from Christians, ultimately leading to her brutal kidnapping and death in 415 AD. She was a Neoplatonist, meaning she believed in the spiritual significance of mathematics. Her notable contributions include revising her father's commentary on Ptolemy’s Almagest, where she introduced a tabular method for long division, and writing a commentary on Diophantus's Arithmetica, featuring 100 algebraic problems for students. Hypatia’s work encompassed astronomy, geometry, advanced algebra, and improved computational techniques, solidifying her legacy as a pioneering figure in mathematics and philosophy.