Blog Post 1
Throughout history, there have been many different cultures doing math in many different ways. I would like to talk about a few of these and what they contributed to mathematics as a whole. I would first like to start with the Egyptians. The Egyptians were one of the first cultures to introduce a base 10 numeral system. They used different symbols to represent each multiple of 10. So there was one symbol for 1, a symbol for 10, a symbol for 100, and so on. You could write 10 using one symbol, but in order to write down 9, you would have to use 9 of the "1" symbols. This doesn't seem to bad, but when you get into the bigger numbers, there is a lot of writing for just one simple number.
When we look at the ancient Mayans, we think of the Mayan Calendar. Their calendar ended in 2012 and people thought that this was going to be the end of the world. It consisted of 3 different calendars that were used simultaneously to find the correct date. This shows the high capability of math that the Mayans were doing. They also came up with a base 20 number system. Some people see this same system as a base 5. They only used 3 symbols in the system. There is a shell for 0, a dot for 1, and a line for 5. This made adding very easy because you would just count the dots and the lines. The Mayans also calculated the length of a year and a month using only sticks. Their results were extremely close to the ones we use now.
When we look at the ancient Mayans, we think of the Mayan Calendar. Their calendar ended in 2012 and people thought that this was going to be the end of the world. It consisted of 3 different calendars that were used simultaneously to find the correct date. This shows the high capability of math that the Mayans were doing. They also came up with a base 20 number system. Some people see this same system as a base 5. They only used 3 symbols in the system. There is a shell for 0, a dot for 1, and a line for 5. This made adding very easy because you would just count the dots and the lines. The Mayans also calculated the length of a year and a month using only sticks. Their results were extremely close to the ones we use now.
These posts are evaluated by:
ReplyDeleteClear- if this shows up as an issue, it’s usually about spelling, grammar or structure.
Coherent- has a point and an objective
Complete- looks like 2 hours of work, attends to necessary bits for the point. Sharing your thinking, always a good idea. Cite images or websites you used or referenced.
Content- math and teaching ideas are accurate. (Does not mean no math mistakes. Mistakes are how we get better!)
Consolidated- writing has an end. Synthesize the ideas, pose remaining questions, etc. Sometimes I recommend one or more of: 1) What did I say/do?, 2) Why is it important?, 3) What comes next?
On first writing these are just for feedback. At the end of the semester you pick 3 posts for exemplars. Those can be revised from feedback or just ones you write taking into account the feedback now.
This is a great topic, but you'd want a fair bit more content to be complete. Pictures especially, I think. WikiCommons has some copyright free images. You can also screenshot by doing some inputting into Wolfram Alpha. (eg http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Babylonian+6)
2/5