"Math" and "Maths" redirect here.
For other uses, see Mathematics
(disambiguation) and Math (disambiguation).
Illuminated letter P at the beginning of Adelard of Bath's
translation of Euclid's Elements, which starts "Punctum est illud cui pars non est" (A point is that
which has no part).[1]Geometry is shown personified as a woman, following Martianus
Capella's De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii.[2]
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Mathematics is a field of knowledge concerned with abstract concepts such as
numbers, geometric shapes, sets, functions, and probabilities. It uses logical reasoning
and proof to study and establish their properties, often expressed as theorems,
formulas, and equations. Mathematics is used to model and solve problems in science,
engineering, technology, economics, and everyday life.
There are many areas of mathematics, including number theory (the study of integers
and their properties), algebra (the study of operations and the structures they
form), geometry (the study of shapes and spaces that contain them), analysis(the study
of approximating continuous changes), and set theory (presently used as a foundation
for all mathematics).
Mathematics involves the description and manipulation of abstract objects that are
either abstractions from nature or purely abstract entities that are stipulated to have
certain properties, called axioms. Mathematics uses pure reason to prove the properties
of objects through proofs, which consist of a succession of applications of deductive
rules to already established results. These results, called theorems, include previously
proved theorems, axioms, and—in case of abstraction from nature—some basic
properties that are considered true starting points of the theory under consideration. [3]
Mathematics is essential in the natural
sciences, engineering, medicine, finance, computer science, and the social sciences.
Although mathematics is widely used to model empirical phenomena, its results are
established by deductive proof rather than by experiment. The relationship between
mathematical truth, logic, and reality is a subject of philosophical debate. Some areas of
mathematics, such as game theory, are developed in close correlation with their
applications and are often grouped under applied mathematics. Other areas are
developed independently from any application but often find practical applications later. [4]
[5]
Mathematical written records first appeared in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, but the
concept of proof and its associated mathematical rigorbegan in Ancient Greek
mathematics, exemplified in Euclid's Elements.[6] Mathematics was primarily divided into
geometry and arithmetic until the 16th and 17th centuries, when
algebra[a] and infinitesimal calculus evolved into new fields. Since then, the interaction
between mathematical innovations and scientific discoveries has led to a correlated
increase in the development of both.[7] At the end of the 19th century, the foundational
crisis of mathematics led to the systematic use of the axiomatic method,[8] which
heralded a dramatic increase in the number of mathematical areas and their fields of
application. The contemporary Mathematics Subject Classification lists more than sixty
first-level areas of mathematics.[9][10]