Mathematics (from Greek (mthma) knowledge, study, learning) is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change.

e.[2][3] Mathematicians seek out patterns[4][5] and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity. The research required to solve mathematical problems can take years or even centuries of sustained inquiry. However, mathematical proofs are less formal and painstaking than proofs in mathematical logic. Since the pioneering work of Giuseppe Peano, David Hilbert, and others on axiomatic systems in the late 19th century, it has become customary to view mathematical research as establishing truth by rigorous deduction from appropriately chosen axioms and definitions. When those mathematical structures are good models of real phenomena, then mathematical reasoning often provides insight or predictions. Through the use of abstraction and logical reasoning, mathematics evolved from counting, calculation, measurement, and the systematic study of the shapes and motions of physical objects. Practical mathematics has been a human activity for as far back as written records exist. Rigorous arguments first appeared in Greek mathematics, most notably in Euclid's Elements. Mathematics continued to develop, for example in China in 300 BC, in India in AD 100[citation needed], and in the Muslim world in AD 800, until the Renaissance, when mathematical innovations interacting with new scientific discoveries led to a rapid increase in the rate of mathematical discovery that continues to the present day.[6] The mathematician Benjamin Peirce called mathematics "the science that draws necessary conclusions".[7] David Hilbert defined mathematics as follows: We are not speaking here of arbitrariness in any sense. Mathematics is not like a game whose tasks are determined by arbitrarily stipulated rules. Rather, it is a conceptual system possessing internal necessity that can only be so and by no means otherwise.[8] Albert Einstein stated that "as far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."[9] Mathematics is used throughout the world as an essential tool in many fields, including natural science, engineering, medicine, and the social sciences. Applied mathematics, the branch of mathematics concerned with application of mathematical knowledge to other fields, inspires and makes use of new mathematical discoveries and sometimes leads to the development of entirely new mathematical disciplines, such as statistics and game theory. Mathematicians also engage in pure mathematics, or mathematics for its own sake, without having any application in mind. There is no clear line separating pure and applied mathematics, and practical applications for what began as pure mathematics are often discovered.[10]

Etymology

The word "mathematics" comes from the Greek (mthma), which means in ancient Greek what one learns, what one gets to know, hence also study and science, and in modern Greek just lesson. The word mthma comes from (manthano) in ancient Greek and from (mathaino) in modern Greek, both of which mean to learn. The word "mathematics" in Greek came to have the narrower and more technical meaning "mathematical study", even in Classical times.[11] Its adjective is (mathmatiks), meaning related to learning or studious, which likewise further came to mean mathematical. In particular, (mathmatik tkhn), Latin: ars mathematica, meant the mathematical art. In Latin, and in English until around 1700, the term "mathematics" more commonly meant "astrology" (or sometimes "astronomy") rather than "mathematics"; the meaning gradually changed to its present one from about 1500 to 1800. This has resulted in several mistranslations: a particularly notorious one is Saint Augustine's warning that Christians should beware of "mathematici" meaning astrologers, which is sometimes mistranslated as a condemnation of mathematicians. The apparent plural form in English, like the French plural form les mathmatiques (and the less commonly used singular derivative la mathmatique), goes back to the Latin neuter plural mathematica (Cicero), based on the Greek plural (ta mathmatik), used by Aristotle, and meaning roughly "all things mathematical"; although it is plausible that English borrowed only the adjective mathematic(al) and formed the noun mathematics anew, after the pattern of physics and metaphysics, which were inherited from the Greek.[12] In English, the noun mathematics takes singular verb forms. It is often shortened to maths or, in English-speaking North America, mat

HISTORY The evolution of mathematics might be seen as an ever-increasing series of abstractions, or alternatively an expansion of subject matter. The first abstraction, which is shared by many animals,[13] was probably that of numbers: the realization that a collection of two apples and a collection of two oranges (for example) have something in common, namely quantity of their members. In addition to recognizing how to count physical objects, prehistoric peoples also recognized how to count abstract quantities, like time days, seasons, years.[14] Elementary arithmetic (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) naturally followed. Since numeracy pre-dated writing, further steps were needed for recording numbers such as tallies or the knotted strings called quipu used by the Inca to store numerical data.[citation needed] Numeral systems have been many and diverse, with the first known written

numerals created by Egyptians in Middle Kingdom texts such as the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus.[citation needed]

Mayan numerals The earliest uses of mathematics were in trading, land measurement, painting and weaving patterns and the recording of time. More complex mathematics did not appear until around 3000 BC, when the Babylonians and Egyptians began using arithmetic, algebra and geometry for taxation and other financial calculations, for building and construction, and for astronomy.[15] The systematic study of mathematics in its own right began with the Ancient Greeks between 600 and 300 BC.[16] Mathematics has since been greatly extended, and there has been a fruitful interaction between mathematics and science, to the benefit of both. Mathematical discoveries continue to be made today. According to Mikhail B. Sevryuk, in the January 2006 issue of the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, "The number of papers and books included in the Mathematical Reviews database since 1940 (the first year of operation of MR) is now more than 1.9 million, and more than 75 thousand items are added to the database each year. The overwhelming majority of works in this ocean contain new mathematical theorems and their proofs."[17]

Introduction to the special theme: Maths for Everyday Life

Introduction to the Special Theme Mathematics is in principle inexpensive. As the old joke says, a mathematician needs only paper, a pencil, an easy chair and a waste basket. Also, the criterion for success in

mathematics is by and large universally accepted. This makes mathematics an attractive 'investment'. Moreover, a mathematical result is valid forever. It may fall out of fashion, or fall outside the current area of application, but even the oldest known mathematical formulae - such as that for solving quadratic equations, known 2400 years ago by Babylonians, Chinese and later the Greeks before being crystallized into its present form in 1100 AD by a Hindu mathematician called Baskhara - are the bread and butter of present-day elementary mathematics. Alas, the downside is that the results are usually not immediately applicable and therein lies the risk. Who wants to 'invest' in something that may not lead to applications for several hundred years? The good news is that the distance between theory and application is becoming shorter and shorter. Mathematics can be compared to a pyramid. On the top of the pyramid are applications of mathematics to health, weather, movies and mobile phones. However the top of this pyramid would not be so high if its base were not so wide. Only by extending the width of the base can we eventually build the top higher. This special feature of mathematics derives from its internal structure. A good modern application of mathematics can typically draw from differential equations, numerical analysis and linear algebra. These may very well draw from graph theory, group theory and complex analysis. These in turn rest on the firm basis of number theory, topology and geometry. Going deeper and deeper into the roots of the mathematics, one ends up with such cornerstones of logic as model theory and set theory. It is clear that mathematics is heavily used in large industrial projects and in the evergrowing electronic infrastructure that surrounds us. However, mathematics is also increasingly infiltrating smaller scale circles, such as doctors' reception rooms, sailboat design and of course all kinds of portable devices. There has also been a change in the way mathematics penetrates our society. The oldest applications of mathematics were probably in various aspects of measurement, such as measuring area, price, length or time. This has led to tremendously successful mathematical theories of equations, dynamical systems and so on. In today's world, we already know pretty accurately for example the make-up of the human genome, yet we are just taking the first steps in understanding the mathematics behind this incredibly complex structure of three billion DNA base pairs. Our understanding of the mathematics of the whole universe of heavenly bodies, even going back in time to the first second of its existence, is better than our understanding of the mathematics of our own genes and bodies. What is the difference between the hereditary information encoded in DNA and the information we have about the movements of the heavenly bodies? Is it that we have been able to encapsulate the latter into simple equations, but not the former? Or is it perhaps that the latter has a completely different nature than the former, one that makes it susceptible to study in terms of equations, while the former comes from a world governed by chance, and algorithms, a world of digital data, where the methods of the continuous world do not apply? Another well-known instance of mathematics in society is cryptography in its various guises. There exist numerous situations in which data must be encrypted such that it can

be publicly transmitted without revealing the content. On the other hand, sometimes a party may find it vitally important to break a code that another party has devised for its protection. Some companies want to examine the data of our credit card purchases in order to have access to our shopping patterns. Some governments want to do the same with regard to what they deem less innocuous patterns of behaviour. Cryptography is a typical example of the mathematics of the digital world. Digital data has become important in almost all fields of learning, a natural consequence of advances in computer technology. This has undoubtedly influenced the way people look at fields of mathematics such as number theory, that were previously thought to be very pure and virtually devoid of applications, good or bad. Now suddenly everybody in the possession of big primes has someone looking over their shoulder. This infiltration is quite remarkable and elevates mathematics to a different position from that which it previously occupied. Mathematics is no longer a strange otherworldly subject, practised by a few curious geniuses but for most people best left alone. The spread of microprocessors into every conceivable aspect of our everyday life has brought heavy-duty computing into our homes, into our classrooms and into scientific laboratories of all kinds. Naturally it is unnecessary for everyone to understand all this computing, which can take place in microseconds without our noticing. But it means that anyone who refuses to acknowledge the role of mathematics will see the changing technosphere as something strange and in the worst case as something irrational or even frightening. A very good way to understand and come to terms with an important aspect of modern life our ever-growing dependence on interpreting digital data is to have a basic knowledge of mathematics. Basic knowledge: what does this mean and how is it attained? Clearly, this takes us into the realm of mathematics education. Strictly speaking, education is not an application of mathematics, but it is nevertheless of increasing importance to the mathematical world. Every time the OECDs PISA (Programme for International Students Assessment) results arrive, some people ask why some countries always seem to score highly in the mathematical skills of 15-year-olds. Without attempting to answer this difficult question, one must admit that it is important and that maths education will face huge challenges in the future, not least because of the infiltration of mathematics into all levels of society. This infiltration clearly has much to do with the revolution triggered by the development of computers over the last fifty years. Has this revolution arrived in schools, and in maths education? Most students now own a computer with an Internet connection. This is used for games, chatting, text processing and surfing, but do they use the computer for mathematics? Are mathematical modeling (ambitious problem solving) or algorithmic thinking (expressing mathematics in such a way that the computer can handle it) taught at school? There is much that can be done here, in curricula, in textbooks and in everyday life at school. In this special issue on Mathematics for Everyday Life, we present a selection of mathematical projects that are in some way relevant, directly or indirectly, to our everyday lives. We start with projects that have applications in the health sector and continue with the closely related topic of image processing. We then go on to the timely

topic of weather (one of the prime examples of large-scale computing), the effects of which are immediately felt when the beach turns into a swamp, contrary to the weather report. We present three projects in transportation, one on ships, one on trains and one on cars. In the section on society we touch upon topics like rating, trading and immigration. We also include two articles on the topic of mathematics education. The special issue ends with an article on a little mystery inside mathematics.

Historical tradition
The evolution of mathematical practice was slow, and some contributors to modern mathematics did not follow even the practice of their time, e.g. Pierre de Fermat who was infamous for withholding his proofs, but nonetheless had a vast reputation for correct assertions of results. Likewise there is contrast between the practices of Pythagoras and Euclid. While Euclid was the originator of what we now understand as the published geometric proof, Pythagoras created a closed community and suppressed results; he is even said to have drowned a student in a barrel for revealing the existence of irrational numbers. Modern mathematicians admire Euclid's practices, and usually frown on those of both Fermat and Pythagoras. Nonetheless, all three are considered important contributors to mathematics, despite the variance in method. One motivation to study mathematical practice is that, despite much work in the 20th century, some still feel that the foundations of mathematics remain unclear and ambiguous. One proposed remedy is to shift focus to some degree onto 'what is meant by a proof', and other such questions of method. If mathematics has been informally used throughout history, in numerous cultures and continents, then it could be argued that "mathematical practice" is the practice, or use, of mathematics in everyday life. One definition of mathematical practice, as described above, is the "working practices of professional mathematicians." However, another definition, more in keeping with the predominant usage of mathematics, is that mathematical practice is the everyday practice, or use, of math. Whether one is estimating the total cost of their groceries, calculating miles per gallon, or figuring out how many minutes on the treadmill that chocolate clair will require, math as used by most people relies less on proof than on practicality (i. e., does it answer the question?)

[edit] Teaching practice

Mathematical teaching usually requires the use of several important teaching pedagogies or components. Most GCSE, A-Level and undergraduate mathematics require the following components: 1. Textbooks or lecture notes which display the mathematical material to be covered/taught within the context of the teaching of mathematics. This requires that the mathematical content being taught at the (say) undergraduate level is of a

well documented and widely accepted nature that has been unanimously verified as being correct and meaningful within a mathematical context. 2. Workbooks. Usually, in order to ensure that students have an opportunity to learn and test the material that they have learnt, workbooks or question papers enable mathematical understanding to be tested. It is not unknown for exam papers to draw upon questions from such test papers, or to require prerequisite knowledge of such test papers for mathematical progression. 3. Exam papers and standardised (and preferably apolitical) testing methods. Often, within countries such as the US, the UK (and, in all likelihood, China) there are standardised qualifications, examinations and workbooks that form the concrete teaching materials needed for secondary-school and pre-university courses (for example, within the UK, all students are required to sit or take Scottish Highers/Advanced Highers, A-levels or their equivalent in order to ensure that a certain minimal level of mathematical competence in a wide variety of topics has been obtained). Note, however, that at the undergraduate, post-graduate and doctoral levels within these countries, there need not be any standardised process via which mathematicians of differing ability levels can be tested or examined. Other common test formats within the UK and beyond include the BMO (which is a multiple-choice test competition paper used in order to determine the best candidates that are to represent countries within the International Mathematical Olympiad).

[edit] Assessment practice

Assessment practice overlaps with teaching practice in a sense (it is difficult to teach individuals to a certain level of mathematical competence without first having foreknowledge of their current mathematical abilities). These test practices sometimes require written exams to be sat (exams in which answers are in actuality written on exam scripts). However, given the usually lofty moral standards by which mathematical assessment has been tauted to have been conducted according to (together with the ease of statistical data interpretation that such test formats are associated with), multiple choice questions are often seen as useful in determining or verifying a given level of mathematical capability.