As we start off this trek I feel
like I am wearing the wrong type of shoes. My toes are being crunched forward
and I feel as if I am going to fall and twist my ankle with every step. With
each movement forward I feel a new type of pain, a pain that is somehow very
familiar. I look down at my purple toes sticking out of the 6” high heel
stilettos that I am wearing as the other trekkers walk, jog, or sprint past me.
“How am I going to make it to the end of this trek?” I ask myself. I look back
and there are a few people there with me and there are a few more just ahead of
me. I could slow down or speed up and see if we can help each other. “How can
we help each other to make it to the end of this trek?”
I dig into my math again and open
my book. “Oh man, not ancient calculating methods again!” I push past my
initial frustration and start with Roman numerals. As I trudge on I feel as if
my stiletto's have lost an inch or two and the shooting pains in my toes and
ankles are somewhat reduced. “I know how to get out of these shoes!” I read on
and as I do my high heels turn into flats and I begin to move more quickly. I
look back and leave some of my fellow classmates far behind. I wonder what will
become of them, and if I was a proper person I would slow down or even stop to
make sure that they are able to finish the treck with minimal pain and torment.
As I went through this chapter I
struggled every time I was encountered a problem using the Babylonian system as
well as a few others. I became even more frustrated when I began to think of
when I was going to use any of this information again. As I continued I felt the inches on my heels growing again. Being a past history
major I can see the value in these systems even if it was not apparent at my
initial frustration. We have to know where we came from to help us see where we
are going. By learning these other methods I have come to appreciate our
methods more as well as see how math has both transformed and stayed the same
throughout history as well how it shapes our world today.
Here are a few links that may help
in your struggles with math calculations from other cultures as well as give
you some history behind the math.
