Crest of the Peacock: Reading response

Upon my initial reading of this book, I am surprised by the Eurocentric presentation provided in figure 1.1. The figure attributes development of mathematics solely to Greeks and Europe. I am simply surprised that this was the kind of “facts” put into textbooks in European countries. I myself attended school in Asia for the early years of my childhood, and it was definitely not presented that way. I am Chinese, and while there was not an emphasis on history of mathematics in China, I know that China has a long winding history and developed many mathematical ideas independently from the west as there was little communication. Things like arithmetic, number system, Chinese Remainder Theorem are all notable examples, and there are recovered books and documents showing many mathematical ideas such as taxes, percentage, division, even measurements of pi, volume, area…etc. So drawing from my own experiences, the Eurocentric presentation is a shock.

The second interesting point for me is the presentation of the “dark ages” in figure 1.3. There are a huge number of connections to many different places that are quite separated geographically. It amazes me how various people on this planet, separated by terrains that were not easily crossed unlike the modern era, developed many mathematical ideas together.

The last thing that surprised me was how early problems were solved. It was noted that cubic equations were attempted as early as indicated by the Babylonian clay tablets, and I sometimes wonder why or how they posed these questions which might not have a whole lot of profitable applications presented to them. We learn about polynomial equations as early as high school and learn how to solve them, but to think that those very same questions were posed 5000 years ago amazes me.