This article challenges the traditional view of mathematics as an abstract, unchanging truth, arguing that it's a tool shaped by practical needs throughout history. It uses the examples of navigation and the development of calculus to illustrate this point.
The challenges of sea navigation in the 17th century spurred innovation in mathematics. Determining longitude accurately required precise timekeeping, leading to advancements in clock technology and the development of logarithmic tables by John Napier to simplify complex calculations. Isaac Newton's invention of calculus was directly driven by the need to accurately track the movement of celestial bodies.
These examples showcase how mathematical advancements were directly tied to solving real-world problems.
The article implicitly suggests the need to approach mathematics education with a similar problem-solving focus, especially in the context of the rapid advancements in AI. It implies that current teaching methods may be inadequate to prepare individuals for the mathematical challenges of the future.
Despite centuries of progress on real-world problems, we still teach math as if it were handed down from the heavens, rather than shaped, reworked, and repurposed by real people solving real issues in their own time. In the so-called hard sciences, old myths and Platonic ideas have long been pushed aside in teaching. But in mathematics? It’s still too often presented as eternal, unchanging truth.
We often overlook that math, much like chemistry or biology — empirically grounded sciences designed to solve real-world problems — is basically a tool, shaped and remixed by real-world needs through history, not handed down as an eternal cosmic revelation.
In the 17th century, the global economy ran on ships. Sea trade was the system. Empires raced for spices, gold, and land; the only way to get them was by navigating dangerous oceans. Latitude? Easy — measure the Sun or stars. Longitude? A killer. Without accurate clocks (though John Harrison’s marine chronometer would eventually emerge), sailors had no reliable way to track east-west travel. Guess wrong, and you disappeared.
That pressure sparked invention.
John Napier gave navigators a lifeline: logarithmic tables that turned endless multiplications into additions. He built an analog computing tool — on paper — that saved time and reduced errors.
Then Isaac Newton took on the next big problem: planetary motion. To track accelerating bodies on elliptical orbits, averages weren’t enough. You needed to measure change at every instant. So he invented calculus , not to write poetry, but to solve real problems in navigation, astronomy, and motion.
This wasn’t math for math’s sake. It was math built for survival.
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