Re: The Crest of the Peacock by George Joseph

 

Three things that surprised me: 

1. The most significant developed mathematical activities was flourished around the twin rivers. It's so interesting to see how geography had a huge impact on how people's migration which leads to the rise of the economy in a certain area. Advanced mathematical development encourages the growth of the local economy and a growing economy also has a positive influence on the evolution of mathematics. 

2. I'm surprised that "by the second half of the first millennium AD, the most important contacts for the future development of mathematics were those between India and the Arab world." It's interesting to see that a lot of ancient math developments started in Asia and the Middle East. Maybe it's because of the silk road. Every culture has its mathematical history, but surprisingly they all have some common understanding/knowledge of numbers. 

3. I noticed that a lot of philosophers were involved in the revolution of math in history. It's interesting to see how math is not only related to numbers back then. Math is the product of the economy, philosophy, and astrometry, etc. That made me think that math is the foundation of a lot of things/subjects. I also find it's fascinating how Asian countries consider math is the most important subject in schools! Pure math might be boring, but reading about history and doing some researches might encourage students to take a like in this most-disliked course among high school students.