Was Pythagoras Chinese - Revising an Old Debate

    I am very surprised about the significance of the evolution of mathematics throughout the history of time. In school, we do not really consider how some theorems came to be, but some famous mathematicians were often credited by having their names in the theorems. With that said, the reading also contributes Chinese mathematicians for also making contributions to the Pythagoras theorem, but they were barely credited. 

    Personally, I think it does make a difference if we acknowledge non-European sources of mathematics. The beauty of math is that there are many different approaches in solving a problem. For example, there are problems that can be solved graphically, visually, and algebraically. My point is, by acknowledging other sources, I think people are able to understand different perspectives and/or influence their way of thinking. Also, it helps to understand the culture and rationality of other sources.

    Initially, I didn't really pay attention to the name of theorems and concepts. I just thought that some mathematician has made the discovery. However, that is not the case indicated with the associated reading. I believe everyone should be credited for the work that they put in and not a single person should be credited unless they made the discovery on their own. Furthermore, I think names should change to reflect all mathematicians credited. With the example of Pascal's triangle, it could be named something along the lines of, "Universal Triangle of Combinatorics". For those keen to learn much more, people could search the relevant history and get to a better grasp of the concepts.

Reference

Gustafson, Ross (2012) "Was Pythagoras Chinese-Revisiting an Old Debate," The Mathematics Enthusiast: Vol 9: No. 1, Article 10. 

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