subject: Mathematics As An Academic Discipline And Its Features [print this page] Mathematics as an Academic Discipline Mathematics as an Academic Discipline
Mathematics is the academic discipline. As a theoretical science it has its structure, method and terminology database. There are different centers which are occupied with the detailed researches in this sphere. This discipline appeared thousands years ago. It studies such things like space, quantity, structure. There are continuous argumentations about the nature of mathematical signs (numbers). The fact is that it is unknown whether they exist in nature or they are just a fancy.
History of Mathematics
The word Mathematics is of Greek origin. The evolution of the science Mathematics is closely connected with the emergence of so-called mathematical abstractions. And the first abstraction is a number. Of course first numbers were not so complicated as our thousands and millions.
The Process of Evolving of Mathematics
Firstly people counted concrete things and then they moved to the calculation of something abstract. But for this type of calculation numbers were not enough, and then a new system of calculation emerged: day, year, minute. It is quite interesting to know that numeracy anticipates writing. But further steps were to be done to count larger numbers. It should be noted that all the contemporary mathematical notions did not exist till the 16 century.
Structure of Mathematics
What were the main fields of mathematics application? Firstly, this science served for practical needs of trading, painting, land measurement. Later the sphere of usage became wider: Mathematics served Astronomy. Since that time Mathematics has been changing and evolving all the time. Now one can enumerate a large number of Mathematic fields. All they have something in common but they all differ greatly. They are: algebra, analysis, arithmetic, geometry etc. And of course as well as every discipline it can be subdivided into theoretical and practical.
