Monthly Archives: April 2014
302.WHO WROTE THE FIRST OPERA?
Do you enjoy Westerns on TV? They’re certainly popular with millions of people. Yet can you imagine anyone enjoying exactly the same Western year after year for dozens of years?
But there is a form of entertainment that people enjoy in just that way! They know the plot, they even have most of the lines memorized, yet they love to see it performed year after year! That form of entertainment is the opera.
301.WHO INVENTED THE ZERO?
BRAMMA GUPTA
Perhaps you didn’t realize that the zero had to be invented! Actually one of man’s greatest inventions, it was a concept that has had a tremendous influence on the history of mankind because it made the development of higher mathematics possible.
Up until about the sixteenth century, the number system used in Europe was the Roman system, invented about two thousand years ago. The Roman system was not a simple one. It is built on a base of 10. Thus the mark “X” means 10. The letter “C” means 100. The letter “M” stands for 1,000. The mark for 1 is “I,” for 5 “V,” for 50 “L,” and for 500 “D.” 4 is shown by “IV,” or 1 less than 5. To indicate 1,648, you write: “MDC XI VIII” In the Roman system, to read the number, sometimes you count, sometimes you subtract, sometimes you add.
300.WHO INVENTED MATHEMATICS?
Mathematics is the science that deals with number, quantity, and form. Without a knowledge of mathematics, our whole modern way of life would be impossible!
For example, we would have no good houses, because men who build houses must know how to measure and count and figure. Our clothing would be very crude, because figuring is necessary to cut cloth correctly. There would be no railroads, steamships, or airplanes, nor any great industries, nor any commerce as we know it.
