WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF THERE WAS NO MATHEMATICS

         WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED 

IF THERE WAS NO MATHEMATICS

Can anybody say that the world would have managed without Mathematics? The simple answer to this big question is a big “NO”. The Mankind needs a language to communicate for its survival and existence, it is as old as human existence in the world. In any language known to mankind any where in the world, there are two types of scripts, one is a character ( letter and symbols included ) and the other is a number.

The Characters are used to express the description of a feeling or otherwise a neural expression as I would call it ( a feeling or impulse transmitted from our Nervous System) and the Numbers are used to quantify a neural expression. Mathematics in fact, has existed from the point of creation of life in the Animal World while Humans are included as part and parcel of Animal World. The very requirement and indispensability of two persons ( or two animals ) and not one, defined by gender as Male and Female, to create and perpetuate life, necessitated mathematics and counting ( for a moment I am not including micro-organisms which are also included in scientific animal world ). Even the ancient mythology says there existed two mythological persons named Adam and Eve to re-create life. Even ancient Indian mythology or historical evidences that exist anywhere in the world in whatever form provides the basis and it is evidenced that two persons (defined by opposite gender) led to the creation and perpetuation of life.  The science by advance of modernity, also confirms that two persons ( as animal existence ) create and perpetuate life. Even in genetics, the expression of Chromosomes are in pairs (two) adequately confirms it. The Physical World has two poles, not one, the North Pole and the South Pole, that itself is another evidence of numbers more than one. Thus, it was not one, it was two, that is behind the life and that is the creation of the world, that is where the counting has started, that is where numbers have started and that is where Mathematics have begun.

Even after the life was created, the very existence of more than one external body parts such as limbs ( hands, legs or wings ), fingers, eyes, ears, breasts all led to counting. Humans are the animals among and in the animal kingdom, who speak a language which has been deciphered and documented till now and used as communication medium for survival and continuance of the world. It is believed and is postulated that, as humans have 10-fingers in the two hands ( not as much as 10-toes also in the two legs ) that had led to the family of numbers originally to be kept as ten ( the ten digits of numbers from Zero to Nine ) and that continues since time immemorial. The humans had started counting and expressing as well as signaling pictorially the numbering logic through their spoken language by use of the fingers. The 10-fingers were the truth that existed then without dispute as everyone had 10-fingers ( deformity exceptions are rare and always excluded from universal considerations ), to be used as firm evidence while explaining the numbers by the spoken language. There were 10-fingers in the two hands, thus there ten digits came to being ( from 0 to 9 ). The Zero represented “nothing” or “non existence “ and existence ended with 10-fingers. Therefore, the digits were started from Zero and kept as “0” (Zero) to 9(Nine) representing the 10-fingers, as Zero is the beginning (nothing or non-existence) and Nine is the end to represent 10-fingers as 10-digits of the full number family.

Later the domain or universe of the numbers was extended beyond 9(nine), by various grouping or combination of the digits from 0(Zero) to 9(Nine). 

The numbers being used as the means to explain a neural expression, quantifying something that can be said to be the basics behind the mathematics. Thus, mathematics is a quantified neural expression, that could be a logic or a phenomenon represented by use of numbers.

In fact, to think that Mathematics would not have been there under any circumstances is totally ruled out, it can’t be simply be separated from Human Civilization. As the human language has come to being with neural expressions in terms of both characters and numbers that can never be separated or either of it can be excluded from the language under no circumstances. The Language will be incomplete ( any language of the world ) without the numbers and will be meaningless, the numbers are indispensable in the context of the language.

After the basic existence of the 10-digits of the numbers came to being, then the subject of mathematics has been extended to all branches of science ( technology included in science) and humanities with progress of civilization since time immemorial. The mathematics has provided the foundation and basics as a part of the languages to stretch into science and technology as well as humanities exponentially that is known in the world, whether in the past or in the present and will continue its expansion in the future as well. It is understood well.

The existence of the language ( I mean any language of the world ) spoken by humans and deciphered to evidence facts of life and environment would not have been possible without the existence of the numbers that represent the mathematics.  What we see today, the progress of civilization with progress in science and technology as well as the humanities, would not have been possible without existence of mathematics. Thus, mathematics is such a critical subject to be recognized at all times.

( Written on the National Mathematics Day of India, which is celebrated on December 22 every year to commemorate the birth anniversary of India's famous mathematician Srinivasa Iyengar Ramanujan ).

About the Author : Dr. Nimain Charan  Biswal is a B.Sc.(Agri. Science and Technology). M.B.A. and Ph.D.( Management Area ) by qualifications and he has 35 years of work experience in both  industrial and development sectors in diversified fields of social importance. He has been educated at Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT)-Bhubaneswar, Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) and Gujarat University ( with Resource Support of IIM-Ahmedabad ). Dr.Biswal is further educated at IIM-Calcutta, XLRI-Jamshedpur, Apple Computer Industries and Spar Inc., USA. He has worked for reputed National and International Organisations in Senior/Top Management Capacities. He is a management  expert covering extensive areas from management in agriculture, industrial management, development management to management of public systems. He is a prominent professional of India and known Internationally as well. He lives at Mumbai in India.