Through the character Socrates in the dialogue Theaetetus, Plato states, “Wonder is the feeling of the philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.” Many centuries later in The Assayer, Galileo states, “Philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe, which stands continually open to our gaze. But the book cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and read the letters in which it is composed.” Galileo continues, “It is written in a mathematical language, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometric figures. Without knowledge of this medium it is impossible to understand a single word of it.”
If, as Galileo states, the universe is written in the language of mathematics, then what is the language of mathematics? You may consider viewing the following videos: A Brief History of Numerical Systems (here). Where Do Math Symbols Come From (here)? For an example of how the language of mathematics helps us to understand the universe, view The Physics Behind Einstein’s Most Famous Equation (here). And finally, The Language of Mathematics: The Stories Behind the Symbols by Raul Rojas shares the history of mathematics by telling the story of its symbols (here).
~ Boethius ~