Habits of Highly Mathematical People
Have you ever wondered if there is someone out there that is just great at math? Well, in fact there are a lot of mathematicians out there. Is it really necessary for us to learn math?
It is, because there is math in your everyday world, even when don’t think there is. Math is very important so you should sit and learn about it. One mathematician is Benjamin Banneker. Ben was born on November 9th 1731 in Baltimore County, Maryland. He died on October 9th 1806 at age 74 in Ellicott’s Mills, Maryland. He died one month before his 75th birthday. His burial site is in Oella, Maryland. Ben was a farmer, astronomer, inventor and a surveyor. Ben grew up on his father’s farm with his three sisters. One of his sisters names were Mary Banneker the other two left and no one had their names. His family farm has 100 acres outside of Baltimore. Ben’s parents were Mary and Robert Banneker. Ben learned to read from his grandmother and mother. He went to a near quaker country school (a school that has to do with religion) for a small amount of time.
Then, from there he taught himself to do history, mathematics and literature. Ben was never married. Did you know Ben built a wooden clock? Also, Did you know he was a free born African American? Ben suffered from alcoholism as he got older it got worse. When Ben was growing up on his free time he would solve problems such as puzzles. One of Ben’s famous quotes is: “The colour of the skin is in no way connected with strength of the mind or intellectual powers.”
The son of an ex slave, Ben was famous for developing a math formula to predict lunar and solar eclipses. “Ben taught himself astronomy by watching the stars and he learned advanced math from borrowing textbooks”(“Mathematician and Astronomer Benjamin Banneker Was Born.”). Ben almanacs was a book about weather forecasts, lunar eclipses, solar eclipses, ideas from the sun and moon. It also had some poems in there too. Ben also exchanged letters with Thomas Jefferson.
“During the time that Banneker lived, the fledgling United States was attempting to create order from late eighteenth-century chaos”. A bigger accomplishment, Ben has done was Stand against Slavery and Racial Discrimination. Math is in your everyday life. Such as cooking, going to the grocery store. According to Discover Magazine, Everything in the Universe is made of math-including yourself.
Ben was one of the first African American to publish an almanac. For Ben’s math it affected the culture of his time by “The Benjamin Banneker Association, Inc., a nonprofit organization that promotes mathematics education for African-American children and scientific opportunities for blacks”(The, and Impact of Benjamin Banneker.”. “The Work and Impact of Benjamin Banneker.” Gale Library of Daily Life: Slavery in America, Encyclopedia.com, 2018.) This helped the African Americans get some skill on their math. The math changed the future because of Ben’s his discovery using math with solar and lunar eclipse.
The math helped the future from his math formula to predict lunar and solar eclipses. It’s important for people to know there math and to understand it. He wanted equal rights for the African Americans. The discovery of his math changed my life from the very first time since I have known what it is. When, I was younger I thought it was easy. But, now it gets a little tougher. Math is really important because you need to learn it to do math.
