A brief history of banned numbers - Alessandra King
Check out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/teded View full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/a-brief-history-of-banned-numbers-alessandra-king They say the pen is mightier than...
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They say the pen is mightier than the sword, and authorities have often agreed. From outlawed religious tracts and revolutionary manifestos to censored and burned books, we know the potential power of words to overturn the social order. But as strange as it may seem, some numbers have also been considered dangerous enough to ban. Our distant ancestors long counted objects using simple tally marks. But as they developed agriculture and began living together in larger groups, this was no longer enough. As numbers grew more complex, people began not just using them, but thinking about what they are and how they work. And by 600 B.C.E. in Ancient Greece, the study of numbers was well-developed. The mathematician Pythagoras and his school of followers found n...
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They say the pen is mightier than the sword, and authorities have often agreed. From outlawed religious tracts and revolutionary manifestos to censored and burned books, we know the potential power of words to overturn the social order. But as strange as it may seem, some numbers have also been considered dangerous enough to ban. Our distant ancestors long counted objects using simple tally marks. But as they developed agriculture and began living together in larger groups, this was no longer enough. As numbers grew more complex, people began not just using them, but thinking about what they are and how they work. And by 600 B.C.E. in Ancient Greece, the study of numbers was well-developed. The mathematician Pythagoras and his school of followers found n...
