The Story of Maths
Four-part series about the history of mathematics, presented by Oxford professor (and guest speaker at the M500 September Revision Weekend) Marcus du Sautoy.
After showing how fundamental mathematics is to our lives, du Sautoy explores the mathematics of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece.
In Egypt, he uncovers use of a decimal system based on ten fingers of the hand, while in former Mesopotamia he discovers that the way we tell the time today is based on the Babylonian Base 60 number system.
In Greece, he looks at the contributions of some of the giants of mathematics including Plato, Euclid, Archimedes and Pythagoras, who is credited with beginning the transformation of mathematics from a tool for counting into the analytical subject we know today.
The Open University magazine OZONE also had details of this series in Issue 30, which you may order or download from the OU website.
There was a new OU Level 1 course developed to accompany this series of films.
TM190 The story of maths, was first presented in November 2008 (starting 15th November and finishing January 09) and is now available twice a year in May and October.