First of all, I am surprised by the distance that people in ancient times travelled. The following questions kept popping in my mind when reading about ancient Indian mathematics and Pythagoras. How did Pythagoras manage to reach India? What kinds of transportation did he use? Did he actually visit India? It is hard for me to imagine how travellers got through possible barriers at that time.
The second surprising thing is the in-depth math understandings that ancient people achieved. Math topics such as quadratic and cubic equations, geometry and trigonometry had already been studied thousands of years ago. Even nowadays, these topics would not be covered till grade 11 or 12.
In addition, I am amazed by how well-organized figure 1.4 is. Joseph presented the complex relationships of the spread of mathematical ideas in a clear way. I appreciate that he also included unconfirmed transmissions by dashed lines. Thus, new guesses and hypotheses can directly add to this picture.
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