Mathematics is a study of paradigm that centers on ideas like change, space, structure, measurement and counting. Over the years, the basic ideas originating from Mesopotamia, India, ancient Greece, Egypt and China were cultivated and at present play a vital role in science and technology. Suffice it to say that Mathematics is the vocabulary of Science.

The lack of understanding on the number system made the Greeks fail to solve and account for incommensurable ratios. The introduction of coordinates by Descartes marked the new stage for Geometry, the part of Mathematics that deals with questions of shapes, sizes, properties of space and relative position of figures. Geometry must actually be quantitative in order to be functionally useful in engineering and science. Galileo stated that “the language of nature is Mathematics” and for him, Science involves drawing ideas from some mathematically formulated physical principles.

This relationship has continued for three hundred years. For instance, we learned more about the natural or elemental forces such as magnetism and electricity. We later on found equations that could be used to interpret the behavior of what we saw. Instead of using words, we were just using math to describe what we uncovered in our experiments. Although the close ties between the two might be unexpected, still it is a descriptive language.

There is also a need for scientific understanding and representing of complex physical phenomena in order to preclude unnecessary loss of life from natural disasters. Do you remember the December 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean? There is what we call the “shallow water wave equations” that help approximate the behavior of a real ocean and give a realistic image of a disturbance.

Mathematics is important to many sciences. It is widely used in Physics and in predicting astronomical occurrences. It has reached a point where scientists doubt theories unless supported by an equation.