I like to read about mathematicians as much as I like to read about math itself. I think the people and history behind math are just as important as the math itself. I’m sure a lot of people would debate me on that point, but I think math—the tool we use to understand the universe—can itself be understood so much more when given some context.

Heck, sometimes the simplest things can help give rise to phenomenal mathematical advancements.

Take calculus (surprise, surprise). Kepler, chilling out in the early 1600s before either Leibniz or Newton existed on the planet, was angered by a wine merchant whose methods for measuring the volume of a wine barrel was less than accurate. So he started thinking, “Hey, how do you go about calculating the volume of such a weird shape like a wine barrel, anyway?” And thus, Nova stereometria doliorum vinariorum, or New Solid Geometry of Wine Barrels, was born. He also started on the track of differentiation by wondering how one would create a wine barrel whose dimensions maximized the amount of wine the barrel could hold.

I know that’s a small example, but I think just knowing that itty bitty bit of calculus history “anchors” that bit of math in time and space. At least more so than saying “and then at one point some dudes came up with integration.”

Which is usually how it’s taught (that or, “here’s how you do integration with no context whatsoever!”).

Haha, sorry. THIS IS WHY I WANTED TO TAKE HISTORY OF MATH. I love seeing how all these different aspects of history and people and theories and everything connect. It just makes everything make so much more sense.