Cultural origins of math?

Question

We all know that every culture has formed some system of mathematics. However, my question is: which cultures (including ancient cultures) have MOST SIGNIFICANTLY contributed to the development of MODERN MATHEMATICS? List a few, please? (I must write an essay for a mathematics course & am trying to tone it down to the main points in structuring an outline.) Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

"Knowledge and use of basic mathematics have always been an inherent and integral part of individual and group life. Refinements of the basic ideas are visible in mathematical texts originating in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, China, and Greece. Rigorous arguments are first seen in Euclid's Elements. The development continued in fitful bursts until the Renaissance period of the 16th century, when mathematical innovations interacted with new scientific discoveries, leading to an acceleration in research that continues to the present day."

From the Greeks:
"He is best known for the Pythagorean theorem which bears his name. Known as "the father of numbers", Pythagoras made influential contributions to philosophy and religious teaching in the late 6th century BC."
"Euclid... a Greek mathematician, who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, ... is often considered to be the "father of geometry". His most popular work, Elements, is one of the most successful textbooks in the history of mathematics. Within it, the properties of geometrical objects are deduced from a small set of axioms, thereby founding the axiomatic method of mathematics."

I would add the Islamic Arabs:
"...the Hindu decimal zero and its new mathematics spread from the Arab world to Europe in the Middle Ages...Algorithm is also a borrowing from the Arabic, in this case from the name of the 9th century mathematician al-Khwarizmi."

Answer 2

Ancient egyptians and greeks. Egyptian pyramids were the origin of the pythagorian formula. (a squared plus b squared equals c squared.