I know it may sound quite like a stupid question, but we often call math "a language", which helps us to understand and express the world around us. However, a spoken language can be expressed with different alphabets or different systems (like deaf-language). My question is whether math has ever been expressed differently (I don't mean roman numerals, for example) than how it is today?
Hey there!
Could you clarify your question a little bit more? As you mention, there have been many different ways of representing numbers, be those Roman numerals or knotted strings, but at their heart they all represent numbers. What would you consider "math" if it does not deal with numbers?
Hi,
This might give you insight on how problems were viewed before calculus using geometry by /u/ManicMarine.
My point with that past is to ask what are you considering using numbers? The geometric proofs there don't involve numbers. The ancient greeks used a compass and straightedge which has no numerical values assigned. There's a concept of a unit length but that doesn't relate to a real world equivalent, such as a meter. A more modern mathematical discipline, set theory, uses collection of things to build upon. It starts with the empty set and uses a bunch of rules to construct it's system. Another one, proof theory, seeks to understand the rules of mathematical argument themselves.