The evolution of mathematics might be seen as an ever-increasing series of abstractions, or alternatively an expansion of subject matter. The first abstraction, which is shared by many animals, was probably that of numbers: the realization that a collection of two apples and a collection of two oranges (for example) have something in common, namely quantity of their members. <span>In addition to recognizing how to count </span>physical<span> objects, prehistoric peoples also recognized how to count </span>abstract<span> quantities, like time - days, seasons, years.Elementary arithmetic (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) naturally followed.</span>
The area of study known as the history of mathematics is primarily an investigation into the origin of discoveries in mathematics and, to a lesser extent, an investigation into themathematical methods and notation of the past. ... Chinese mathematicsmade early contributions, including a place value system.
