 Welcome to our course, The History of Mathematics. I'm Jeff Suzuki, your instructor. You might remember me from such YouTube hits as One Sided Limits and Vaccination, The Truth Behind the Numbers. This semester, we'll be talking about the history of mathematics. The history of mathematics has a unique feature that makes it worth studying in detail. If it ever worked, it still works. In other words, if a mathematical method got the answer right in 3000 BC, it will still get the right answer today. What this means is that the history of mathematics is a tremendous resource for different ways to solve mathematical problems. Throughout the course, we'll take a look at these methods and solve modern problems using historical methods. One important idea to keep in mind as we go through the course, always be aware of the difference between what is easy and what is familiar. The way we write numbers today seems easy, while the way the ancient Egyptians wrote numbers seems complicated. But is that because you've been writing numbers the modern way for most of your life and might have just learned how to write like an Egyptian? And so the question to ask is really, is the Egyptian method really harder or is it just unfamiliar? With that in mind, let's learn some history.