Good questions. I'll bet you really love doing Math. We had to go to the experts for this one. There's a resource that you can reach by sending an electronic mail message on the InterNet that will answer math questions. We sent two messages to "Dr.Math@forum.swarthmore.edu" and got these answers.

Reply-To: dr.math@forum.swarthmore.edu (Dr. Math)In-Reply-To: <199411270458.XAA15213@freenet.carleton.ca> from "Pierre Kerr" at Nov 26, 94 11:58:32 pmX-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23]Content-Type: textContent-Length: 791 Dear Andrew,Thanks for writing to Dr. Math! You asked a great question: Whoinvented math? Unlike physical objects like the lightbulb, the telephone,and the calculator that were invented by one person or a group of people,math wasn't really "invented" by anyone in particular. The theory behindmath has been evolving for a very long time. People first started doingmath-related things when they counted objects around them. Math didn'tbecome a real field of study until sometime around 500 B.C. (that is about2500 years ago!) I hope this helps answer your question. Feel free towrite back with any more questions you might have. --Sydney, Dr. "Math Rocks"----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Date: Mon Dec 5 19:48:22 1994From: syd@sccs.swarthmore.edu (Sydney Foster)Subject: Re: Math QuestionTo: ac210@freenet.carleton.caCc: dr.math@forum.swarthmore.edu (Dr. Math)Reply-To: dr.math@forum.swarthmore.edu (Dr. Math)> Dear Thea,> > Hello! Thanks for writing Dr. Math! I am glad you asked where the> word math comes from, because I didn't know, and I found it interesting to> find out. It turns out that the word, math, has its roots in the Latin word> mathematicus and the Greek word mathematikos which comes from mathema (what> is learned) and manthanein (to learn). So, math comes from words that mean> learning. Pretty neat, huh? Thanks for writing, and please write again.> > --Sydney, "dr. math">