The mathematics sciences are regarded as the most precise sciences, Although there has been no Nobel Prize for them, some of its generational formulas are still usetoday.

Before the mathematical concept of randomness was developed, people believed that everything that occurred was a result of the will of gods, supernatural entities that watched over human affairs and made decisions to “tilt the balance” in one direction or another to affect events. 

As a result, rituals and sacrifices were carried out to ascertain the “intent of the gods” or to try to have an impact on human affairs. This notion is still widely held, and many people still use lucky charms, follow superstitious customs, consult horoscopes, and hold some sort of conviction that there are such means of influencing their life. 

The Universe and the Earth

Other additional rituals attempted to combat nature’s and man’s condition’s randomness. Geomancy, the nine-square grid (also known as the magic square), and temple designs, the forerunners of board games, are a few of these that developed a particular mathematical interest.

Geomancy

Geomancy, which translates to “earth divination” or “divination of or from the earth,” is a scheme of 16 mathematically connected configurations of stones, beans, or other readily available tiny objects intended to make choices, provide answers to problems, or predict the future. The stones are thrown on the ground, and the resulting pattern is deciphered. Many binary “opposites” are represented by symbols, including male or female, good and evil, and sadness and happiness. Even and odd numbers can be represented by combining these opposites.

Each of these figures, like with all methods of astrology, has a variety of meanings based on how it relates to the other figures displayed and several other factors, such as the daytime, the climate, and the type of person posing the question.

The Nine-Square Grid

The 9-Square Grid is thought to have originated from an old method of land division, presumably from medieval India. The nine-square pattern, which in China consisted of eight farmer’s fields circling a central well, was thought to be the best layout. In Tibetan sacred diagrams, the grid of nine squares or a circle divided into 9 sections by parallel lines frequently occurs as the main form. 

In this way, the nine-square grid evolved from utilitarian uses in various cultures to the mystic significance and a portrayal of divine order and control by the gods.

Squares of Magic

They are directly connected to the Divine Grid, with the alleged numerical riddle that underpins their physical appearance being the Sacred Grid. The square of nine, which is attributed to Saturn, is the simplest magic square. Its rows and columns add up to 15, making it the square of nine; its diagonals add up to 30, and its rows and columns add up to 45. Jupiter is represented by the 4×4 square with columns and rows number 34, and Mars by the 5×5 square with columns or rows number 65.

Game boards

They are unmistakably connected to astrology, divination, and sacred geometries, and the patterns of the decks can reveal their esoteric or spiritual beginnings. The outcome of the dice-controlled game “snakes and ladders” now refers to good and bad “luck” as the game progresses; the stairs and snakes originally signifying good and evil fortune. Some of the designs on the boards resemble the layouts of cathedrals and holy places with a central “sacred area.”

Magic and Mathematics

Few people in the past could comprehend even the most basic geometry and arithmetic, and there is a long history of conflating mathematics with magic.

The positions of the planets and the precise times that astronomical phenomena appeared in particular parts of the sky might be predicted by those who were familiar with the regular motions of the cosmos. These highly competent workers, known as “priests,” worked in both the scientific and religious fields in earlier civilizations. After Christianity arrived in Europe, the religious component of these customs was derided as superstition.

These methods involved numbers, thus anyone who did so was viewed with a great deal of mistrust. Since the terms “astrologer,” “mathematician,” and “conjurer” were practically interchangeable, legitimate mathematicians were viewed with mistrust by the uninformed.

The Evolution of Probability

It’s thought that since cubes were used for gambling, religious rituals, and divination, persons who used them had a strong intuitive sense of the frequency of certain number combinations. The Latin poetry De Vetula, which depicts all the permutations for the collapse of three dice and is said to have been composed in the early thirteenth century, is the first printed example of the alternatives with three dice. Although it is mentioned in the poem, the use of binomial coefficients to determine the possibilities is not pursued until much later.