ABSTRACT
Mathematics is a growing subject that can be likened to a tree: think of the height of a place on the tree as a measurement of time, with early mathematics located near the roots and the most recent advances flowering at the tips of the highest limbs. The student who lacks technical proficiency in areas of current mathematical interest nevertheless has accumulated a store of mathematical knowledge that is elementary by current standards but once represented the research frontier. The Library of Congress of the United States is the largest in the world. The Summerian and Egyptian writing systems were originally pictographic; the Akkadian was a modification of the Sumerian and ultimately was simplified to a still quite complex syllabic system that utilized hundreds of different cuneiform signs to express the different syllables of the language.
