Quote Originally Posted by hemmjo View Post
It has always fascinated me how those early thinkers figured out all of these vitally important details. The mathematical concepts, relationships of the stars and the planets, etc.

They did all of this with their own minds, no computers to help them.
Well, for one thing, most of them studied mathematics. Today, most folks never get beyond arithmetic and aren't even proficient at that. Most notably, they studiously avoid any post-schooling opportunity to learn any math.

Without algebra one can't express a mathematical concept in a form that allows it to be manipulated and study the effects of such manipulation. Geometry is essential to characterizing the real world so you can explore it and understand it.