The impact of the Mayan culture on modern math was the topic of Wednesday’s Latino heritage event.

Many students, faculty and members of the community gathered last night in the Oakland Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union for a presentation by Adam Schwartz, an Eastern graduate student in mathematics.

The presentation, part of Latino Heritage Celebration 2002, discussed topics such as why the Mayans developed their mathematical system, how much mathematics influenced the culture and the Mayan mathematical system in comparison to math systems such as the Greco-Roman, Arabic and Oriental.

The Mayans were of the first to develop modern mathematical theory, calendar systems and the unit zero.

Flourishing from 300 B.C. until 900 A.D., when destroyed by Spanish conquistadors in an attempt to covert to Roman Catholicism, the Mayans counted as if their lives depended on it.

There are about 30 different Mayan languages spoken today but all share the same number systems.

Mayans used accounting for construction to build ancient cities, to keep track of workers and pay, establish trade routes, harvest crop fields, develop a concrete mixture made of cement and establish calendars.

Mayans knew how to calculate greatest common denominators and least common multiples, even though Roman Catholics had revoked all paper and parchments.

The Mayans used various symbols to represent numbers such as snails, empty boxes and their open or closed fists by pointing or writing in the sand.

Schwartz said, day zero of the Mayan calendar was Aug. 13, 3114 B.C.

The Mayans believe we are the fifth generation of God’s creation today, and, according to Mayan calculations, Dec. 24, 2011 is Mayan judgment day. This is the day God determines whether the next generation will evolve.

“The part of the presentation that interested me the most was how they knew the calendar dates better than we know now and the beginning and end of the universe down to the decimal even without paper,” said Rachel Sefton, a junior English major. “It’s interesting how math and astronomy had so much to do with how they planted crops and worshiped gods.”