​How do we know if something exists? Does it need to have some physical form? If not, then how do we know if it exists? Notice how we went full circle on that initial question? We're not alone, as mathematicians and philosophers have discussed and debated on the nature of the most fundamental thing in the universe: numbers.

You can take this question as an intellectual exercise, though this topic can be discussed seriously in some academic circles.

So the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro has concluded, and I'm sure many of you are rooting for specific events. For myself, it's the athletics, there's something about pushing the human limit of speed with nothing but muscle power that epitomises our obsession with achievements.

Zeno had thought of this - he is Greek after all, and proposes an extraordinary race that shapes our understanding of mathematics and physics, even today.

We have taken much of the things in our life for granted, and the pursuit for the latest and greatest makes us forget how we even got to where we are. The computer being one of them, many of us had assumed that prior to the 1980s, the world was in the tech equivalent of the stone age, but not so.

Similar to our article on the analogue calculator, in this article we shall go back to the time when simple gears and clockwork perform the most amazing tasks. And we'll see how we might one day go back to that.

Engineering has always been seen as the application of mathematics. Since the time of Archimedes to Galileo this relationship appears to be a one way street. But as they say, necessity is the mother of invention, and as mathematics became more and more complex, we require better tools to handle the more mundane aspects of it.

This is when application turns back to help formulate theories.

Mathematics had always been perceived as an abstract field. You have numbers, symbols, concepts that seems to be the result of overthinking professors. This is, of course, far from the truth. Mathematics, especially applied mathematics, touches every aspect of human civilisation and life.

And in this specific case, may have saved human civilisation and millions of lives.