Why was math created?

Answer 1

Numbers started as a way to keep track of what you own. If you have one finger for every sheep you own, you have two hand's worth of sheep. However, if at the end of the day you only have a hand and a thumb's worth, you've lost some sheep. The question is, how many? That's where math started coming into the equation (pardon my pun).

Also, people wanted to trade a certain number of their stuff (sheep, corn, shoes, whatever) to other people and wanted fair payment for it. How much stuff would you have left after you made that trade? They needed a way to calculate that. Hence, subtraction.

You want to split your sheep into three groups so they're easier to handle? Division.

How many sheep do you need if you want 6 hands worth of them? Write it out on paper and boom: Algebra.

So basically, math was invented to organize, plan, rethink, and understand how many things* you have.

(Sheep, corn, Nintendo gameboys, whatever. :)