Home Page for Math 56, Section 1, Spring 2008: History of Mathematics

Class Meetings: MWF 1:50-2:55, Bailey 201

(This page was last updated on 30 May 2008.)

Texts: Math through the Ages, Berlinghoff and Gouvea; The History of Mathematics: A Reader. Additional readings will be provided during the course.

Instructor: Kim Plofker
Email: plofkerk@union.edu
Office: Bailey Hall 206A, phone 6674
Office hours: Tu-Thur 10:00-11:00 AM, 3:30-4:30 PM; Wed 4:30-5:30 PM

Course Description: Open to all students with a mathematical background up to and including pre-calculus, "History of Mathematics" traces the development of mathematical ideas and methods in literate cultures from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, to Hellenistic Greece and medieval China, India and the Islamic world, up through the dawn of calculus at the start of the Scientific Revolution in early modern Europe. We will examine the interlinked changes and intercultural transmission of basic numeracy, arithmetic, geometry, trigonometry, algebra, practical computation and approximation, and concepts of the infinitely large and small. The course will stress both the technical mastery of mathematical concepts and methods, and the historically informed comprehension of their role and development within the larger intellectual context. Students are expected not just to study standard mathematical knowledge and its chronological development, but also to examine the ways in which they think about math, and how practical and philosophical issues change the way mathematical ideas are perceived. The writing-intensive course work is designed to focus on careful reasoning and articulation of the results of these inquiries.

First handout and first week's assignments

Photocopy of clay tablets (accessible from Union College internet domain)

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