[Julie Jung] EDCP 442 Mathematics History for Teachers

        According to the reading, the phrase “Practical situations encountered in the day-to-day working life” (Gerofsky, 2004) shows that practicality is linked to real world situations and applied mathematics, whereas mathematical abstraction is the exploration of concepts that are not always applicable in real-world contexts.            Additionally, while pure mathematics is done for its own sake, applied mathematics does not just learn real mathematical concepts. In addition to mathematics, applied mathematics combines all fields of mathematics that can be used in each field, such as nature, society, economy, and culture, so that they can be useful in real life. In modern times, mathematics serves as a language for describing sciences by using amazing mathematical techniques, such as algebra. Gerofsky states that “Babylonian ‘pure mathematics’ was in fact calculation pursued as art pour l’art, mathematics applied in its fo...

             Joseph’s “The Crest of the Peacock” shows multicultural roots of non-European mathematics and the great impact that the Egyptians and Babylonians had on the Greeks. He also investigates the transfer of mathematical concepts from the East to the West in more detail. The book demonstrates recent research on the history of mathematics in Egypt, Mesopotamia, early Islamic civilizations, China, and India. Throughout the reading, there are three points that surprised me.              Joseph states that the ideology of European superiority, derived from European dominance and expansion in Asia and Africa, is one of the most influential factors that “pushed back the origins of written mathematical records by at least 1500 years.” ( Joseph, 1991, p.4) This surprised me as I have believed that European mathematicians are central in the development of mathematics. I realized again that what ...

                  I think that Babylonians used 60 as the base rather than 10 as 60 has more factors than 10. Specifically, the factors of 60 are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, and 60, and the factors of 10 are 1, 2, 5, and 10. Since 60 has more divisors than any smaller positive integer, it is referred to as a "highly composite number". I believe Babylonians chose 60 as the base for the number notational system for efficient calculation.              Numbers are deeply related to human civilization and life, and I think 60 survived as the base for the number notation system since it gives meaning to our lives. The units of angle and time are both expressed in a 60-base system, such as using units of minutes and seconds. 1 hour equals 60 minutes and 1 minute equals 60 seconds. Also, 360 degrees of an arc equal a full circle. A year is 360 days and this is divided into 12 months of 30 days, which ...

               I believe that it is crucial to study the history of mathematics since learners can understand modern mathematics more deeply as history is a study of processes and changes. Also, I think learning how mathematics has developed can certainly arouse interest when studying math. When I first learned Pythagorean Theorem and Euler’s formula, I heard about the lives, anecdotes, and achievements of Pythagoras and Euler. This made the learning much more interesting and memorable. Thus, I would like to incorporate math history into my teaching when I introduce the math concept, by demonstrating related mathematicians and showing a video clip that shows the history of how it has been applied to everyday life.              Throughout the article, I agree that the history of mathematics is critical as history helps students to understand that “mathematics is evolving not only in...