Course Syllabus
Ohio Northern
University
Department of
Mathematics
Date:
Winter 2005-06
Course MATH - 245 Name: History of Mathematics
Credit hours 4 Lecture hours/week 4 Lab hours/week
Instructor Schroeder
Usual student level Junior and Senior
Course required of students in Math Major Track 2, middle childhood education
with math concentration
Course frequency per year 1 section per year
Average enrollment per year 10-15
This course has a prerequisite Calculus II (Math 155 or Math 164)
This course is a prerequisite for None
An
introduction to the history and origin of mathematics, restricted principally
to mathematics through elementary calculus.
A chronological study of some mathematicians and their contributions to
mathematical thought.
To acquaint
students with the people considered responsible for developing mathematics and
with the mathematical concepts developed; to provide cultural and historical
background for present day mathematics; to guide students in solving problems
using both historical and modern methods.
Math Through the Ages: A Gentle History for Teachers and
Others, Expanded Edition by Berlinghoff
and Gouvea
Outline of content follows:
(see
attached)
Course Outline
MATH - 245
History of
Mathematics
The course will follow as closely as possible the
chronological development of mathematics with time taken to investigate
problems and persons appropriate to the period under consideration.
Topics will include but not be limited to
1. Keeping Count Writing Whole Numbers
2. Reading and Writing Arithmetic Where the Symbols Came From
3. Nothing Becomes a Number The Story of Zero
4. Broken Numbers Writing Fractions
5. Something Less Than Nothing? Negative Numbers
6. By Tens and Tenths Metric Measurement
7. Measuring the Circle The Story of pi
8. The Cossic Art Writing Algebra with Symbols
9. Linear Thinking Solving First Degree Equations
10. A Square and Things Quadratic Equations
11. Intrigue in Renaissance Italy Solving Cubic Equations
12. A Cheerful Fact The Pythagorean Theorem
13. A Marvelous Proof Fermats Last Theorem
14. On Beauty Bare Euclids Plane Geometry
15. In Perfect Shape The Platonic Solids
16. Shapes by the Numbers Coordinate Geometry
17. Impossible, Imaginary, Useful Complex Numbers
18. Half Is Better Sine and Cosine
19. Strange New Worlds The Non-Euclidean Geometries
20. In the Eye of the Beholder Projective Geometry
21. Whats in a Game? The Start of Probability Theory
22. Making Sense of Data Statistics Becomes a Science
23. Machines that Think? -
Electronic Computers
24. The Arithmetic of Reasoning Logic and Boolean Algebra
25. Beyond Counting Infinity and the Theory of Sets