Synopses & Reviews
Includes bibliographical references (p. 199-206) and index.
Table of Contents
pt. 1.History in the mathematics classroom --pt. 2. Thehistory of mathematics in a large nutshell --Beginnings --Greek mathematics --Meanwhile, in India --Arabic mathematics --Medieval Europe --The15th and 16th centuries --Algebra comes of age --Calculus and applied mathematics --Rigor and professionalism --Abstraction, computers, and new applications --Mathematics today --pt. 3.Sketches --1.Keeping count : writing whole numbers --2.Reading and writing arithmetic : where the symbols come 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. TheCossic art : writing algebra with symbols --9.Linear thinking : solving first degree equations --10. Asquare and things : quadratic equations --11.Intrigue in Renaissance Italy : solving cubic equations --12. Acheerful fact : the Pythagorean theorem --13. Amarvelous proof : Fermat's last theorem --14.On beauty bare : Euclid's 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.What's in a game : the start of probability theory --22.Making sense of data : statistics becomes a science --23.Machines that think : electronic computers --24. Thearithmetic of reasoning : logic and Boolean algebra --25.Beyond counting : infinity and the theory of sets.