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Class number:
3438
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Title: Origins of Mathematics |
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Department: Mathematics |
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Career: Undergraduate |
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Component: Seminar |
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Session: Regular |
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Instructor's Permission Required: Yes |
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Grading Basis: Regular |
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Units: 1.00 |
| Enrollment limited to 19 |
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Current enrollment: 9 |
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Available seats: 10 |
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Start date: Tuesday, September 6, 2022 |
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End date: Wednesday, December 21, 2022 |
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Mode of Instruction: In Person |
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Schedule: MW: 1:30PM-2:45PM, MECC - 260 |
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Instructor(s): Mauro, David |
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Prerequisite(s): This course is open to seniors only. |
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Distribution Requirement: Meets Numerical & Symbolic Reasoning Requirement |
Course Description:
With attention to both rigorous proof and mathematical imagination, we
consider the development of modern mathematics, beginning with the clay
tablets of Mesopotamia that reveal hints of trigonometry and the Pythagorean
theorem. We then turn to the Greek invention of axiomatic mathematics as
presented in Euclid's Elements, with emphasis on the geometric proofs of
newly-discovered incommensurability and the controversy of the 5th parallel
postulate. Finally, we trace the history and false proofs of Euclid's 5th
parallel postulate up through the late 1700s, concluding with the derivations
of properties of spherical and hyperbolic non-Euclidean geometries that were
independently discovered by Gauss, Bolyai, and Lobachevsky. |