Teaching Mathematics Using History and Fairy Tales.ppt

Teaching Mathematics Using History and Fairy Tales Why integrate history and stories into math class? To humanize mathematics Connect real-life experiences with mathematics Show how people in the real world use math Relax students and alleviate math anxiety Solve problems Illustrate concepts by stories Mathematicians Interesting Tidbits René Descartes  (March 31, 1596 – February 11, 1650) Blaise Pascal(June 19, 1623 – August 19, 1662) Gerolamo Cardano (September 24, 1501 - September 21, 1576) Niccolo Fontana Tartaglia (1499 or 1500 - December 13, 1557) Robert Recorde Ca. 1510-1558 Introduced = sign Christoff Rudolff (1499?-1545?) Introduced the radical sign, 1525, in a book called Die Coss. √ Stretched-out r Used a vertical bar as a decimal point Used a period for equals Recognized the law b n · b m = b n + m Credited with introducing + and – Michael Stifel (1486-1567) “Greatest German algebraist of the 16th century” Used + and – signs Also credited with modern radical sign Concluded world would end on 10/3/1533. Said Pope Leo X was the Beast in Rev. Magic Squares Thomas Hariot (1560-1621) Introduced and as we use them today First to write exponents as we do (a3 instead of aaa) Helped Sir Walter Raleigh map NC Discovered sunspots Died of cancer from tobacco William Oughtred (1574-1660) Introduced the × for multiplication Introduced :: for proportion and ~ for difference between Clergyman who gave free math lessons Famous pupils: John Wallis, Christopher Wren, Seth Ward Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz(1646-1716) Used both ? and ? for multiplication Calculating machine (first mechanical to multiply and divide) Developed binary numeral system Co-creator of calculus Johann Heinrich Rann (1622-1676) Introduced the ÷ symbol for division (although this symbol was used by many continental Europeans for subtraction). Christian Kramp (1760-1826) First to use the n! symbol for factorials in 1808 Used because of printing problems with a previously-used symbol Evariste