RESOURCES
/ TEXTS? / REFERENCES
Resources for worksheets
and activities for elementary mathematics history course:
1) Activity books by Claudia
Zaslavsky, Beatrice Lumpkin, Frank Swetz, and others, including:
Lumpkin,
Beatrice, Algebra Activities from Many Cultures, J. Weston Walch, Portland, Maine, 1997.
Lumpkin,
Beatrice and Dorothy Strong, Multicultural Science and Math Connections, J. Weston Walch,
Portland,
Maine, 1995.
Swetz,
Frank J., Learning Activities from the History of Mathematics, J. Weston Walch, Portland, Maine,
1994.
Zaslavsky, Claudia, Multicultural Math: Hand-on
Math Activities from Around the World,
Scholastic
Books, Jefferson City, Missouri, 1994.
Zaslavsky, Claudia, Multicultural Mathematics:
Interdisciplinary Cooperative-Learning Activities,
J.
Weston Walch, Portland, Maine, 1993.
2) Jacobs, Harold R., Mathematics:
A Human Endeavor, W.H. Freeman, New
York, 1994
See especially the
explorations of the Fibonacci sequence and of Euler paths and circuits.
3) Historical
Modules for the Teaching and Learning of Secondary Mathematics (CD), Mathematical Association of
America, Washington, D.C., 2003, including:
Beery,
Janet, Linda Shuey, Connie Dolezal, and Angi Sauk, Lengths, Areas, and
Volumes
Shuey, Linda, Connie Dolezal,
Angi Sauk, Gary Cochell, and Janet Beery, The Story of Negative Numbers
4) Private reserves,
including:
Avelsgaard, Carol, History of Algebra Laboratory
Exercises (unpublished classroom
activities), Middlesex
Community
College, Middlesex, New Jersey, 1996.
Dunham,
William, Problems for Great Theorems
(unpublished problem sets to accompany Journey Through
Genius: The Great Theorems
of Mathematics), Muhlenberg College,
Allentown, Pennsylvania, 1994.
Harrigan, Mary, Activities for Mathematics 109, The Mathematical Experience (unpublished classroom
activities),
Nazareth College, Rochester, New York, 1995-1998.
Videos for elementary
mathematics history course:
Project Mathematics! videos by Tom Apostol, California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena, including:
Early History of Mathematics
(2000)
Theorem of Pythagoras (1988)
Story of p (1989)
PBS Life by the Numbers series, especially the segment on perspective drawing
from Episode 1
Texts for elementary mathematics
history course:
1) A bit difficult for
audience, but workable:
Bunt, Jones, and Bedient –
Dover Publications (paperback)
Bunt,
Lucas N.H., Phillip S. Jones, and Jack D. Bedient, The Historical Roots of
Elementary Mathematics, Dover
Publications, New York, 1988.
W. Dunham – Penguin
Paperbacks
Dunham, William, Journey Through Genius: The Great
Theorems of Mathematics, John Wiley
and Sons, New York, 1990.
Howard Eves – MAA
(paperback)
Eves, Howard, Great Moments in Mathematics (Before
1650), Mathematical Association of
America, Washington, D.C., 1983.
G.G. Joseph – Princeton
Paperbacks
Joseph, George Gheverghese, The
Crest of the Peacock: Non-European Roots of Mathematics, Princeton
University Press, New Jersey,
2000.
2) Standard liberal arts /
finite math textbook with lots of history:
Johnson and Mowry – Brooks/Cole
Johnson, David, and Thomas Mowry, Mathematics: A
Practical Odyssey, Brooks/Cole, Pacific
Grove, California, 2001.
3) Relatively new text whose
users say it is at right level for students but have concerns about historical
accuracy and tone:
Lewinter and Widulski –
Prentice Hall
Lewinter, Marty, and William Widulski, The Saga of Mathematics:
A Brief History, Prentice Hall, Upper
Saddle River, New Jersey, 2002.
4) Assemble your own!
Copyright Clearance
Center: http://www.copyright.com
Sources for readings for elementary
mathematics history course:
Burton,
David, The History of Mathematics: An Introduction, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1997.
Consortium
for Mathematics and Its Applications (COMAP), Historical Notes: Mathematics Through
the Ages, Lexington, Massachusetts, 1992,
contains 27 short, readable articles such as:
Dauben,
Joseph W., “Learning the Ropes: The Origins of Geometry”
Dunham, William, Journey Through Genius: The Great
Theorems of Mathematics, John Wiley
and Sons,
New
York, 1990.
Eves,
Howard, An Introduction to the History of Mathematics (6th ed.), Saunders College Publishing, New
York, 1990.
Hogben, Lancelot, The Wonderful World of
Mathematics, Doubleday, Garden City,
New York, 1955.
Hogben, Lancelot. Mathematics
in the Making. Doubleday, New York,
1960.
Johnson,
Art, Classic Math: History Topics for the Classroom, Dale Seymour Publications, Palo Alto, California,
1994.
Johnson, David, and Thomas Mowry, Mathematics: A
Practical Odyssey, Brooks/Cole, Pacific
Grove, California, 2001.
Los Angeles Times and other newspaper articles
Mathematical Association of America (MAA) journals,
especially Math Horizons,
Washington, D.C.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)
journals, including Teaching Children Mathematics,
Mathematics Teaching in the Middle
School, and Mathematics
Teacher, Reston,
Virginia
Ore, Oystein, Number Theory and Its History, Dover Publications, New York, 1976.
Perl, Teri, Math Equals, Addison-Wesley, Menlo Park, California, 1978.
Smith,
Sanderson M., Agnesi to Zeno: Over 100 Vignettes from the History of
Mathematics, Key Curriculum
Press,
Berkeley, California, 1996.
Swetz, Frank, editor. From
Five Fingers to Infinity, Open Court,
Chicago, 1994, an anthology of articles from MAA journals and other sources;
contains such gems as:
Schmandt-Besserat,
Denise, “Oneness, Twoness, Threeness: How Ancient Accountants Invented Numbers”
Zaslavsky, Claudia, Africa Counts: Number and
Pattern in African Culture, Lawrence
Hill Books, Brooklyn, New York, 1990.
Internet
Site: The MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, based at
the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, contains a wealth of information and
resources. To access its index, go to:
www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/index.html
For
biographies of mathematicians, such as Newton and Euler, see:
(These
addresses were correct as of August 2002.)
Other references:
Aaboe,
Asger, Episodes from the Early History of Mathematics, Mathematical Association of America,
Washington, D.C., 1998.
Ascher, Marcia, Ethnomathematics: A Multicultural
View of Mathematical Ideas, Chapman
and Hall,
New
York, 1991.
Bag, A. K., Mathematics
in Ancient and Medieval India,
Chaukhambha Orientalia, New Delhi, 1982.
Bashmakova, Isabella, and Galina Smirnova.
The Beginnings and Evolution of Algebra, Mathematical Association of America, Washington, D.C., 2000.
Beckmann, Petr, A History of Pi, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1971.
Berggren,
L., J. Borwein, and P. Borwein (eds.), Pi: A Source Book, Springer-Verlag, New York, 1997.
Berlinghoff, William P. and Fernando Q.
Gouvea, Math Through the Ages: A Gentle Introduction for Teachers and
Others,
Mathematical Association of America, Washington, D.C., 2002.
Boyer,
Carl B., and Uta C. Merzbach, A History of Mathematics (2nd edition), Wiley, New York, 1991.
Cajori, Florian. A History
of Elementary Mathematics. MacMillan,
New York, 1924.
Calinger, Ronald (ed.), Classics of Mathematics, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1995.
Chace, Arnold
Buffum, The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, National Council of Teachers of
Mathematics,
Reston, Virginia, 1979.
Closs, Michael P. (ed.), Native American
Mathematics, University of Texas
Press, Austin, Texas, 1986.
Cooke, Roger. The History
of Mathematics. Wiley, New York,
1997.
Dilke,
O.A.W., Mathematics and Measurement,
British Museum Publications, London, and University
of California Press, Berkeley, 1987.
Eagle, Ruth, Exploring
Mathematics Through History,
Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Fowler,
David and Eleanor Robson, “Square Root Approximations in Old Babylonian
Mathematics:
YBC 7289 in Context,” Historia Mathematica, 25 (1998), 366-378.
Fowler, D. H.,
The Mathematics of Plato’s Academy, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1987.
Gerdes,
Paulus, Geometry from Africa: Mathematical and Educational Explorations, Mathematical
Association
of America, Washington, D.C., 1999.
Gillings, Richard J., Mathematics in the Time of
the Pharaohs, Dover Publications, New
York, 1982.
Grattan-Guinness, Ivor, Norton History of the
Mathematical Sciences, W.W. Norton,
New York, 1998.
Grover,
Sudarshan, History of Development of Mathematics in India, Atma Ram and Sons, New Delhi,
1993.
Grunbaum, Branko, and G.C.
Shephard, “Pick’s Theorem,” American Mathematical Monthly, 100:2
(February,
1993), 150-161.
Heath,
Sir Thomas, A History of Greek Mathematics (2 vols.), Dover Publications, New York, 1981.
Heath, Sir Thomas, Euclid: The Elements (3 vols.), St. John's College Press, Annapolis,
Maryland, 1947.
Ifrah, Georges, From One
to Zero: A Universal History of Numbers,
Viking Penguin, New York, 1987.
Katz, Victor J., A History of Mathematics: An
Introduction, Addison-Wesley,
Reading, Massachusetts, 1998.
Kline, Morris, Mathematical Thought from Ancient to
Modern Times (3 vols.), Oxford
University Press,
New
York, 1990.
Lam Lay Yong. “Jui
Zhang Suanshu (Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art): An Overview.” Archive
for
History
of Exact Sciences 47:1 (1994), pages
1-51.
Li Yan and Du
Shiran, Chinese Mathematics,
Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1987.
Nelsen, Roger B., Proofs Without Words: Exercises
in Visual Thinking, Mathematical
Association of
America,
Washington, D.C., 1993.
Rashed, Roshdi, The Development of Arabic
Mathematics: Between Arithmetic and Algebra. Kluwer Academic Publishers, The Netherlands, 1994.
Recorde, Robert. Whetstone of Witte. London, 1557 (facsimile). Da Capo Press, New York,
1969.
Recorde, Robert, The Pathway to Knowledge,
Containing the First Principles of Geometrie,
facsimile of
1551 edition, Walter J.
Johnson, Inc., Amsterdam, 1974.
Robson, Eleanor,
“Counting in Cuneiform,” Mathematics in School, 27:4 (September, 1998).
Robson, Eleanor,
“Mesopotamian Mathematics: Some Historical Background,” in Using
History to Teach
Mathematics:
An International Perspective (Victor
Katz, ed.), Mathematical Association of America,
Washington,
D.C., 2000, 149-158.
Schwartzman, Steven, The
Words of Mathematics: An Etymological Dictionary of Mathematical Terms
Used
in English, Mathematical Association
of America, Washington, D.C., 1994.
Seattle Public
Schools, Multicultural Mathematics Posters and Activities, National Council of Teachers of
Mathematics,
Reston, Virginia, 1984.
Serra,
Michael, Discovering Geometry: An Inductive Approach, Key Curriculum Press, Berkeley, California,
1997.
Stein,
Sherman, Archimedes: What Did He Do Besides Cry Eureka?, Mathematical Association of America,
Washington, D.C., 1999.
Stillwell,
John, Mathematics and its History,
Springer-Verlag, New York, 1989.
Straffin, Philip D., “Liu Hui and the First
Golden Age of Chinese Mathematics,” Mathematics Magazine,
71 (1998), 163-181.
Struik,
Dirk J., A Concise History of Mathematics, Dover Publications, 1987.
Swetz, Frank J., and T.I. Kao, Was Pythagoras
Chinese?: An Examination of Right Triangle Theory in
Ancient
China, National Council of Teachers
of Mathematics, Reston, Virginia, 1977.
van der Waerden, B.L., Geometry and Algebra in
Ancient Civilizations,
Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1983.
van der Waerden, B.L., Science Awakening I (3rd ed.), Wolters-Noordhoff Publishing, Groningen,
The
Netherlands, 1971.