Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Physicist's Basement, Nora Culik

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

No abstract provided.

The Discipline Of History And The “Modern Consensus In The Historiography Of Mathematics”, Michael N. Fried

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Teachers and students of mathematics often view history of mathematics as just mathematics as they know it, but in another form. This view is based on a misunderstanding of the nature of history of mathematics and the kind of knowledge it attempts to acquire. Unfortunately, it can also lead to a deep sense of disappointment with the history of mathematics itself, and, ultimately, a misunderstanding of the historical nature of mathematics. This kind of misunderstanding and the disappointment following from it--both raised to the level of resentment--run through the paper "A Critique of the Modern Consensus in the Historiography of …

A Critique Of The Modern Consensus In The Historiography Of Mathematics, Viktor Blåsjö

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

The history of mathematics is nowadays practiced primarily by professional historians rather than mathematicians, as was the norm a few decades ago. There is a strong consensus among these historians that the old-fashioned style of history is “obsolete,” and that “the gains in historical understanding are incomparably greater” in the more “historically sensitive” works of today. I maintain that this self-congratulatory attitude is ill-founded, and that the alleged superiority of modern historiographical standards ultimately rests on a dubious redefinition of the purpose of history rather than intrinsic merit.

Fields In Math And Farming, Susan D'Agostino

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

A young woman’s search for a a contemplative, insightful experience leads her from farming to mathematics.

Joining ``The Mathematician's Delirium To The Poet's Logic'': Mathematical Literature And Literary Mathematics, Rita Capezzi, Christine Kinsey

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

This paper describes our team-taught interdisciplinary mathematics and literature course, Mathematical Literature and Literary Mathematics, which invites students to consider Raymond Queneau's challenge: "Why shouldn't one demand a certain effort on the reader's part? Everything is always explained to him. He must eventually tire of being treated with such contempt.'' We study works by Berge, Borges, Calvino, Perec, Queneau, Robbe-Grillet and Stoppard, among others. From a literary critical perspective, the course highlights the play of language rather than the primacy of meaning. We choose texts where mathematical concepts are subjects or structuring elements of the literature, and ideally both. …

Steam Inspired By Insight, Diana Vizcarra

The STEAM Journal

Innovators of the 21st century might come from unexpected places. Visual impairment is no barrier when technology and creativity intersect. The world needs blind innovators! The blind input data without visual association and download blueprints of their surroundings to format a mental database. They categorize patterns, textures, and conditions to perceive their location in space. They are able to capture the beauty of the world through poetry and predict future trends through past experience – all without visual access to the physical world they inhabit.

This writing was possible because of collaboration with Angie Menjivar.

The Efficacy Of Mathematics Education, Eric Geimer

The STEAM Journal

Evidence supports the notion that mathematics education in the United States is inadequate. There is also evidence that mathematics education deficiencies extend internationally. The worldwide mathematics education deficit appears large enough that improving student performance in this educational problem area could yield great economic benefit. To improve the efficacy of mathematics education, education’s root problems must first be understood. Often supposed educational root problems are considered and contrasted against potential deficiencies of mathematics methodologies and curricula that are based on mainstream educational philosophies. The educational philosophies utilized to form early-grade mathematics methodologies and related curricula are judged to be the …

Game Theory Meets The Humanities And Both Win Or Book Review: Game Theory And The Humanities: Bridging Two Worlds, By Steven J. Brams, Karl-Dieter Crisman

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

This review discusses Brams' wide-ranging book Game Theory and the Humanities and gives some basic examples of the methodology and style, including how the Theory of Moves contributes to understanding such games.

Benjamin Banneker's Original Handwritten Document: Observations And Study Of The Cicada, Janet E. Barber, Asamoah Nkwanta

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Benjamin Banneker, farmer, mathematician, astronomer, and scientist, is known for his mathematical puzzles, ephemeris calculations, almanacs, his wooden clock, land surveying work, and famous letter on human rights. However, as a naturalist, his scientific and systematic observations of the cicadas are less known. In this paper we publicize Banneker’s naturalistic study of the seventeen-year periodic cycle of the cicada and make available the original handwritten document of his observations. We also introduce the audience of this journal to an intriguing natural problem involving prime numbers.

Improving Equity And Education: Why And How, Patricia Clark Kenschaft

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Progress is possible. When I graduated from college, only 5\% of the new U.S. doctorates in mathematics went to women; now it is about 30\%. There is of course room (and need) for more progress. This paper begins with an account of my research about women and black mathematicians. The latter group claimed that racial equality can be achieved only when better elementary school mathematics education is available to all children in this country. That motivated me to lead a seven-year, grant-supported program to work with elementary school teachers and children in nine New Jersey districts, including Newark, Paterson, and …

Galileo And Aristotle's Wheel, Olympia Nicodemi

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

At the beginning of his last major work, Galileo tackles an old paradox, Aristotle's Wheel, in order to produce a model of the continuum that explains (at least to him) how line segments of different length could be put into a one-to-one correspondence. His argument seems like a playful digression. However, it is precisely this type of a one-to-one correspondence that he needs to support his work on free fall. In this article, we investigate how Galileo's model for the wheel paradox informs his work on free fall. We also examine some of the reasons his results on free fall---results …