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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Accidental World Teacher, Richard Delaware Jan 2022

Accidental World Teacher, Richard Delaware

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

When the College Algebra and Calculus I video courses I created were posted on my university’s YouTube channel in 2009, I suddenly began to receive dozens of heartfelt emails from students around the world thanking me. Here I tell the story of the creation of those videos and sample the effect they seem to have had over the last decade, as I accidentally became a teacher available to the entire planet.


Asymptotic Dream, Oscar Gonzalez Jul 2021

Asymptotic Dream, Oscar Gonzalez

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

A love poem about breaching mathematical limits, inspired by the tragic beauty of calculus.


The List: Proverbs For Calculus, Bruce H. Pourciau Jul 2021

The List: Proverbs For Calculus, Bruce H. Pourciau

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Topics chosen from first-year calculus illustrate a number of “sayings” or “proverbs,” the first three, for example, being: be awed, like a child; meaning before truth; and act with intention. Many are proverbs for life as well as mathematics.


A Selection Of Poems From Ode To Numbers, Sarah Glaz Jan 2019

A Selection Of Poems From Ode To Numbers, Sarah Glaz

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

My first poetry collection, Ode to Numbers, was published by Antrim House in September 2017 (http://www.antrimhousebooks.com/glaz.html). The book contains poems written over a quarter of a century and inspired by mathematics and my life as a mathematician. The poems in this folder are a small selection from the book—a series of seven poems focusing on events from the history of mathematics.


Was Newton's Calculus A Dead End? The Continental Influence Of Maclaurin's Treatise Of Fluxions, Judith V. Grabiner May 1997

Was Newton's Calculus A Dead End? The Continental Influence Of Maclaurin's Treatise Of Fluxions, Judith V. Grabiner

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

We will show that Maclaurin's Treatise of Fluxions did develop important ideas and techniques and that it did influence the mainstream of mathematics. The Newtonian tradition in calculus did not come to an end in Maclaurin's Britain. Instead, Maclaurin's Treatise served to transmit Newtonian ideas in calculus, improved and expanded, to the Continent. We will look at what these ideas were, what Maclaurin did with them, and what happened to this work afterwards. Then, we will ask what by then should be an interesting question: why has Maclaurin's role been so consistently underrated? Thse questions will involve general matters of …


Who Gave You The Epsilon? The Origins Of Cauchy's Rigorous Calculus, Judith V. Grabiner Mar 1983

Who Gave You The Epsilon? The Origins Of Cauchy's Rigorous Calculus, Judith V. Grabiner

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

This paper recounts the history of how calculus came to get a rigorous basis in terms of the algebra of inequalities. The result is a brief history of the 150 years from Newton and Leibniz to Cauchy that produced the foundations of analysis.


Závisí Matematická Pravda Od Času?, Judith V. Grabiner Jan 1980

Závisí Matematická Pravda Od Času?, Judith V. Grabiner

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

This is a Slovak translation of Judith Grabiner's "Is Mathematical Truth Time-Dependent?," published in Volume 81 of American Mathematical Monthly (April 1974).


Is Mathematical Truth Time-Dependent?, Judith V. Grabiner Apr 1974

Is Mathematical Truth Time-Dependent?, Judith V. Grabiner

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

Another such mathematical revolution occurred between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and was focused primarily on the calculus. This change was a rejection of the mathematics of powerful techniques and novel results in favor of the mathematics of clear definitions and rigorous proofs. Because this change, however important it may have been for mathematicians themselves, is not often discussed by historians and philosophers, its revolutionary character is not widely understood. In this paper, I shall first try to show that this major change did occur. Then, I shall investigate what brought it about. Once we have done this, we can …