Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Wicked Problems And The Invention Of Calculus, Ernesto Diaz

Natural Sciences and Mathematics | Faculty Scholarship

Since the 1980s, wicked problems have represented a category of challenges that defy clear description, cannot be addressed with existing models or theories, and resist experimentation in trying to solve them. This class of problems existed before they were identified and have been unsuccessfully addressed with Thomas Kuhn’s model of scientific discovery, an expectation that requires the identification of a new object and the development of its correct interpretation. This paper proposes an alternative view of scientific discovery using the invention of Calculus as a case study that describes a successful process addressing wicked-like problems from a philosophical perspective, develops …

College Of Liberal Arts And Sciences_Covid-19 Course Content, Kristin Vekasi, Frederic Rondeau, Marcella Sorg, Derek Michaud, Ayesha Miller, Kirsten Jacobson, Lillian Herakova, Mark Brewer

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

List of COVID-19 related course content in the University of Maine's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences during the 2020 Spring Semester. Includes descriptions from:

• Kristin Vekasi, Associate Professor, Political Science for POS 349: Politics of Media and Censorship;
• Frederic Rondeau, Associate Professor, Modern Languages and Classics for Introduction to French Classics Novels of the XX-XXI century;
• Marcella Sorg (Research Professor, Department of Anthropology, Climate Change Institute, and Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center for ANT 260: Forensic Anthropology;
• Derek Michaud, Lecturer, Philosophy; Coordinator of Religious Studies and Judaic Studies for PHI 105: Introduction to Religious Studies and PHI 100: Contemporary …

How To Calculate Π: Machin's Inverse Tangents, A Mini-Primary Source Project For Calculus Ii Students, Dominic Klyve

Mathematics Faculty Scholarship

Almost every mathematical culture through history seems to have proved, trusted, or suspected that the area of a circle is a fixed constant times the square of its radius. It is maybe not surprising, then, that the last two millennia have seen a seemingly endless array of attempts to calculate this constant (today usually called π" role="presentation">π) with increasing precision.

The Calculus War: The Ultimate Clash Of Genius, Walker Briles Bussey-Spencer

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

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

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

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

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 …

General Steps In The Revolution Of The Calculus From The Time Of The Ancients To The Present, Mary Virgiia

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation

No abstract provided.