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Articles 1 - 15 of 15
Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The Physicist's Basement, Nora Culik
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
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
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.
How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count The Ways For Syllabic Variation In Certain Poetic Forms, Mike Pinter
How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count The Ways For Syllabic Variation In Certain Poetic Forms, Mike Pinter
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
The Dekaaz poetic form, similar to haiku with its constrained syllable counts per line, invites a connection between poetry and mathematics. Determining the number of possible Dekaaz variations leads to some interesting counting observations. We discuss two different ways to count the number of possible Dekaaz variations, one using a binary framework and the other approaching the count as an occupancy problem. The counting methods described are generalized to also count variations of other poetic forms with syllable counts specified, including haiku. We include Dekaaz examples and suggest a method that can be used to randomly generate a Dekaaz variation.
Fields In Math And Farming, Susan D'Agostino
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.
Being Reasonable: Using Brainteasers To Develop Reasoning Ability In Humanistic Mathematics Courses, Gary Stogsdill
Being Reasonable: Using Brainteasers To Develop Reasoning Ability In Humanistic Mathematics Courses, Gary Stogsdill
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
Developing reasoning ability is often cited as one of the principal justifications of a mathematics requirement for liberal arts undergraduates. Humanistic math courses have become recognized as a paradigm for liberal arts mathematics, but such courses may not provide the opportunity to develop reasoning ability. The author describes his procedure for using brainteasers to promote reasoning in a humanistic math course for liberal arts undergraduates.
Joining ``The Mathematician's Delirium To The Poet's Logic'': Mathematical Literature And Literary Mathematics, Rita Capezzi, Christine Kinsey
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. …
Some Effects Of The Human Genome Project On The Erdős Collaboration Graph, Chris Fields
Some Effects Of The Human Genome Project On The Erdős Collaboration Graph, Chris Fields
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
The Human Genome Project introduced large-scale collaborations involving dozens to hundreds of scientists into biology. It also created a pressing need to solve discrete mathematics problems involving tens of thousands of elements. In this paper, we use minimal path lengths in the Erdős Collaboration Graph between prominent individual researchers as a measure of the distance between disciplines, and we show that the Human Genome Project brought laboratory biology as a whole closer to mathematics. We also define a novel graph reduction method and a metric that emphasizes the robustness of collaborative connections between researchers; these can facilitate the analysis of …
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
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.
Promoting Active Studying: The Study Challenge, Christopher K. Storm, Salvatore Petrilli, Susan Petry
Promoting Active Studying: The Study Challenge, Christopher K. Storm, Salvatore Petrilli, Susan Petry
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
We explore using a “Study Challenge” to help students become active studiers in mathematics courses. We describe how a Study Challenge works and how we implemented it in calculus and differential equations courses. We discuss qualitative reactions from students who accepted the Study Challenge, which suggest that this might be a useful tool for students’ to add to their examination preparation toolbox. Finally, we offer some suggestions for implementing a Study Challenge within the mathematics classroom.
What Is So Negative About Negative Exponents?, Geoffrey D. Dietz
What Is So Negative About Negative Exponents?, Geoffrey D. Dietz
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
While teaching college-level mathematics (from College Algebra to Calculus to Abstract Algebra), I have observed that students are often uncomfortable using negative exponents in calculations. I believe the fault partially lies in the manner in which negative exponents are taught in Algebra 1 or Algebra 2 courses, especially in rigid instructions always to write answers using only positive exponents. After reviewing a sample of algebra texts used in the United States over the last two centuries, it appears that while attitudes toward negative exponents have varied from author to author over time, the current trend is to declare explicitly that …
Benjamin Banneker's Original Handwritten Document: Observations And Study Of The Cicada, Janet E. Barber, Asamoah Nkwanta
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
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 …
Liberal Arts Inspired Mathematics: A Report Or How To Bring Cultural And Humanistic Aspects Of Mathematics To The Classroom As Effective Teaching And Learning Tools, Anders K H Bengtsson
Liberal Arts Inspired Mathematics: A Report Or How To Bring Cultural And Humanistic Aspects Of Mathematics To The Classroom As Effective Teaching And Learning Tools, Anders K H Bengtsson
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
This is the report of a project on ways of teaching university-level mathematics in a humanistic way. The main part of the project recounted here involved a journey to the United States during the fall term of 2012 to visit several liberal arts colleges in order to study and discuss mathematics teaching. Several themes that came up during my conversations at these colleges are discussed in the text: the invisibility of mathematics in everyday life, the role of calculus in American mathematics curricula, the "is algebra necessary?'' discussion, teaching mathematics as a language, the transfer problem in learning, and the …
Galileo And Aristotle's Wheel, Olympia Nicodemi
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 …