Marco's 442 Blog

It was really interesting to see that Church denounce the 7 arts due to it being the basis for the pagan education system. As a Christian, and someone who has studied the Bible in depth, it really shocked me to find out that the Christian Church wanted to segregate themselves from those who didn't follow the ways of the Bible. What's more shocking is the fact that they later became prerequisites to the study of Theology, because to me, it doesn't make sense as to why they would ban it and then promote it. Computation used exclusively for the technical study of Easter reckoning was very interesting to me too. From the reading, it shows just how much power the Church had on society. I've read about the Catholic Church and its influence during the Medieval times, so this wasn't a new concept for me, but I never knew that their material and applications also directly translated to Christianity as well. Lastly, I found it interesting when they mentioned the late Robe...

When it comes to bringing mathematics from different countries and cultures into the classroom, I believe that it is extremely important because it shows how different countries approach problems. I do not believe the different historical backgrounds should be taught along with the math, because most students will not care. As evident by the high school visit from NDSS, the students expressed interests in learning to tackle problems in different methods, because have options opens up different avenues and strategies that they could use. They like learning multiple strategies because every student is different, and only learning what the teacher prefers, while useful, might not be what every student can benefit from. For example, I learned how to calculate and solve systems of linear equations in grade 10 in a western approach. It was hard to understand, even to this day, and I still have trouble trying to explain it to my students using that very same approach. A few years ago, I took ...

There was an author, who still is relatively unknown at this time, who goes by the name of Master Sun. This book provided insight into the rules for counting rods, the mechanical algorithm for the Extraction of Square Roots, and the Chinese Remainder Theorem. Most impressive is that it provides one of the earliest written records for an example of the Chinese Remainder Theorem, a complex tool used with the Modulo strategy to figure out complex applications and word problems.

Why is Euclid and Euclidean geometry still studied to this day? Why do you think this book has been so important (and incredibly popular) over centuries? Euclidean geometry is still being studied today in large part due to the fact that his work has been preserved. As stated in the reading, we were able to recover a vast amount of his works, and we were able to analyze and study perhaps his greatest accomplishment, Elements . Euclid was probably not the first person to discover or introduce many of the concepts in his books, but, as far as historians know, he was the first to compile all these findings inside the literature. Another reason I believe it is still studied to this day is because Euclid really presented flawless arguments with each proposition. From the proposition of being able to construct an equilateral triangle, to the world renowned theory of the Pythagorean Theorem, Euclid was able to describe their proofs in precise detail. Is there beauty in the Euclide...

Unless it is a mathematics history course, I do not believe it is necessary to acknowledge any source of mathematics. I personally do not believe that knowing how the Chinese demonstrated a fundamental understanding of a theorem named after Pythagoras will affect how my understanding of said theorem. It is amazing that the Chinese were able to understand various different advanced mathematical concepts, that I will not argue against. However, my life or mathematical abilities have not changed the slightest upon reading about the many advances during the Yellow King's ruling period. If it comes to properly naming something, I do agree that they should be done correctly. Giving credit to where it is due is important, but there are times when a discovery was made by someone who also influenced other fields of academia. Euclid was not only known for Elements , but also for his work on the field of geometry as well. But this only goes back to the my initial argument that it only matters...

A) How could one state a general mathematical principle in a time before the development of algebra and algebraic notation? B) Is mathematics all about generalization and abstraction? A) The Babylonians stated multiple principles and findings before they made use of symbols and letters by using words. Instead of words, they would use terms such as "length", "breadth", "height", as well others such as "the number", "the square", etc. What is truly special is the fact that both forms, whether it be word or symbol, ultimately stood for the same thing. They served the same purpose, and at one point, it just got too tedious to write the entire word out. B) Mathematics, especially in historical civilizations were very applicable to the entire community. They would ask questions pertaining to food, material and other goods. These questions would typically do with trading or some sort of economy in their world. Nowadays, with how ...