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Editors: Janet Beery, Kathleen Clark
Who's That Mathematician? Images from the Paul R. Halmos Photograph Collection, by Janet Beery and Carol Mead
The well-known mathematician took most of these 343 photos of mathematicians from the 1950s through the 1980s. We welcome you to provide additional information about the photo subjects, including fond memories and interesting stories. This article was an expanding feature throughout 2012 and through March of 2013, with new photos added every week.
Mathematical Treasures II, by Frank J. Swetz
Mesopotamian Accounting Tokens: Mesopotamian accounting evolved from simple clay token counters to a number-recording system that included depictions of these tokens on clay tablets.
The Best Known Old Babylonian Tablet?: YBC 7289, though written by a scribal student, contains an excellent estimate of the square root of 2 and shows how to use it to obtain the length of the hypotenuse of any isosceles right triangle.
The Archimedes Palimpsest: Modern photographic techniques reveal layers of meaning in this long lost medieval manuscript.
Problems from the Zibaldone da Canal: Colorful images from a 14th century 'notebook' of arithmetic and other practical information
Ratdolt's Euclid's Elements: Images of the first printed edition of Euclid's Elements (1482)
Cuthbert Tunstall's De arte supputandi: Images from a 1529 edition of the first arithmetic book published in England
Oronce Fine's Protomathesis: Fine presented arithmetic, geometry, trigonometry, instrument-making, and astronomy in this 1532 compendium.
Copernicus' De revolutionibus: Images from the book in which Copernicus presented his heliocentric theory, arguing that the planets, including the Earth, rotated about the Sun
Stratioticos, by Leonard and Thomas Digges: Images from the 1579 manual (in English) on the mathematics of war
Robert Tanner's A Mirror for Mathematiques: Images from a 16th century text about the astrolabe and its uses
George Waymouth's Jewell of Artes (1604): Images from a beautifully illustrated book of practical mathematics designed to impress King James I of England
Specula mathematica of Roger Bacon: A 1614 collection of Roger Bacon's 13th century writings on applications of mathematics
Arithmetica Logarithmica of Henry Briggs: Images from the 1624 work in which Briggs presented his base 10 logarithms, along with many examples of their use in geometry
Edward Cocker's Arithmetick: Image of the title page of the second volume (1685) of the most popular arithmetic book in England from its publication in 1673 through the 18th century
Mary Serjant's Copybook (1688): Images from the handwritten copybook of a 15-year-old girl learning penmanship and arithmetic
Matthew Wood's Copybook (1699): Images from a handwritten copybook presenting counting and arithmetic needed by merchants
HOM SIGMAA 2013 Student Paper Contest Winner
Read "Paradigms and Mathematics: A Creative Perspective," by Hood College graduate Matthew Shives.
Primary Historical Sources in the Classroom: Discrete Mathematics and Computer Science, by Janet Barnett, Guram Bezhanishvili, Hing Leung, Jerry Lodder, David Pengelley, Inna Pivkina, Desh Ranjan, and Maria Zack
Sixteen projects designed to help students learn important concepts from discrete math, combinatorics, linear algebra, and computer science by studying original sources
1. Deduction through the Ages: A History of Truth, by Jerry Lodder
Project in which discrete mathematics students learn about logic, truth tables, and implication by consulting original sources from ancient to modern times
2. Sums of Numerical Powers in Discrete Mathematics: Archimedes Sums Squares in the Sand, by David Pengelley
Project in which discrete math or calculus students learn from Archimedes’ writings how he computed the sum of the squares
3. Euclid's Algorithm for the Greatest Common Divisor, by Jerry Lodder, David Pengelley, and Desh Ranjan
Project in which discrete math, computer science, or number theory students learn the Euclidean Algorithm from Euclid’s writings
4. An Introduction to Symbolic Logic, by Guram Bezhanishvili and Wesley Fussner
Project in which discrete mathematics students learn the basics of symbolic logic by studying excerpts from Russell’s and Whitehead’s Principia Mathematica
5. An Introduction to Elementary Set Theory, by Guram Bezhanishvili and Eachan Landreth
Project in which discrete mathematics students learn the basics of set theory by reading Dedekind’s and Cantor’s original papers on the subject
6. Computing the Determinant Through the Looking Glass, by Maria Zack
Project in which linear algebra students learn an easy way to compute determinants from a paper by mathematician Charles Dodgson (whose pen name was Lewis Carroll)
7. Origins of Boolean Algebra in the Logic of Classes: George Boole, John Venn, and C. S. Peirce, by Janet Barnett
Project in which discrete mathematics students are introduced to set operations, Venn diagrams, and Boolean algebra by the masters
8. Boolean Algebra as an Abstract Structure: Edward V. Huntington and Axiomatization, by Janet Barnett
Project in which discrete math or abstract algebra students develop the 'algebra of logic' along with E. V. Huntington, who built on the work of Boole
9. Applications of Boolean Algebra: Claude Shannon and Circuit Design, by Janet Barnett
Project in which discrete mathematics students apply Boolean algebra to circuit design by studying Claude Shannon’s pioneering paper
10. Figurate Numbers and Sums of Numerical Powers: Fermat, Pascal, Bernoulli, by David Pengelley
Project in which students in upper-level discrete math or combinatorics courses learn connections between sums of powers and binomial coefficients by “reading the masters”
11. Gabriel Lamé's Counting of Triangulations, by Jerry Lodder
Project in which upper-level discrete mathematics or combinatorics students count triangulations with Lamé and meet the Catalan numbers along the way
12. Networks and Spanning Trees, by Jerry Lodder
Project in which students in an upper-level discrete math or combinatorics course are introduced to labeled graphs and minimal spanning trees by Cayley, Prüfer, and Boruvka
15. Program Correctness, by Hing Leung
Project in which computer science students learn the fundamentals of partial correctness proof from Robert W Floyd’s original paper on the subject
16. Regular Languages and Finite Automata, by Hing Leung
Project in which computer science students discover the connection between these two topics by studying the original paper of S. C. Kleene
Review of Mathematical Expeditions: Exploring Word Problems across the Ages, by Frank J. Swetz. Reviewed by Kathleen M. Clark.
A collection of problems that should be of interest and use to teachers at all levels
"What's in Convergence? - Contents of Volume 10 - 2013 (Loci - Volume 4)," Loci (June 2013)