Questions tagged [history]
For questions concerning the history of mathematical education and the use of historical topics in teaching mathematics.
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Earliest real-world uses of Calculus and Linear Algebra
I want to illustrate in class that real-world applications of mathematics might take time to come to fruit. In this context, I want to find what the earliest real-world applications of Calculus and ...
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Correcting how a student writes symbols
One of my college students writes the Greek letter $\pi$ as a script n with a bar over it, like $\bar{n}$. [There is actual space between the letter and the bar.] I have never seen this before, and ...
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How does the average level of expected mathematical sophistication at high school level increase?
I remember reading an old calculus book (years 1920-1930) and in the preface it was portrayed as revolutionary because it was for high school students. Nowadays, that is not revolutionary, because ...
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Arithmetical Progression
I recently came across a very old Algebra textbook from the 1860s, and on the chapter discussing "arithmetical progression", it says there are "20 cases for arithmetical progression&...
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When and where were textbooks that use set notation for basic algebra solutions?
A past question described a school where many teachers insisted that answers to algebra problems had to be phrased in set-theoretic language or notation. For example, when asked to solve $2x+3=6−x$, ...
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Successor to School Mathematics Study Group (SMSG)
From reviews on Amazon of the various high school math texts by Mary Dolciani et al of the SMSG, I assume that there might be a successor to the approach (referred to as “the new math”) taken by the ...
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Solving open problems through a misunderstanding
We all know the (apparently verified1) anecdote recounting
George Dantzig
arriving late to a lecture (by Jerzy Neyman), and later solving two open
problems written on the board, mistaking them for ...
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Undergraduate Vector Calculus Notation Mess
Question 1: What are your arguments in favor of the big array of different notations used in the context of undergraduate vector calculus: line integrals, surface integrals (of scalars and fields), ...
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How much math would a non-STEM major have studied in 1950?
I've spoken to several people who attended US universities in the decades before I was born, and I was somewhat surprised to find that it seemed to be common (based on the anecdotes I received) for ...
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Does anyone use the cubic formula these days?
I am writing a story for young people about the history of the development of the cubic formula and complex numbers, partly because it has so much drama and partly because it's amusing that complex ...
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Would a 1990's educated person need additional content knowledge to tutor high school mathematics today?
Have there been any major content (not pedagogical) changes in the basic US high school mathematics curriculum since the mid-1990's? More specifically, if I wanted to become a tutor of high school ...
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When (and why) did geometric means of more than two numbers exit the secondary curriculum?
In contemporary US secondary mathematics textbooks, geometric means occasionally make a brief appearance. For example:
In Geometry, students learn that when an altitude is dropped to the hypotenuse ...
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Duodecimal by Stealth
It is widely recognised that the Duodecimal number system is superior to the decimal system. However, it is plainly obvious that trying to introduce such a system would be difficult, especially in a ...
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The royal road to calculus
In the early 1900s Felix Klein lay out his vision for secondary mathematics curriculum. He wanted schools to teach calculus, so that universities would not be burdened by it. And at the core of the ...
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Learning math historically
What is meant by learning math historically (NOT learning math history only, but learning math with a historical development perspective)? I've seen some sources that to learn a math topic X, you need ...
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