Spring 2020
Math 629: History of Mathematics

Piazza Class page    
Information for Week Ω   Week 13   Week 12   Week 11   Week 10   Week 9   Week 8   Week 7   Week 6   Week 5   Week 4   Week 3   Week 2   Week 1   Week 0.
Information about your Term Paper.
Information about your Second Paper .
Information about Book Review.
You will need to both email a .pdf to me at fjsteachmath@gmail.com, and submit it to turnitin.com.
Here is the information for our class:
Math 629 History of Mathematics     Class ID: 23869119     Class Enrollment Key: Sottile629
Instructor: Frank Sottile
  Office: None. This is a distance course. While I am (as of 10 March) back in College Station,
I will not be available for face-to-face meetings (I am asthmatic, and my department head
has asked me to stay away from everyone.)
    This semester, I (Frank Sottile) am in Berlin until 9 March.
Teaching Email: fjsteachmath@gmail.com
    This is the second-best way to contact Frank, after Piazza.
WWW: www.math.tamu.edu/~sottile
Grader: Elise Walker. Her email: walkere@math.tamu.edu
Use this only for asking questions to Elise, and to thank her.
Required Texts: Mathematics and its History, Third edition, by John Stillwell.
  It is possible to download a free version of the text through the TAMU library.
  Prof. Allen's on-line class notes.
  Another resource is The University of St. Andrew's
  MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, particularly its
  resource page on the History of Mathematics.
Additional Materials: There is significant content about mathematics and its history
  on the web, and many, many accessible books on the subject.
  Professor Fulling's list of other general histories of mathematics.
Course Forum: This term we will be using Piazza for class discussion.
          The system is highly catered to getting you help fast and efficiently from classmates,
          Elise, and me. Rather than emailing questions to us, post them on Piazza.
          For technical prolems with that site email team@piazza.com. They are very responsive.
          Our class page.
Course webpage: www.math.tamu.edu/~sottile/teaching/20.1/629/629.html
On forms of address:
Not only is it always my preference to be called by my first name, Frank, it also makes sense that you as graduate students should do so. You are bona-fide adults, many with professional qualifications, and I believe that leaving honorifics at the door of our classroom facilitates discourse.
Course Description
Major events in the evolution of mathematical thought from ancient times to the present, the development of various important branches of mathematics, including numeration, geometry, algebra, analysis, number theory, probability, and applied mathematics.
Prerequisite: MATH 304 or equivalent. (Linear algebra).
How this course will be run
Each week, I will assign reading, from Stillwell, as well as on-line sources. I will write weekly guides, as well as help to moderate our class forum on Piazza. Most weeks, I will assign homework, which will be submitted via E-campus.
There will be three written assignments: a book review, a short paper, and a term paper. These will be submitted both to turnitin.com and to me in .pdf.
These papers are the major forms of assessment in this class, reflecting that History of Mathematics is a hybrid of mathematics and the humanities. I will also give credit to participation in the on-line discussion through Piazza. This will be in the form of extra credit, up to 10% of course credit. A value of having the community of scholars that is a University is interaction with one's peers.
Grading system and due dates:   Weekly assignments   Mondays at 11:59 PM       200
Book Review   Wednesday February 12       100
Short Paper   Monday March 23       100
Term Paper   May 04       200
Short papers The first paper will be a book review (about 1000 words long).
  In the second paper, you will advocate a point of view on a topic to be assigned. The second paper is expected to be about the same length as the book review. This length guideline is to help you to choose to take the time to make a well-thought-out argument, and to signal that this need not be so all-consuming. You will submit them both to turnitin.com as well as send me a .pdf. I will mark them for writing quality, both form and content.
Term Paper: This should be significantly longer (2500-3000 words), so that you can properly develop your topic. I will want you to have a topic chosen by early March.
I have a long-standing interest in mathematics history, including biography, and have quite a few history books in my library. The is the third time I have taught this course (the others were in 2017 and 2018). This course was created by colleagues at Texas A&M, and I followed their lead when I first designed it.
Most notably Prof. Allen created this course and developed extensive on-line notes on the history of mathematics, some of which we will be using. Here are links to some recent times that other faculty have taught this. Dr. Marco Antonio Roque-Sol 2019,   Prof. Fulling 2015,   Prof. Allen 2010,   Prof. Geller 2005.
Required Disclaimers.
Last modified: Sun Apr 19 09:41:25 CDT 2020