Spring 2024
Math 629: History of Mathematics

Piazza:     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 reflections on the history of mathematics Due 20 March 2024.
You will need to both email a .pdf to me at sottile@tamu.edu, and submit it to turnitin.com.
Here is the information for our class:
Math 629 History of Mathematics     Class ID: 43151150     Class Enrollment Key is sent to you on PIazza
Instructor: Frank Sottile
  Office: Blocker 601 k.
    This semester I will mostly be in Cambridge UK and Berkeley, CA.
Email: sottile@tamu.edu
    This is the second-best way to contact Frank, after Piazza.
WWW: franksottile.github.io/
Grader: Ryan Malthaner.
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.
  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.
Because of the sheer volume of material, I am interested in anything any
  students in this class find useful.
  Professor Fulling's list of other general histories of mathematics.
Course Forum: This term we will be using Piazza for class discussion.
          This was chosen to get you help fast and efficiently from classmates,
          Ryan, and me. Rather than emailing questions, post them on Piazza.
          For technical prolems with that site email team@piazza.com. They are very responsive.
          Our class page.
Course webpage: franksottile.github.io/teaching/24.1/629.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, mostly from Stillwell, and some 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 Gradescope. Some problems are to be done in groups, but not handed in; these will form the basis of the short group quizzes. There will be two hands-on projects that involve constructing a mathematical object. I will also regularly assign a short, timed, concept quiz on the reading, which will also be done on Gradescope. In response to feedback from past students, there will be somewhat less homework assigned than in the past, particularly mathematical problems vs. history questions.
There will be two written assignments: a short paper and a term paper. These will be submitted both to turnitin.com and to me in .pdf.
These papers are a major form of assessment in this class, reflecting that History of Mathematics is a hybrid of mathematics and the humanities. There will also be an oral quiz involving problems from the assignments, done in small groups. I will also give credit to non-anonymous participation in the on-line discussion through Piazza. This will be in the form of up to 40 points (=6.66%) on the scale below. 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
Reflections on the History of Mathematics paper   Due date Wednesday March 20       100
Group quiz   May 6 — 7       60
Piazza Participation         40
Term Paper   April 30       200
Short paper The first paper will be a reflection on your experience on the history of mathematics. You will submit it both to turnitin.com as well as send me a .pdf. I will mark it for writing quality, both form and content.
Term Paper: This should be significantly longer (around 2000 words), so that you can properly develop your topic. This will include a round of peer-review and some preliminary steps, and a short presentation/discussion with me on its contents and what you learned from it. I will want you to have a topic chosen by mid February.
Groups Within the first 2 weeks, I'd like to have you form into six groups of three and one of two (there are 20 enrolled in the class). These groups will serve two purposes. First, they will be where peer-review of your term paper takes place. Second, some of the problems I assign (I think 6-12) will not be handed in for a grade, but you are to work on them with your peers. At the end of the semester, I will meet with each group to discuss those problems and their solutions (1 per person in a group). You can get help from group members at this.
I have a long-standing interest in mathematics history, including biography, and have quite a few history books in my library. The is the fifth time I have taught this course (the others were in 2017, 2018, 2020, and 2022). This course was created by colleagues at Texas A&M, and I followed their lead when I first designed it.
Most notably Professor Emeritus Allen created this course and developed extensive on-line notes on the history of mathematics, some of which we will be using. I have also been greatly helped by Professor Emeritus Fulling and Professor Emerita Geller.
Required Disclaimers (not yet active).

Last modified: Mon Apr 22 13:31:23 PDT 2024 by sottile