PROFESSOR: David W. Henderson, 403 Malott Hall, <dwh2@cornell.edu>, 255-3523. For office hours, make an appointment in class or write by e-mail. I am almost always available before and after class and will be in my office most of each Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
TA: Cynthia Francisco <cbowers@polygon.math.cornell.edu>. Hours hours in Malott 218: Tues 1:00-2:15, Thurs 3:35-4:20 and by appointment.
TEXTBOOK: The textbook for the course is Victor J. Katz, A History of Mathematics: An Introduction (Second Edition). The text will be used for some exercises and its overall description of the history of mathematics. The text will be supplemented with additional materials.
COURSE CONTENT: We will survey the development of mathematical ideas from antiquity to the present. The organizing theme for this semester will be the problems, ideas, and controversies that led to the development of the calculus and how these problems, ideas, and controversies are still influencing current mathematical research. There will be weekly writing assignments, exercises, and occasional oral presentations that explore mathematical ideas from the past and their influences today. In addition, each student will complete a term project that will explore in depth an issue in the history of mathematics. As is appropriate for a senior-level mathematics course, the emphasis throughout will be on the history of mathematical ideas as opposed to the history of mathematicians. Far too much mathematics has been done in the past 5000 years to treat its entire history carefully.
READING RESOURCES: There is a great number of written resources about history of mathematics. As a textbook we will be using Victor J. Katz, A History of Mathematics: An Introduction. You can look at Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times by Morris Kline which is maybe the fattest books about the history of mathematics. You can read also Mathematics in Western Culture or Mathematics, the Loss of Certainty by the same author. You will find interesting reading in The Crest of the Peacock by George G. Joseph which discusses the non-European roots of mathematics. You can look at Mathematics and Its History by John Stilwell and compare this book with others in the history of mathematics. If you are particularly interested in the history of elementary mathematics you will find useful the book, The Historical roots of Elementary Mathematics by Lucas N.H.Bunt, Phillip S.Jones and Jack.D.Bedient, or classical work of B.L.van der Waerden, Science Awakening. You can read about the spread of Numeracy in Early America in A Calculating people by Patricia Cline Cohen. A multicultural view of mathematical ideas you will find in Ethnomathematics by Marcia Ascher. The book Men of Mathematics, by E.T. Bell, was written long ago but it is still in print and is interesting to read. You should look at the Classics of Mathematics, edited by Ronald Calinger, which has wonderful introductory chapters discussing the various historical periods and readings from original sources. Readings from original sources can also be found in A Source Book in Mathematics by David E. Smith and in A Source Book in Mathematics 1200-1800 edited by D.J. Struik. There are two books dealing with the history of calculus: Calculus: A Genetic Aproach, by Otto Toeplitz; and The historical development of the calculus, by C. H. Edwards, Jr. All of the above mentioned books are on reserve in the Mathematics Library. In addition, the Mathematics Library is one of the largest and most complete mathematics libraries in the world and has numerous other books dealing with the history of mathematics. Also, I have made arrangments with Kroch Library Rare Book and Manuscript Division for us to meet as a class there on February 6 during class time for a presentation of other old mathematics treasures in the Cornell Library.
Use the above resources when you are studying some topic and want to know what are the different opinions on the same thing and when preparing for your library assignment and course project. We will also be watching some videos in class which will help you better understand what was happening in 20th century mathematics -- a period that is usually covered only sparsely in most mathematics history textbooks.
INTERNET RESOURCES: connect to http://www.math.cornell.edu/~dtaimina/histlinks.htm
ASSIGNMENTS: All assignments will be posted on the course website:
http://www.math.cornell.edu/~dwh/courses/M403-S03/