CSCH 1070 Measuring the Earth: Geometry And History
By studying the history of science and mathematics, we begin to see the humanity of the scientific endeavor. Furthermore, we see more broadly how ideas are formed, accepted, and rejected within a community. Our case study for this course is the science of Geometry. This class will use traditional math lectures supplemented with classroom discussion of readings from primary sources. To illustrate the hybrid focus of this course, we note that the course grade will be 50% traditional math homework, exams, presentations and 50% historical/cultural essays, presentations and discussion Through these means, the course will guide students through three major themes in the intellectual history of mathematics. 1. The axiomatic system of the Hellenic world, which dominated European mathematical education for centuries in the form of Euclid's Elements. 2. The analytic revolution, led by Rene Descartes in the 17th Century, which brought algebraic methods to geometry. 3. The intuition-smashing abstraction that is non-Euclidean geometry, first described by Bolyai and Lobachevsky in the 19th century, which rocked the worlds of math, philosophy, and literature. Fulfills General Education competencies in Mathematical and Critical Reasoning.
LA