Math 161 Class Page
Spring, 2012

You can find a syllabus here.

An excellent source of references for your papers is JSTOR, available here. You can access it directly from any on-campus computer (to the best of my knowledge!). Off-campus, you can use it after logging in at the library's website, here.

Here is a list of suggested pre-1500 paper topics.

Two good sources for ancient mathematics are Mathematics in the Time of the Pharaohs by Richard Gillings and The Exact Sciences in Antiquity by Otto Neugebauer. Both are available from Dover (translation: cheap).

#1 (assigned 1/18).
READ pp. 1-39 by 1/23.

Here is a basic map of ancient Egypt. It's slightly anachronistic for our period (Alexandria didn't exist until around 330 BC).

The ancient Egyptians had two systems of numeration, hieroglyphic and hieratic.

A map of ancient Mesopotamia is here; a small web page about Mesopotamian math is here.

Astronomy played an important role in the history of mathematics and it will play an important role in this class. Here is a small web page about basic astronomy.

#2 (assigned 1/25).
READ pp. 40-69 by 2/3.

Here is a list of study problems on Egyptian and Mesopotamian ("Babylonian") mathematics.

The first quiz will take place in the last 15-20 minutes of class on Friday, February 3. It will have three or four questions, which will resemble the study problems.

Here is a web page on Greek culture and mathematics.

The SECOND quiz will take place in the last 15-20 minutes of class on Friday, February 24. Topics and format will be announced later.

Here are some study problems on Greek mathematics. We haven't got to all the topics they cover. We will do so shortly.

#3 (assigned 2/10).
READ pp. 70-89 by 2/15.

The quiz on 2/24 will take place in the final 15-20 minutes of class. It will have 3 or 4 questions. They will resemble the study problems on Greek mathematics, which I will go over on Wednesday, 2/22.

#4 (assigned 2/17).
READ pp. 90-108 by 2/24 and 109-174 by 3/16.

For all those writing papers (and who will write them later), this Ed Koren cartoon from the New Yorker shows the difference a single word can make: imagine it without the "ever".

Quiz #3 will take place in the final 15-20 minutes of class on Friday, March 30. It will have 3 or 4 questions. Topics and format will be given out shortly.

Here are some study questions in Greek and Hellenistic mathematics. The questions in the third quiz will resemble these.

Here is a list of suggested topics for your second (post-1500) paper. One of the topics is John Maynard Keynes. Just for fun, here is a music video about the debate between Keynes and fellow economist F. A. Hayek. The video has a follow-up, which you can see here.

#5 (assigned 4/6).
READ pp. 175-202 by 4/13; 203-222 by 4/20.

Quiz #4 will take place in the final 15-20 minutes of class on Wednesday, April 25. Topics and format to be announced shortly.

Here is a short webpage with information on Indian (Hindu) mathematics and culture.

Here is a PDF scan of my class notes on the 'gelosia' and 'galley' methods of computation.

Here are some study problems on Hindu and Hellenistic mathematics. The quiz problems will be like these.

Here is a brief (sadly, very brief) web page on Islamic culture and mathematics.