HAVE YOU READ THESE?
Articles
Winicki Landman, G.: 2001, ‘History in mathematics education – as
I read it’, For the learning of mathematics, v.21, n.3, 22-24.
The HPM newsletter has published a review (n.44, December 2000) of the book
Fauvel, J. & Van Maanen, J. (editors): 2000, History in mathematics education:
the ICMI Study, Kluwer, Dordrecht-Boston-London. The article of Winicki Landman
is a review made from the point of view of a researcher and teacher who looks
at in order to find an effective and actual help for her work.
Leahy, A.: 2002, ‘History of mathematics on the web’,
Focus (The newsletter of the Mathematical Association of America), v.22, n.2,
12.
It is widely recognized that the web is an important tool for those who are
interested on history. This note adds further elements to information presented
in the site of the British Society for the History of Mathematics (http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/bshm.
Resources.html)
Gulikers, I. & Blom, K., " ‘A Historical Angle’, a Survey
of recent Literature on the Use and Value of History in Geometrical Education",
Educational Studies in Mathematics 47: 223 - 258, 2001.
Many authors have contributed to the debate why we should apply history. The
authors of this paper divide the arguments into conceptual, (multi-)cultural
and motivational ones. The conceptual arguments again are divided into ‘relevant
to teachers’ and ‘relevant to pupils’. Gulikers and Blom found
a smaller number of authors who concentrated on the methodological question
"How?’. A large bibliography of more than 100 papers is given, and
two appendices furnish further details about the content and the purpose of
the articles. In particular articles on specific geometrical subjects are described.
Books
Van Amerom, B.A.: 2002, Reinvention of early algebra. Developmental research
on the transition from arithmetic to algebra, CD-ß Press, Center for Science
and Mathematics Education, Utrecht.
This book is the doctoral dissertation of Barbara Van Amerom, an active member
of HPM, discussed in Utrecht University (16 May 2002).
Many members of HPM already knew and appreciated the work of van Amerom. She
presented it in the HIMED meetings and in European Summer University in History
and Pedagogy of Mathematics. Recently she contributed to the panel on realistic
mathematics during PME 25 held in Utrecht. In her dissertation she has gathered
her studies on early algebra and presents original developments. She pays a
particular attention to the role of history in the teaching of algebra.
On 16 May 2002 Barbara van Amerom (shown here outside the Dom in Utrecht) successfully
defended her PhD thesis titled Reinvention of early algebra. Developmental research
on the transition from arithmetic to algebra. She tried to answer questions
like: Is it possible to start already at primary school with informal algebraic
problem solving? And how can you use the history of mathematics in doing this?
The results of the study inspired the committee of examiners to an interesting
discussion. Barbara reacted vividly in two languages.
Many friends and colleagues visited this ceremony and congratulated the young
doctor afterwards. Barbara did her research under the supervision of the Utrecht
Professors Jan de Lange and Koeno Gravemeijer, whereas Dr. Jan van Maanen from
the University of Groningen supervised the historical aspects of the study.
It is possible to order for a copy of the (English) thesis at the Freudenthal
Institute, P.O. Box 9432, NL-3506 GK Utrecht.
Pizzamiglio, P., Matematica e Storia. Per una didattica interdisciplinare, Ed.
La Scuola, Brescia 2002, ISBN 88-350-9975-7 (pp. 192, 18,50 E.).
The Author of Matematica e storia, Pierluigi Pizzamiglio, is Professor of History
of Mathematics and History of Sciences, Catholic University "Sacro Cuore"
and Director of "Carlo Viganò" Library of History of Sciences,
Brescia, Italy. The first chapter of this important work is devoted to basic
educational ideas, the second deals with methodology; in chapter 3 several kinds
of historical and educational reports are examined; then many suggestions related
with tests and teacher-training are presented. The final Antologia storiografica
(mainly referred to works in Italian) is complete and very interesting.
Holme, A., Geometry - Our Cultural Heritage, Springer Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg,
New York, 2002, pp. 378.
Part I. A cultural Heritage - Early Beginnings - The Great River Civilizations
- Greek and Hellenic Geometry - Geometry and the Hellenistic Era - The Geometry
of Yesterday and Today - Geometry and the Real World - Part II. Introduction
to Geometry - Axiomatic Geometry - Axiomatic Projective Geometry - Models for
non-Euclidean Geometry - Making Things Precise - Projective Space - Geometry
in the Affine and the Projective Plane - Algebraic Curves of Higher Degrees
in the Affine Plane - Higher Geometry in the Projective Plane - Sharpening the
Sword of Algebra - Constructions
Fara, P., Newton: The making of Genius, Macmillan, 2002, pp.347
A review of this book, written by Lisa Jardine, appeared recently in The Sunday
Times. The following quote is taken from that review. "In spite of the
title, Fara’s book is not concerned with the development of Newton’s
ground-breaking ideas. A reader could find themselves at the end of her carefully
structured account of Newtonian "spin" without being any the wiser
about his prism experiments separating white light into its constituent colours,
or about his laws of momentum and gravitational attraction. Fara’s study
of shifting public attitudes to Newton’s genius is, nevertheless, a useful
corrective for those tediously predictable biographies that appear every few
years."
CD ROM
Ancient Mathematics on CD-ROM
One of the main problems in teaching and researching the History of Mathematics
consists in the difficulty in gaining access to original works by mathematicians
of centuries past. In most cases it is necessary to turn to old editions, which
are only available in a few libraries.
To get around these difficulties and to make information about historical mathematics
available to a wider public, the Giardino di Archimede has taken the initiative
of releasing a series of tests relevant to the history of mathematics on CD-ROM.
Each CD contains about 5000 pages (corresponding to about 15-20 volumes). Material
can be read directly on our computer and printed. The quality of the images,
even when the books are not very well preserved is adequate for a comfortable
reading of the more complex texts.
The price of each CD is 130 _. It is also possible a standing order to the first
ten CDs at the price of 1040_. For more information and orders, write to archimede@math.unifi.it
or visit the web site
http://www.math.unifi.it/archimede.
Fulvia Furinghetti
Genoa, Italy
Marta Menghini and Giorgio T. Bagni
Rome, Italy
Peter Ransom
Romsey, UK
Old books for sale
I have received the following information from Andrei Volgin of Adamant Media:
Our company recently released several reprints of old mathematics books by Kelvin,
Todhunter, Salmon, De Morgan, etc. The list can be found on our website at http://www.elibron.com/english/books/index.phtml
then "Sciences", then "Mathematics & Statistics".
We also encourage requests to reprint other old (pre-1923) books that are not
available from other publishers or excessively expensive. I believe that this
information may be useful to the readers of your newsletter.
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