MetaFilter posts tagged with mathematics and history

MacTutor History of Mathematics archive

parudox — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 12:47:09 -0800

The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive is an astounding collection of historical material on mathematics, especially biographies. (Previously: 1 2 3 4.)

The Pope with the Robotic Head

Iridic — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 13:16:11 -0800

Gerbert D'Aurillac: mathemetician and engineer, Pope, ghost, and meddler with dark forces. The superstitious and rather insulting assumption that Gerbert's intellectual achievements could only be supernatural in nature has survived to the present day. More modern mythmakers have outed him as a disciple of The Nine, the enigmatic circle of savants and scholars who have custody over science's more dangerous secrets. Apparently they were the ones who gave him his robotic brass head.

The scholarship on whether Pythagoras wrote "Beans, Beans, the Musical Fruit" remains inconclusive.

Kattullus — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 09:40:00 -0800

Everything you know about Pythagoras is wrong (except the bit about the beans). Less the golden-thighed Einstein of the Ancient World and more the L. Ron Hubbard of Magna Graecia. [Last link has some rude words]

The Difference Engine

slimepuppy — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 03:15:03 -0800

Charles Babbage's Difference Engines. One built in 1853. A subsequent design completed in 1991. And again in Lego. Both designs recreated in Meccano parts. [more inside]

noe .2. thynges, can be moare equalle.

goatdog — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 10:05:19 -0800

"To avoide the tediouse repetition of these woordes: is equalle to: I will settle as I doe often in woorke use, a paire of paralleles, or gemowe lines of one lengthe: ======, bicause noe .2. thynges, can be moare equalle." Welsh mathematician Robert Recorde (1510–1558) invented the equals sign in his 1557 work The Whetstone of Witte, which also introduced "Zenzizenzizenzic", the eighth power of a number. Recorde had advocated the + and – symbols in his 1540 work The Grounde of Artes. He died in debtor's prison in 1558. Read, watch, or listen to a recent lecture that links the equals sign to developments in art, navigation, and astronomy. (Wikipedia)

A New Chronology?

misteraitch — Tue, 02 Mar 2004 01:25:37 -0800

The mathematician Anatoly Fomenko is one of a number of Russian academics advancing revisionist chronologies which portray a greatly foreshortened view of European history. He argues that mediaeval and classical histories as we know them today were fabricated in Renaissance times. In his book 'History: Fiction or Science', he 'proves' that Jesus Christ was born in 1053 and crucified in 1086, and that the Old Testament refers to mediaeval events... Fomenko's theories have been debunked, but his ideas have nevertheless gained some currency in Russia: among his supporters is the former chess champion Garry Kasparov. Of course, Fomenko is by no means the first mathematician to grapple with the subject of chronology: indeed, any history must be founded in part on a calculus of dates... Are there any parallels, I wonder, between the spread of theories like Fomenko's and the renewed prevalence of Biblical chronologies in the US, for example: is there some kind of psychological solace in perceiving history on a smaller scale than current academic orthodoxy allows? (more inside).

A treasure trove of math history

wobh — Tue, 30 Dec 2003 10:36:26 -0800

The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive from the University of St. Andrews' School of Mathematics and Statistics.

moz — Wed, 09 Oct 2002 12:47:04 -0800

Women Mathematicians. With numerous biographies and photographs, this website indexes the many contributions that women have made to the field of mathematics. From Pythagoras' wife Theano and martyr Hypatia, also notable are the first female computer programmer and the first female Ph.D. recipient.