Math History

I've been teaching this "Development of Math" class at MSU this semester and I have to say thatI've gained a new and different appreciation for math now that I understand its history so much better. In college, as you are preparing to become a teacher, your math classes and your education classes are completely separate, so you never do learn any math history. So you go into teaching understanding the algorithms and why they work and what they tell you, but you never understand how they came to be, or all of the angst that went into finding the solutions. You don't realize that there were people involved in the discoveries, and that lives were changed with each new discovery or each new defeat. Men and women alike spent their lives trying to prove theorems that couldn't be proved; trying to find solutions that couldn't be found. There were duels between mathematicians (mathematical ones, not physical ones) and infidelities (physical ones, not mathematical ones); gambling addictions and drug addictions; self-serving men and generously giving men.

One of my favorite topics is the history of numbers. Representing quantity is such a fundamental concept for us, but the development of a numeration system that so easily portrays it has a long and interesting history. I'm fascinated by the many different systems ancient cultures designed to represent quantity. I'm fascinated by the transistions, and the intellectual leaps made. I love the idea that Isaac Newton had trouble understanding what negative numbers represented; and that the square roots of negative numbers caused consternation for 3500 years before being accepted as numbers. I enjoy looking at the way irrational numbers were discovered and how fractions are represented across cultures.

It's a fascinating area of math that I wish more people knew about. It's too bad that most states push curriculum based on skills rather than concepts and a deep understanding of those concepts. Knowing a little history might help high school students appreciate math a little more. . .