![]() ![]() That's nothing compared to Euclid's Elements, that, in pulling together the best work of the Greek mathematicians and presenting a model of logical reasoning, became the standard geometry text for more than 2,000 years! After being met with initial skepticism, eventually that book became the standard math text for more than 200 years. ![]() In his first book, published in 1200 and revised in 1228, Fibonacci strongly advocated that the ancient Hindu-Arab system of numbers be adopted in the West. If we ask our students to imagine a world without 0, such as the long-ago Western world that relied on Roman numerals or an abacus to do calculations, we can thank Leonardo Pisano Fibonacci, who learned the calculating methods of the local merchants wherever he went in his extensive travels. His work on analytic geometry was one small part of a larger quest for truth launched with the famous words, "I think, therefore I am," meaning that he could be sure of only one thing - his own existence - as he began systematically questioning all existing knowledge. We know that, of coursebut do our students? How much richer an appreciation our students might have for mathematics as a living science if we share with them the budding of new ideas in math heroes past and present! It all begins with "I wonder."įor instance, when our students use coordinate geometry, we can tell them that the idea of joining algebra and geometry in this way is said to have come to René Descartes one day in 1637 as he lay in bed wondering how to describe the path of a fly on the ceiling. ![]()
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