History of Mathematics

Catalog description

This course explores the evolution of mathematical ideas in the ancient period (approximately 2000 BCE to 1200 CE), and conclude with a study of the re-emergence of Mathematics in Europe between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, the origins of Calculus in the seventeenth century, and the nineteenth century development of rigor and abstraction. The emphasis will be on doing representative historically important mathematical problems, using both historical and modern techniques. In the ancient period mathematical contributions of Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, Chinese, Indian, and Arab Mathematicians will be studied. Then re-emergence of Mathematics in Europe will be explored through the contributions of Fibonacci, Pacioli, Cardano, Vieta, Fermat, Descartes, Newton, and Leibniz.