Cornerstones in Mathematics

Catalog description

Beginning with "strange arithmetics" connected to braiding cords, paper-flipping, and clocks, and ending with the fundamental theorem of algebra and Abel¿s shocking "impossibility theorem" -- this course reveals new connections and unexpected motivations for familiar ideas from precalculus. (e.g., trigonometry as birthed by complex numbers; solutions to the general cubic and quartic equations; hyperbolic trigonometry derived from logarithms) In doing so, the course includes a good review of algebra and transcendental functions and provides a solid foundation for subsequent study of calculus.