History of Mathematics Detailed Syllabus

(For a more general syllabus, see this.)

The chapters refer to our text, A History of Mathematics, an Introduction by Victor J. Katz, Harper Collins College Publishers, New York, second edition, 1998. Other material will be included as appropriate.

The actual exercises assigned may not be the ones listed here, but many will.

Chapter 1: Ancient mathematics Ancient civilizations, counting, arithmetic computations, Babylonian reciprocal table, The Egyptian 2/n table, linear and equations, simultaneous linear equations, elementary geometry, astronomical calculations, square roots, the Pythagorean theorem, Plimpton 322 tablet 4 meetings.
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Also tokens of preliterate Mesopotamia.
Chapter 2: The beginnings of mathematics in Greece The earliest Greek mathematics, the time of Plato, Aristotle, Euclid and the Elements, Euclid's other works 4 meetings.
Euclid's Elements with dragable figures, and a quick trip of the Elements
Chapter 3: Archimedes and Apollonius Archimedes and physics, Archimedes and numerical calculations, Archimedes and geometry 2 meetings.
Chapter 4: Mathematical methods in Hellenistic times Astronomy before Ptolemy, Ptolemy and the Almagest, practical mathematics 2 meetings.
See also Cosmology and astronomy, History of Trigonometry
Chapter 5: The final chapters of Greek mathematics Diophantus and Greek algebra, Pappus and analysis 2 meetings.
Chapter 6: Medieval China and India Introduction to Medieval Chinese mathematics, the mathematics of surveying and astronomy, indeterminate analysis, solving polynomial equations, introduction to the mathematics of Medieval India, Indian trigonometry and surveying, Indian indeterminate analysis, algebra and combinatorics, the Hindu-Arabic place-value system 4 meetings.
See also Mathematics in China.
Chapter 7: The mathematics of Islam Decimal arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry 3 meetings.
Chapter 8: Mathematics in Medieval Europe Geometry and trigonometry, combinatorics, Medieval algebra, the mathematics of kinematics 3 meetings.
Interchapter: Mathematics around the world Mathematics at the turn of the fourteenth century, mathematics in America, Africa, and the Pacific 1 meeting.
Chapter 9: Algebra in the renaissance The Italian abacists, algebra in France, Germany, England , and Portugal, the solution of the cubic equation, the work of ViƩte and Stevin 3 meetings.
Chapter 10: Mathematical methods in the renaissance Perspective, geography and navigation, astronomy and trigonometry, logarithms, kinematics 3 meetings.
Also readings on Merton scholars and Oresme
Chapter 11: Geometry, algebra, and probability in the seventeenth century Analytic geometry, the theory of equations, elementary probability, number theory, projective geometry 3 meetings.
Chapter 12: The beginnings of calculus Tangents and extrema, areas and volumes, power series, rectification of curves and the fundamental theorem, Isaac Newton, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, first calculus texts 3 meetings.

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