Similarity in Greek Geometry: A Historico-Educational Account

Document Type

Presentation Abstract

Presentation Date

9-13-2010

Abstract

In this talk, I will raise some difficulties that arise in the attempt to incorporate history of mathematics in mathematics education. These difficulties are not merely practical, but involve the basic commitments demanded of mathematics educators on the one hand and of historians of mathematics on the other. The commitments of the former involve, among other things, making sure that whatever gets into the classroom is relevant to present mathematical concerns and present applications of mathematics, while those of the latter involve seeing the mathematics of the present in contradistinction to the mathematics of the past. To illustrate this point, I will focus on the case of similarity in Greek mathematics. The example was chosen because of the centrality of similarity in every geometry curriculum and because of the expectation that the concept, if anything, should be uncontroversial and unchanged over the centuries.

Additional Details

Monday, 13 September 2010
3:10 p.m. in Math 103
4:00 p.m. Refreshments in Math Lounge 109

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