This course is offered in Fall 1999 on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from 4:30 to 5:45 p.m. in Mendel Hall G29.
Thomas L. Bartlow, whose office is in SAC 323 and telephone number is 610-519-7331, e-mail tbartlow@email.vill.edu.
The text is Katz, Victor J., A History of Mathematics --- An Introduction, second edition Addison-Wesley, 1998. We will cover the first 12 chapters.
Problems will be assigned from each chapter and should be handed in at the class after the material has be treated. Ideally problems should be solved completely and correctly, using historical rather than modern methods whenever possible. If you are not able to do this hand in your best effort. Hand in problems on 8.5" by 11" loose-leaf paper. They will be marked and returned. You should revise them and enclose them in a loose-leaf notebook which will be collected at the end of the semester. You may work with others on the problems; in fact it would be a good idea to do so. If a problem is difficult two or three or four heads tossing ideas around may make progress where one head would not. But please be scrupulously honest in writing up each solution in your own way. Even if you got the main idea from someone else it will become yours when you write it up. If you do not understand it well enough to write it up yourself you should not get credit for it. Please do not copy another persons write-up and do not show your write-up to another student. If I believe this is happening all persons involved will receive 0 for the problem.
Students in Mat 7300 will write a paper on a topic in the history of mathematics. Notice the emphasis; the paper should contain a reasonable amount of non-trivial mathematics but its focus should be on the history of that mathematics. For example a paper on calculus that explains the ideas of calculus but not how those ideas were developed is not appropriate. Likewise a paper that discusses the lives and times of Newton and Leibniz but not their mathematical ideas is not right. One way to satisfy this requirement is to do a report on some source document in mathematics. A source document is the original mathematical work of historical significance, for example Descartes' La Geometrie. Such a paper would summarize and explain the mathematical content of the source and discuss the historical context in which the source originated. Begin now to search for a topic. I will be glad to discuss this with you at any time.
Plan to submit to me on September 16 a one or two paragraph proposal for your paper. I will review it and return it with suggestions. Your proposal may be submitted either typed, on one page, or via e-mail.
You should use a variety of resource materials. Enclyclopedias and books are a good place to start, as are the research aids listed in the course bibliography. These should lead you to journal articles and, perhaps, original sources. One of the criteria in grading your paper will be the range an depth of the sources you use and the sensitivity with they are used and cited. A paper that uses only encyclopedias and general history of math texts is worth only a C.
There is no fixed rule about the length of your paper. V. Frederick Rickey, from whom I have taken some of these guidelines, has pointed out that papers often have a natural length. They tell a story which requires a certain background and is expounded with just the right combination of detail and broad perspective. Sometimes this takes five pages, sometimes thirty. If the story is a good one and you tell it well, you will have a good paper.
Your paper should be presented in the standard format for a college paper. Use any standard reference on paper writing for conventions for footnotes and bibligraphy. The paper will be graded on the depth of its historical and mathematical content, the completeness and accuracy of the material, the accuracy, scope and significance of your references, and the artistry of your writing.
Class attendance is expected. While there is no formal penalty for missing class, those who miss lose the opportunity to learn from explanations and discussions. Especially in a smaller class abscences are noticed and affect the spirit of the class. When you miss you hurt not only yourself but others in the class.
Grades for students in Mat 7300 will be based on two period tests (100 points each) , a final exam (150 points), homework problems (3 points per problem), and the paper (100 points). The first test will be on October 5 and will cover Chapters 1-4; the second test will be on November 16 and will cover Chapters 5-9. The final exam is scheduled by the registrar, tentatively for December 22, 2:30 - 5:00 p.m. It will focus on Chapters 10-12 but will include material from earlier chapters.
At the end of the semester each student's scores will be added and an informal curve will be imposed on the set of totals. In imposing this curve I will be guided by University guidelines that A denotes ``superior mastery of the course material ... as well as originality and creativity,'' B denotes ``good mastery of the course material ... and ... a high degree of originality, creativity,'' C denotes ``acceptable mastery of the course material'' and ``some evidence of originality, creativity, or both,'' D denotes ``limited understanding of the subject matter ... below the .. acceptable standard; little evidence of originality, creativity, or both, and F denotes ``serious deficiency in understanding course material.''