A Web-based project for AP Calculus AB Designed by Mrs. Kamkutis Solon High School Who is Your Favorite Mathematician?

Math History Project Schedule Task Good Questions to Ask/Answer List of Mathematicians Examples for Works Cited List Conclusion

Schedule April 21st– Introduce Project and Begin Research April 30– Deadline for choosing mathematician May 3-5 – Research/preparation in Library or on Computer April 6 – Presentations May 7 – Presentations Back to table of contents

Task Choose a Mathematician who has had an historical impact (from the list provided or an approved alternate).list provided Prepare a minute presentation that includes the following: –A biography of the mathematicians life (5 points) –A synopsis of the mathematician’s contribution to the field of mathematics (5points) –A mathematical presentation (which may be a computation, diagram, proof, etc.) which illustrates one of the mathematician’s efforts. (5points) –I WILL TAKE OFF IF YOU GO OVER YOUR TIME LIMIT! Turn in a typewritten outline of your presentation (on the day you give it), including: –Title of presentation and your name (2 points) –The three presentation topics above with details (8 points) –Bibliographic references, including publications and websites (5 points). You must have at least 4 sources of which at least one is not web-based. Back to table of contents

Good Questions to Ask/Answer What factors motivated your mathematician? How did your mathematician’s life experience, beliefs and interests influence his/her work? How do the mathematical advances of your mathematician’s day differ from today’s mathematical research? (What was it like to be a mathematician then as compared to now?) Back to table of contents

List of Mathematicians The Greek Period oPythagoras of Samos oArchimedes of Syracuse oEuclid of Alexandria oAristotle oPlato oEratosthenes of Cyrene oThales of Miletus oHippocrates of Chios oZeno of Elea Dark ages to Renaissance oFibonacci, Leonardo oBhaskara oCopernicus, Nicolaus oAl-Khwarizmi 16 th and 17 th Centuries oKepler, Johannes oPascal, Blaise oFermat, Pierre de oNapier, John oDescartes, Rene 18 th Century oNewton, Isaac oLeibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm von oChatalet, Gabrielle oEuler, Leonard oBernoulli (Jacob or Johann or both) Early 19 th Century oAgnesi, Maria oGauss, Johann oGalois, Evariste oFourier, Jean Baptiste oHerschel, Caroline oLagrange, Joseph-Louis oLaplace, Pierre-Simon oCauchy, Augustin oPoisson, Simeon Early 19 th Century oBoole, George oRiemann, Georg oKovalevskaya, Sofia oLovelace, Augusta oCantor, Georg oSomerville, Mary 20 th Century oHilbert, David oMandelbrot, Benoit oUhlenbeck, Karen oHeinrich, Bruce oCartwright, Mary oNoether, Emmy oNash, John Forbes oShannon, Claude oTuring, Alan oVon Neumann, John Back to table of contents Back to Task page

Examples for Works Cited List Basic Format for Online Source: Author, “Title” (Last Revision Date); n. pag. Online: Internet. Today’s Date as DD Month YYYY (web address) Brown, Kevin. "Constructing the Heptadecagon" (January 12, 1999); 8 pars. Online: Internet. 15 February 1999 ( Gonzalez, Humberto M. Humberto's Home Page. (1996); n. pag. Online: Internet. 23 November 1998 ( Weisstein, Eric W. "Euclid's Fifth Postulate." (9 August 1998); 5 pars. Online: Internet. 11 August 1998 ( Other Types of Sources: Clapham, Christopher. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics. New York: Oxford University Press, Dunnington, G. Waldo, Ph.D. Carl Friedrich Gauss: Titan of Science. New York: Hafner Publishing Co., Moritz, Robert Edouard, Ph. D., Ph. N. D. Memorabilia Mathematica or The Philomath's Quotation-book. New York: The MacMillan Company, Borrowed from: Cung, Nelly. "Carl Friedrich Gauss." (3 October 2001); n. pag. Online: Internet. 21 May 2003 ( Back to table of contents

Conclusion Through this project, you will gain a better appreciation for the mathematicians of the past and the mathematics that they have developed for your use. You will gain insight into what it means to be a mathematician by attempting to understand work that has already been done. (Imagine how difficult it would be to come up with these concepts as original work!) Through your presentation of a mathematical concept to the class, you will strengthen your understanding of that concept. Back to table of contents Adapted from: What is Your Favorite Proof of the Pythagorean Theorem? By Crystal L. Furman