COURSE UNIT TITLE

: HISTORY OF MATHEMATICAL THOUGHT

DEGREE PROGRAMMES

Description of Individual Course Units

Course Unit Code Course Unit Title Type Of Course D U L ECTS
ELECTIVE

Offered By

Faculty Of Science

Level of Course Unit

First Cycle Programmes (Bachelor's Degree)

Course Coordinator

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR ASLI GÜÇLÜKAN ILHAN

Offered to

Biology
Computer Science
Mathematics
Physics
Chemistry
Statistics

Course Objective

The aim of this course is to provide students an idea about the historical developmant and the philosophy of mathematics by discussing some of the great and classical theorems of mathematics in historical context and to enable them appreciate the aesthetics of mathematics.

Learning Outcomes of the Course Unit

1   Have a general idea about the philosophy of mathematics
2   Have a general knowledge about the history of mathematics including the biographies of prominent mathematicians and important mathematical events
3   Become familiar with some of the historically important problems and theorems in mathematics
4   Gain insight into the development of several mathematical ideas
5   Be able to write mathematical ideas and some basic techniques

Mode of Delivery

Face -to- Face

Prerequisites and Co-requisites

None

Recomended Optional Programme Components

None

Course Contents

Week Subject Description
1 Hippocrates' quadrature of the lune
2 Euclid's proof of the Pythagorean theorem
3 Euclid and the infinitude of primes
4 Archimedes: The area of the circle
5 Heron: The area of the triangle
6 Fibonacci and the rabbit problem
7 Cardano and the solution of the cubic
8 Newton's binomial theorem
9 Newton & Leibniz on the calculus
10 The Bernoulli's and the harmonic series
11 Euler and infinite sums
12 Euler on number theory
13 Cantor and the infinite
14 Project prensetations

Recomended or Required Reading

Textbook(s):
[1] Dunham, William, Journey Through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics, Penguin, 1990.

Supplementary Book(s):
[1] Berlinghoff, William P., and Fernando Q. Gouvêa, Math Through the Ages: A Gentle History for Teachers and Others, Expanded Edition, Oxton House and MAA, 2004.

[2] Dauben, Joseph and Christoph Scriba, Writing the History of Mathematics Its Historical Development, Birkhäuser, 2002.

References:

Materials:
Instructor s Notes and Presentations

Planned Learning Activities and Teaching Methods

Lecture Notes
Presentation

Assessment Methods

SORTING NUMBER SHORT CODE LONG CODE FORMULA
1 PRS PRESENTATION
2 FIN FINAL EXAM
3 FCGR FINAL COURSE GRADE (RESIT) PRS * 0.50 + FIN * 0.50
4 RST RESIT
5 FCGR FINAL COURSE GRADE (RESIT) PRS * 0.50 + RST * 0.50


Further Notes About Assessment Methods

None

Assessment Criteria

TBA

Language of Instruction

English

Course Policies and Rules

Attending at least 70 percent of lectures is mandatory.

Contact Details for the Lecturer(s)

e-mail: asli.ilhan@deu.edu.tr
Office: 0 (232) 301 85 97

Office Hours

TBA

Work Placement(s)

None

Workload Calculation

Activities Number Time (hours) Total Work Load (hours)
Lectures 14 2 28
Preparations before/after weekly lectures 14 1 14
Preparing presentations 1 4 4
Preparation for final exam 1 4 4
Final 1 2 2
Project Final Presentation 1 1 1
TOTAL WORKLOAD (hours) 53

Contribution of Learning Outcomes to Programme Outcomes

PO/LOPO.1PO.2PO.3PO.4PO.5PO.6PO.7PO.8PO.9PO.10PO.11PO.12PO.13
LO.143
LO.243
LO.343
LO.443
LO.543

CONTACT INFORMATION
Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Cumhuriyet Bulvarı No: 144 35210 Alsancak / İZMİR
Phone: +90(232) 412 12 12 - Fax: +90 (232) 464 81 35

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