To refine search, see subtopic Artillery. To expand search, see Social Science. Laterally related topics: Taxation, Kinship Systems, and Anthropology, General.
The Mathematics and the Liberal Arts pages are intended to be a resource for student research projects and for teachers interested in using the history of mathematics in their courses. Many pages focus on ethnomathematics and in the connections between mathematics and other disciplines. The notes in these pages are intended as much to evoke ideas as to indicate what the books and articles are about. They are not intended as reviews. However, some items have been reviewed in Mathematical Reviews, published by The American Mathematical Society. When the mathematical review (MR) number and reviewer are known to the author of these pages, they are given as part of the bibliographic citation. Subscribing institutions can access the more recent MR reviews online through MathSciNet.
Court, Nathan Altshiller. Mathematics in the History of Civilization. The Mathematics Teacher 41 (1948), 104--11.
How different concerns of society influenced mathematics. How the development of the concept of number is reflected in language. How the concept of how many led to arithmetic. How the concept of how much led to geometry. (Taxation and agriculture also contributed to both.) Efforts to keep time led to trigonometry. Navigation and associated astronomical problems led to logarithms [and more trigonometry]. Problems in artillery led to graphs. Both required an understanding of motion. Analytic geometry and calculus were invented in part to better understand motion. Statistics developed to understand problems in the social sciences. Also discusses the nature of mathematics: mathematics for its own sake and the axiomatic method. Reprinted in Swetz, Frank J., From Five Fingers to Infinity. Closely related topics: Why Study History Of Math, Mathematics in Language, Number Systems, Arithmetic, Geometry, Taxation, Agriculture, Astronomy, The Reckoning of Time, Trigonometry, Artillery, Graphing, Navigation, Dynamics, Force, and Motion, Analytic Geometry, Calculus, Statistics, Social Science, and Proof.
Gardner, Arthur O. The History of Mathematics as a Part of the History of Mankind. Mathematics Teacher 61 (1968), 524--26.
Briefly discusses how factors such as religion and warfare have influenced the development of mathematics. Attributes the success of Leonardo of Pisa (Fibonacci) to the unconventional ideas of his sovereign, Emperor Frederick II of the house of Hanover. Martin Luther is an example of an important theologian who supported mathematics: "If I had children, they should not only study language and history, but they should also learn singing and music, together with the whole of mathematics." Reprinted in Swetz, Frank J., From Five Fingers to Infinity. Closely related topics: Religion and Leonardo of Pisa (Fibonacci).