Search

Centre for General Education and Institute of History, National Tsing Hua University, Department of Mathematics and Information Education, National Taipei University of Education

The Nine Chapters on the Art of Mathematics has played a very important role and been considered as a classic in the history of Chinese mathematics. We formed a research team which used this material to introduce to high school students the setting of an equation, explaining its problem and method using the Fangcheng chapter of the Chinese classic. The main goal of this lesson plan was to introduce the Fangcheng method of solving systems of linear equations, so that students can naturally develop understanding of the concept of the matrix and its operations, and appreciate the Chinese cultural heritage as well. Thus, helping them realize that mathematics came from real life, we aroused students' interests. Among 33 respondents of the survey, 29 thought this course helped them understand the methods and basic concepts, and 28 said it enhanced their mathematical literacy. Obviously, introducing the Fangcheng chapter and Fangcheng method from the Chinese classic, and linking them to the learning of the matrix, we can enhance students' understanding and their beliefs about the cultural aspects of mathematics., "The study of the history of mathematics 2017". September 19-22, 2017. edited by Shigeru Jochi. The papers presented in this volume of RIMS Kôkyûroku Bessatsu are in final form and refereed.

In this paper, we discuss features of geometrical diagrams in different cultures, especially representations of 3-D objects in East Asia. There is no Chinese diagram in the first millennium or earlier that survives to this day. In the second millennium, there are some interesting features. In the first half of the second millennium, Chinese diagrams for 3-D objects are usually contextualised; in the second half, the diagrams became more abstract. Korean and Japanese mathematicians used very creative ways, such as parallel line segments or shadows, to draw 3-D objects. Japanese scholars also put a middle curve in a 2-D diagram to create the sense of the third dimension. For sangaku diagrams, they also put different colours on the two regions divided by the middle curve, as if those regions are different "faces"., "The study of the history of mathematics 2017". September 19-22, 2017. edited by Shigeru Jochi. The papers presented in this volume of RIMS Kôkyûroku Bessatsu are in final form and refereed.

In this article, the author discusses a mathematical manuscript Chusŏ kwangyŏn (1718) written by a Korean noble scholar Cho T'ae-Gu (1660-1723). After reviewing the composition, contents and knowledge structure of the text, the author concludes that mathematicians of late-17th and early-18th centuries in Korea had a traditional East Asian knowledge structure of nine categories, although they did not have the entirety of the classical Nine Chapters at hand, to absorb and transform mathematics from China's Song-Yuan period and from the West. And Korean mathematicians in that period used freely what knowledge they had regardless of its origins to solve problems., "The study of the history of mathematics 2016". August 29～September 1, 2016. edited by Shigeru Jochi. The papers presented in this volume of RIMS Kôkyûroku Bessatsu are in final form and refereed.

International audience; We report the influences of an undergraduate-level liberal-arts course, in which students in a medical university were guided to read through important parts of Euclid's Elements and taught about related cultural issues including logic and some Greek philosophy. Class questionnaires and reflexions showed that parts of students' beliefs changed after the course. Concerning the values of mathematics, students were more prone to believe that mathematics had real-world applications and improved one's sensibilities to beauty; for the nature of mathematics, they were more prone to believe proof was the only way to justify mathematical knowledge. The last change was expected but also interesting, since in another course in the same university about mathematics culture, students were confused about the context of discovery and that of justification. The course reported here was more helpful since it also had cultural connections but did not similarly confuse students, which is meaningful in a society where problem-solving, not logic, is considered the most useful aspect of mathematics.