HM/MA 004, Assignment 4, due Friday, 4 October 2002, 10:00 AM

(Note on collaboration: If you do the homework in pairs or groups, please list the name(s) of your collaborator(s) on what you each turn in.)

  1. Describing change mathematically. (10 points) Draw the figure that Oresme is discussing in the following excerpt from your reading On Quadrangular Quality below, and explain in your own words what he's talking about and how the figure demonstrates it.

    "[A] quality uniformly difform is one in which if any three points [of the subject line] are taken, the ratio of the distance between the first and the second to the distance between the second and the third is as the ratio of the excess in intensity of the first point over that of the second point to the excess of that of the second point over that of the third point, calling the first of those three points the one of greatest intensity.

    "Let us clarify this first with respect to a quality uniformly difform which is terminated at no degree and which is designated or imagined by Tri. ABC. With the three perpendicular lines BC, FG, and DE erected, then let HE be drawn parallel to line DF and similarly GK parallel to line FB. Therefore, the two small triangles CKG and GHE are formed and they are equiangular. Hence, by [proposition] VI.4 of [the Elements of] Euclid, GK/EH =CK/GH, CK and GH being excesses. And since GK=FB and similarly EH =DF, so FB/DF= CK/GH, FB and DF being the distances on the base of the three points and CK and GH being the excesses of altitude proportional to the intensity of these same points. Since, therefore, the quality of line AB is such that the ratio of the intensities of the points of the line is as the ratio of the altitudes of the lines perpendicularly erected on those same points, that which has been proposed is evidently clear, namely that the ratio of the excess in intensity of the first point over the second to the excess of the second over the third is the same as the ratio of the distance between the first and second points to the distance between the second and the third, and similarly for any other three points. Hence what we have premised in regard to a quality difform in this way is quite fitting, and so it (this quality) was well designated by such a triangle."

  2. Justifying algebra by geometry. (10 points) We've seen in class how al-Khwarizmi demonstrated the truth of his quadratic formula for "squares and roots equal to numbers" by appealing to geometry. Show algebraically that Abu Kamil's geometric justification for another version of the quadratic formula (Reader, pp. 232--233) also works.

  3. Justifying geometry by algebra. (12 points) Show algebraically that both Kepler's geometric construction of the side of the pentagon and the "cossic" expression he complains about find the side of the regular pentagon to be ((5-(5)^(1/2))/2)^(1/2) times the radius of the circle it's inscribed in.

  4. Mathematics in the real world. (10 points) Research one of John Dee's "Instrumentes and furniture Necessary" for a "Master Pilote," as specified in Reader, section 9.B1(f) (p. 285). Write a paragraph or so on how it works and what kind of "Mathematicall knowledge" you need "duely to use the same."

  5. Calculating with indivisibles. (12 points) Do Exercise 3.21 on p. 129 of Mathematical Expeditions.

  6. Calculating with logarithms. (10 points) What is the old mathematical instrument (invented in the 17th century, and supplanted by the modern calculator/computer) called a "slide rule," and how does it work? (Anyone who went to high school before 1980 should have some recollection of slide rules, so you might start your research by calling home. Call home anyway, they miss you.) What is its relationship to the subject of logarithms?

  7. Who wrote what when? (10 points) Bring some chronological order into our topical treatment of these different subjects by laying out a timeline and arranging in it all the primary source readings (that is, the excerpts from historical texts) assigned in the readings in the weeks of 23 September and 30 September.

  8. Administrivia. (3 points) What time slots during the week would you prefer to have as office hours for this class for the rest of the semester? (The current weekly office hours are Wednesdays, 2:00--3:30 PM, and Thursdays, 3:30--5:00 PM.)