| Instructor | David Pingree | Kim Plofker |
| Department | History of Mathematics | History of Mathematics |
| Kim_Plofker@Brown.edu | ||
| Office | Wilbour Hall, Room 105 | Wilbour Hall, Room 001 |
| Office phone | 863-2101 | 863-1489 |
| Office hours |
Course Description: In this course students will read in English translations some of the major Indian works on mathematics composed in Sanskrit between about 500 B.C. and 1500 A.D. Lectures and discussions will illuminate the mathematical meanings of the texts, the historical development of the science in South Asia, and the differences in the approaches to mathematics adopted by Babylonian, Greek, and Arabic mathematicians.
Course Overview: "History of Indian Mathematics" is open (without enrollment limitations) to undergraduate and graduate students with an interest in mathematical ideas and their development, and/or in South Asian intellectual history. The course will cover the generation of the major mathematical features that modern mathematics owes to South Asia---the decimal place-value system, the trigonometric functions, and algebra---as well as the Indian forms of those that had a parallel development in the West, such as arithmetic, geometry, combinatorics, and series. Its structure will combine chronological and topical organization, in order to describe the emergence and establishment of professional mathematics in the final centuries before the current era, and then to explore the subsequent development of each major branch of the subject. The ultimate aim of the course is to bridge the gap between the typical approaches to the study of mathematics (which invariably omits consideration of its historical or cultural context) and the study of history (which avoids subject matter that is quantitative or "technical").
Students will be expected, in preparation for every class meeting, to read English-language sources (most primary, some secondary) on Indian mathematics, and to complete a written assignment demonstrating their understanding of the sources' mathematical meaning. In class, lectures and discussions will explain the mathematical techniques in question, their historical context, and their relation to similar work in other cultures. A midterm exam and a final paper will also be required. A solid grounding in precalculus is a necessary background for this course, and some calculus training will be helpful in understanding modern evaluations of some of the historical techniques. Students should also be prepared to encounter an introductory treatment of mathematical subjects (such as numerical methods and transfinite numbers) which are not generally covered in lower-level undergraduate mathematics courses.
| Back to the History of Math homepage |
|---|