Siyu Sun Math History Blog

 Topic: Perspective Secondary school tie-in: Transformation geometry (translation, reflection, rotation) Method of presentation: drawing Tentative Sources: - Math through the ages (William P. Berlinghoff) - The Geometry of an Art: The History of the Mathematical Theory of Perspective from Alberti to Monge (Kirsti Andersen) - An Introduction to eh Foundations and Fundamental Concepts of Mathematics (Howard Eves and Carroll V. Newsom) - The Invention of Infinity: Mathematics and Art in the Renaissance (J.V. Field) - Worlds Out of Nothing: A Course in the History of Geometry in the 19th Century (Jeremy Gray)

"The very word "liberal" implies that these arts be longed to the education free men not to the technological training of slaves." (pp. 264)     This quote really helped frame the purpose of Greek education. I never knew this before reading it now, but it makes a lot of sense. Many topics in the liberal arts are those that have little practical usage, and that you don't people who are struggling to make ends meet to study. I think it's interesting that the ancient Greeks explored so many proofs in mathematics as you don't need  to prove something works in math if you know how to use it. From the quote, I now know that the people studying these topics were probably very well off and could afford to spend time to think about subjects like this. I sound very critical, but I think these contributions that the Greeks made to mathematical concepts were really important. However, they also sound a little snobbish when they reject subjects such as medicine to be...

      Edna in her poem  Euclid Alone has Looked on Beauty Bare implies Euclid's work to be beautiful, "intricate", and "luminous." From my understanding of the poem, I would take Beauty in this context to mean the strange beauty of mathematics and of the natural world. Euclid was known for his study of geometry, and in his proofs, there is a Beauty that underlies the math. That Beauty was there before Euclid looked into them and it is there after, but Euclid was one of the first and so he saw the Beauty Bare. I know I would probably not be able to think of geometry like Euclid did. I can see the Beauty after my schooling and after things have been explained to me, but if I had next to nothing like Euclid did when he wrote his propositions, I don't think I could see all he did. Part of the reason Euclidean geometry has been so popular all these years is because of this simplistic beauty. Shapes are something we grow up seeing, and Euclidean geometry consists ...

       The first thing that made me stop and think was this video concept in general. I think it was a really cool way to demonstrate proofs, one that I haven't thought about before. It's neat because when talking about geometry, I find myself gesturing and making shapes with my hands often, but never with my entire body. The other thing that made me stop and think was after my initial appreciation of the art form, I wondered if I had just seen the video without having worked through the proofs in class first, if I would have understood it just from the choreography. The first two dances, we worked on in class and through doing them, I understood what was happening and could follow along with the dance as I recalled my own thought process as I worked through. The third one was new to me, and on my first and second watch, it was hard to follow. For me, doing the proof first enriched the experience of the video and I could immerse myself with the choreography. I wonder...