Margot's EDCP 442 Blog

Upon visiting various different Egyptian exhibitions, I had always come across the Horus eye symbol but never looked much into the meaning behind it. I had assumed that the eye carried some sort of importance in keeping spirits away similar to the Greek's however, I had never imagined it to carry the importance of such rich history and mathematical properties.  Interestingly enough, not only does each part of the eye symbolize a different fraction, but it also portrays different senses in which the Egyptians believed there to be six; Hear, Taste, Smell, Touch, See and Thought as seen below.  The egyptians believed that this eye was considered the 'whole' eye. However, it is important to note that the sum of each of the fractions, which can be seen as a geometric series today, only adds up to 63/64. When researching I found that some academics believed that the 1/64 missing from the 'whole' eye could be intentional as no mortal human being can re-create something so ...

Upon reading this paper, it is clear that both the Greeks and Chinese had their own mathematical discovery triumphs despite the lack of communication between both civilizations. As noted by Ross Gustafson, the Greeks were more focused on the understanding of the different proofs and how they were able to solve the different problems such as the right-angle triangle or the verification of the square root of 2 to be an irrational number.  Even though my career doesn't involve traditional teaching, from a students perspective who has has to learn about mathematics, I will say that learning the methodology has more emphasis in school cirriculums than understanding where the actual math came from. Therefore I would make the slight comparison that the way in which we teach students mathematics today follows a similar sturcture to those of the Chinese. The texts states that the  Jiu Zhang suahshu "was not to prove beyond argument the material but to guide the reader (student) on the ...

A SaveOnFoods supply manager counted a total of 32 apples in stock delivered from apple farmers based in Yakima, Washington.  They noted that they had received 1/7 of the order four days post the expected delivery date. What was the original quantity that was delivered?  Solution:  1) We need to find a convenient integer answer that has been obtained through multiplying it by 1/7. Therefore we can choose the number 7.  2) (1 + 1/7) * 7 = 8  3) Therefore 8 = 32  4) The number 4 is used to multiple 8 giving us an answer of 32.  5) Therefore we can use 4 to multiply by 7 to allow us to gain the answer of the unknown quantity.  4 * 7 = 28  --> Therefore 28 is the quantity that was delivered  6) Checking if this is the correct answer: 1/7 of 28 is 4:  (1/7)*(28) = 4 --> 28 + 4 = 32 

  Our presentation was based on problem 79 of the Rind Papyrus (1650 BCE). We were able to denote the three different word problems that have developed over time in different parts of the world. Ultimately, St. Ives was a nursery rhyme that originated from the Egyptians in problem 79. Interestingly enough, before Arabic numerals were introduced into Europe as seen below in 1202, arithmetic problems were solved used a counting instrument called the Abacus.  Here is the link to our presentation:  https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Wqyy652vSVV6qoujA1cfXZ33vjY7iq_9q8HN_-qXx14/edit?usp=sharing Reflection:  From this assignment, I was able to fully gage how knowledge is passed down through different generations, not only within the same community but also by demographic spread. It was interesting to see how different cultures were able to interpret arithmetic problems or sequences using a variety of different methods such the Italians through the use of the Abacus ins...

Upon reading this extract, I found it interesting to understand how the Babylonians were able to interpret word problems through the use of different images and symbols on the tablet. In the 4.7 example, we were able to see a solution distinction between the two groups and how we use an entirely different type of notation today. Alongside this, all this time learning the Quadratic Formula in school and I did not know that it was interpreted by the Babylonians when they had no formal algebraic system set in place. They were able to adopt different types of questions and solve up to three unknowns whether it be linear, quadratic or exponential.  The system we adopted today was derived from their findings, however, the notation we use is much more generalized in my opinion. We use the same symbols such as 'x'. 'y', 'a', 'b', or 'c' for unknowns in most mathematical practices around the world today or even greek symbols in different areas of knowledg...