Africa and Mathematics

Africa and Mathematics PDF Author: Dirk Huylebrouck
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030040372
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
This volume on ethnomathematics in Central Africa fills a gap in the current literature, focusing on a region rarely explored by other publications. It highlights the discovery of the Ishango rod, which was found to be the oldest mathematical tool in humanity's history, thereby shifting the origin of mathematics to the heart of Africa, and explores the different scientific hypotheses that emerged as a result. While it contains some high-level mathematics, the non-mathematical reader can easily skip these portions and enjoy the book’s survey of African history, culture, and art.

Africa and Mathematics

Africa and Mathematics PDF Author: Dirk Huylebrouck
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030040372
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 235

Get Book Here

Book Description
This volume on ethnomathematics in Central Africa fills a gap in the current literature, focusing on a region rarely explored by other publications. It highlights the discovery of the Ishango rod, which was found to be the oldest mathematical tool in humanity's history, thereby shifting the origin of mathematics to the heart of Africa, and explores the different scientific hypotheses that emerged as a result. While it contains some high-level mathematics, the non-mathematical reader can easily skip these portions and enjoy the book’s survey of African history, culture, and art.

Geometry from Africa

Geometry from Africa PDF Author: Paulus Gerdes
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780883857151
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
This book draws on geometric ideas from cultural activities from Subsaharan Africa to develop mathematical reasoning.

What Mathematics from Africa?

What Mathematics from Africa? PDF Author: Giandomenico Sica
Publisher: Polimetrica s.a.s.
ISBN: 8876990232
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 111

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Book Description


The Art of More

The Art of More PDF Author: Michael Brooks
Publisher: Pantheon
ISBN: 1524748994
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
An illuminating, millennia-spanning history of the impact mathematics has had on the world, and the fascinating people who have mastered its inherent power Counting is not innate to our nature, and without education humans can rarely count past three — beyond that, it’s just “more.” But once harnessed by our ancestors, the power of numbers allowed humanity to flourish in ways that continue to lead to discoveries and enrich our lives today. Ancient tax collectors used basic numeracy to fuel the growth of early civilization, navigators used clever geometrical tricks to engage in trade and connect people across vast distances, astronomers used logarithms to unlock the secrets of the heavens, and their descendants put them to use to land us on the moon. In every case, mathematics has proved to be a greatly underappreciated engine of human progress. In this captivating, sweeping history, Michael Brooks acts as our guide through the ages. He makes the case that mathematics was one of the foundational innovations that catapulted humanity from a nomadic existence to civilization, and that it has since then been instrumental in every great leap of humankind. Here are ancient Egyptian priests, Babylonian bureaucrats, medieval architects, dueling Swiss brothers, renaissance painters, and an eccentric professor who invented the infrastructure of the online world. Their stories clearly demonstrate that the invention of mathematics was every bit as important to the human species as was the discovery of fire. From first page to last, The Art of More brings mathematics back into the heart of what it means to be human.

African Fractals

African Fractals PDF Author: Ron Eglash
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780813526140
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
Fractals are characterized by the repetition of similar patterns at ever-diminishing scales. Fractal geometry has emerged as one of the most exciting frontiers on the border between mathematics and information technology and can be seen in many of the swirling patterns produced by computer graphics. It has become a new tool for modeling in biology, geology, and other natural sciences. Anthropologists have observed that the patterns produced in different cultures can be characterized by specific design themes. In Europe and America, we often see cities laid out in a grid pattern of straight streets and right-angle corners. In contrast, traditional African settlements tend to use fractal structures-circles of circles of circular dwellings, rectangular walls enclosing ever-smaller rectangles, and streets in which broad avenues branch down to tiny footpaths with striking geometric repetition. These indigenous fractals are not limited to architecture; their recursive patterns echo throughout many disparate African designs and knowledge systems. Drawing on interviews with African designers, artists, and scientists, Ron Eglash investigates fractals in African architecture, traditional hairstyling, textiles, sculpture, painting, carving, metalwork, religion, games, practical craft, quantitative techniques, and symbolic systems. He also examines the political and social implications of the existence of African fractal geometry. His book makes a unique contribution to the study of mathematics, African culture, anthropology, and computer simulations.

Sourcebook in the Mathematics of Medieval Europe and North Africa

Sourcebook in the Mathematics of Medieval Europe and North Africa PDF Author: Victor J. Katz
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691156859
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 592

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Book Description
Medieval Europe was a meeting place for the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic civilizations, and the fertile intellectual exchange of these cultures can be seen in the mathematical developments of the time. This sourcebook presents original Latin, Hebrew, and Arabic sources of medieval mathematics, and shows their cross-cultural influences. Most of the Hebrew and Arabic sources appear here in translation for the first time. Readers will discover key mathematical revelations, foundational texts, and sophisticated writings by Latin, Hebrew, and Arabic-speaking mathematicians, including Abner of Burgos's elegant arguments proving results on the conchoid—a curve previously unknown in medieval Europe; Levi ben Gershon’s use of mathematical induction in combinatorial proofs; Al-Mu’taman Ibn Hūd’s extensive survey of mathematics, which included proofs of Heron’s Theorem and Ceva’s Theorem; and Muhyī al-Dīn al-Maghribī’s interesting proof of Euclid’s parallel postulate. The book includes a general introduction, section introductions, footnotes, and references. The Sourcebook in the Mathematics of Medieval Europe and North Africa will be indispensable to anyone seeking out the important historical sources of premodern mathematics.

Africa Counts

Africa Counts PDF Author: Claudia Zaslavsky
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
Study by a mathematical scholar on the ways in which African people count, keep time and records, play games, use geometry in art and architecture, etc. Based on research in Nigeria and East Africa.

African Doctorates in Mathematics

African Doctorates in Mathematics PDF Author:
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1430318678
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
This volume presents a catalogue of over 2000 doctoral theses by Africans in all fields of mathematics, including applied mathematics, mathematics education and history of mathematics. The introduction contains information about distribution by country, institutions, period, and by gender, about mathematical density, and mobility of mathematicians. Several appendices are included (female doctorate holders, doctorates in mathematics education, doctorates awarded by African universities to non-Africans, doctoral theses by non-Africans about mathematics in Africa, activities of African mathematicians at the service of their communities). Paulus Gerdes compiled the information in his capacity of Chairman of the African Mathematical Union Commission for the History of Mathematics in Africa (AMUCHMA). The book contains a preface by Mohamed Hassan, President of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS) and Executive Director of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS). (383 pp.)

Mathematics Education in East Africa

Mathematics Education in East Africa PDF Author: Anjum Halai
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9783319272573
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This Open Access book is a valuable resource for policymakers and practitioners as it brings insights mainly from developing countries where relatively less research activity takes place. It is also a valuable resource for courses in mathematics education in the teacher education colleges, and departments of education in the sub-Saharan Africa region. In the increasingly global and technological world mathematics is seen as a significant gatekeeper of opportunities for social and economic advancement and mobility. Hence, countries and development agencies in the broader sub-Saharan Africa region are looking towards increasing access to relevant and high-quality secondary education as a lever towards economic development. Policy makers and other key decision makers in education look towards improvement in mathematics teaching and learning as a key focus in education reform. In the East Africa region also a number of initiatives have been taken at the national level in the respective countries to improve the quality of mathematics education. This book provides an in-depth comparative analysis of the developments and issues in mathematics education in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda, and advances our understanding of the state of secondary mathematics education in East Africa.

Education in Sub-Saharan Africa

Education in Sub-Saharan Africa PDF Author: Kirsten Majgaard
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821388908
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Comparative Analysis takes stock of education in Sub-Saharan Africa by drawing on the collective knowledge gained through the preparation of Country Status Reports for more than 30 countries.