What's in Convergence? - Contents of Volume 8 - 2011 (Loci - Volume 3)

Editors:  Janet Beery, Kathleen Clark
 

Articles

SMURCHOM: Providing Opportunities for Undergraduate Research in the History of Mathematics, by Sloan Evans Despeaux

This article describes an MAA Regional Undergraduate Mathematics Conference (RUMC) featuring history of mathematics, and offers great ideas for getting students in your mathematics history course started on their research papers and projects.
 

Peano on Wronskians: A Translation, by Susannah M. Engdahl and Adam E. Parker

How a translation of Peano's counterexample to the 'theorem' that a zero Wronskian implies linear dependence can help your differential equations students
 

Teaching and Research with Original Sources from the Euler Archive, by Dominic Klyve, Lee Stemkoski, and Erik Tou

How faculty and students can use and contribute to the MAA Euler Archive!
 

HOM SIGMAA 2011 Student Paper Contest Winners, featuring essays by Paul Stahl, Sarah Costrell, and Rick Hill

Download the three winning essays to learn about Kepler's mathematical astronomy, the roots of modern algebra, and the Quadrivium of Isidore of Seville.
 

Extending al-Karaji’s Work on Sums of Odd Powers of Integers, by Hasan Unal and Hakan Kursat Oral

The authors share their discovery of an 1867 article in a Turkish scientific journal that extends al-Karaji's famous formula for the sum of the cubes to sums of higher odd powers.
 

Kepler: The Volume of a Wine Barrel, by Roberto Cardil

In his analysis of volumes of wine barrels, Kepler used ideas that would become important in differential and integral calculus.  This article provides you with visual imagery, much of it animated, to help share Kepler's ideas with your students.
 

When Nine Points Are Worth But Eight: Euler's Resolution of Cramer's Paradox, by Robert E. Bradley and Lee Stemkoski

How Euler resolved the paradox first noted by Maclaurin that nine points should determine a curve of order three, yet two such curves can intersect in nine points. Includes a translation of Euler's 'lost' letter to Cramer on this subject.

Reviews

Eratosthenes' Geography, by Duane W. Roller.  Reviewed by Frederick Sakon.

Subtitled Fragments collected and translated, with commentary and additional material, this book provides the first English translation of Eratosthenes' Geography and includes "On the Measurement of the Earth."
 

The Chinese Roots of Linear Algebra, by Roger Hart. Reviewed by Frank Swetz.

An excellent, careful, and penetrating study of matrix methods for solving systems of linear equations in first century China.
 

The Genesis of Science: The Story of Greek Imagination, by Stephen Bertman.  Reviewed by Angelina Kuleshova.

Review of Bertram's text on the history of Greek science.
 

L’algèbre au temps de Babylone: Quand les mathématiques s’écrivaient sur de l’argile, by Jens Høyrup.  Reviewed by Marc Moyon.

Revised and expanded French translation of the author's original 1998 book for Danish high school teachers. The title in English is Algebra in the Time of Babylon: When Mathematics Were Written on Clay.