Welcome to History of Mathematics
MAT 336 - Fall 2023
Useful links
- Course Schedule: The course schedule of Lecture 1 and course schedule of Lecture 2 list what topics were (or will be) covered, as well as the all course work and deadlines.
- Syllabus: The description and policies of this course can be found (of course!) on the class syllabus.
- Click on each of the names below for addresses, office hours, office location and zoom links.
- The list topics, as well as a possible secondary source is here.
- Missed work: Please fill this form if you have a good reason to miss quizzes, homework, lectures, etc. Note that I will use the contents of the form (and not the emails) when computing grades. (Of course, you can email, or, better, come to my office hours, if there is something you need to discuss.)
- Slides of lecture 1 and Slides of Lecture 2.
- Examples of abstract, outline, slides, paper and presentation from past years. (Note that the required length varied. Also requirements for reference on one of the papers (paper2.pdf) were "lighter" than in our course, so the student mentions certain facts -which are not common knowledge- without citation. It is still a wonderful paper.)
Resources: Books, websites and databases to use during the semester
- Links: Readings, course materials and links organized by topic
- Stony Brook Library is a great source of materials, and librarians that can help you.
- There is a great deal of relevant material in the digital database JSTOR,
which you can access with your Stony Brook Net ID.
- Another great math database is MathSciNet MSC primary classification is 01. For more details, see here.
- MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive contains overviews and bibliography of most of the topics we will discuss.
- Wikimedia Commons is a good repository of images
- The Internet
Archive has many books about math history. You can also find books at Project Gutenberg. Both websites are free because they post material whose copyright has expired. On one hand this is good, because books are easily available, on the other, make sure that you also look for more recent texts (for instance, in the library.)
- Convergence from the Mathematical Association of America has Mathematical Treasures, a repository of primary sources, often with translation to English.
- Barrow-Green, June, Jeremy Gray, and Robin Wilson. The History of Mathematics: A Source-Based Approach Volume 1. American Mathematical Society, 2021 is one of my favorite books.
- Google scholar is great to get articles or books written in a good format. It can also be useful to search for material.
- Cut the knot has interesting articles and references.
- Bibliographies of mathematics by subject by Prof. David E. Joyce
- History of Mathematics Notes by Donald Allen
- Important:
- A video (from youtube or other platform) can be help you understand a topic but it cannot be your reference unless is "peer reviewed" or there are peer-reviewed-type reasons to believe in what the video says.
- Wikipedia is often a good source for references, but it cannot be your reference.