This homework is a bit of a “warm up”. Read each questions and think, refrain for googling. Ask for help in the Blackboard forum if needed.
- Find a quotation that includes a definition of mathematics (for instance, one from the first week slides or one that you found) and explain what you think it means. Discuss whether you agree or not.
- Consider a small collection of objects, say, pens. What is the largest collection that you can state how many objects it has just by looking at it, without actually couning? (Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote about him "From a box containing a bushel or more of loose pencils, he could take up with his hands fast enough just a dozen pencils at every grasp.”) (Do not overthink this question, it is as easy as it sounds)
- Days and years are both units of time. A year about 365 1/4 days long, in other words the ratio between a year and a day is about 365.4. How people originally were able determine how many days there are in a year?
- Discuss whether a calendar is needed by each of the following societies (of about fifty family each) and whose main economical activity is
- hunting, fishing, and gathering vegetable food.
- following a migrating reindeer herd
- tending a herd of domestic animals
- planting and tending crops
- Why counting was necessary? List at least three reasons. Unleash your creativity.