Choose a partner and then pick one of the following mathematicians
by turning in a piece of paper with you and your partner's name
and the name of the mathematician: (first come-first served).
Prepare a 15 minute presentation (Nov 16, 18 or 23rd)
using the presentation checklist, and paper (due
Nov 23rd at 6pm) using the paper checklist.
There will be no revisions on this paper, so I strongly
encourage you to bring
rough drafts into office hours to discuss your paper with me,
since this will count as 2 labs.
I'll give you material to help start on the math. You are expected
to research the life and work via books and the web (see below).
Maria Agnesi (1718-1799) The witch of Agnesi
David Blackwell (1919-) Game Theory
Euler (1707-1783) 2^n+1 is not always prime when n is a power of 2.
Euclid (~325 BC-265 BC) Euclid's Postulates for Euclidean Geometry
Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) Non-Euclidean Geometry
Sophie Germain (1776-1831) Fermat's Last Theorem and Sophie Germain primes
Carolyn Gordon - Can you hear the shape of a drum?
Evelyn Boyd Granville (1924-) The complex plane
Dr. Sarah (1969-) Turning basketballs into footballs
Sonya Kovalevsky (1850-1891) Kovalevsky top
Cathleen Morawetz (1923-) Shock waves
Frank Morgan - Soap bubble geometry
Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Fullani al-Kishnawi (-1741) Magic squares
Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920) Estimating the number of primes less than a
given number
Mary Ellen Rudin (1924-) Topology: Why a basketball is the same as a football
Searching for mathematicians on the web
Dr. Sarah's searching for women mathematicians on the web works for
men too!
Some web sites with bios:
The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive
Agnes Scott College Biography of Women Mathematicians
Great site, but bios are mainly written by undergrads and are not as
reliable as one might hope
Mathematicians of the African Diaspora
Some helpful books on library (Mat 4010 under Greenwald) reserve,
in the reference section, and/or in my office :
African American contributions to
science and engineering ASU GOVT US NAS 1.2:AF 4
Calculus Gems, Simmons (my office) (Euclid, Euler, Gauss)
Men of mathematics, by E. T. Bell (Gauss, Euler) reserve
Women of mathematics
: a biobibliographic sourcebook / edited by Louise S. Grinstein
(Agnesi, Germain, Granville, Kovalevsky) reserve and my office
Modern mathematicians / Harry Henderson (Sofia Kovalevskaia ,
Srinivasa Ramanujan) reserve
More mathematical people : contemporary conversations / edited by Donald J. Albers (Cathleen S. Morawetz, Mary Ellen Rudin)
Notable mathematicians : from ancient times to the present / Robyn V. Young
ASU REFERENCE QA28 .N66 1998
Scientists, mathematicians, and inventors : lives and legacies : an
encyclopedia of people who changed the world / edited by Doris Simonis
ASU IMC REFERENCE 509.22 S4159