Re: Assignment 3 - Ada Loveless

 Our group consists of Matt, Ivan and myself. Below is the link to our "draw my life" video of Ada Lovelace:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11r9fq8ZYN3fp1VBWtcU23RsmgoG1JArr/view

Re: An introduction to the mathematics of the Golden Age of medieval Islam

After reading the article, I realized how geographic locations have always influenced the history of math. Also, astronomy has an enormous influence on the history of math. From Medieval to China, there have been many records showing the close relationship between astronomy and math. It's interesting to see how humans have always been curious about space and other planets in space, and math is often used in calculations of related matters. Many new inventions in the field are from science and space, which further approved that math is beneficial and important in other science subjects. I believe it's important for teachers to introduce math history to students in different aspects to understand other related subjects to make math more interesting. I wonder if people already knew the existence of other beings in space. 

It's fascinating to see how many mathematicians are also experts in other fields like astronomy, architecture, and literature. Most of them are well-educated with curiosity. They are often very observant. They all have the common characteristics of curiosity and are eager to learn, which are the crucial traits to success. 

Lastly, math history seems always to travel to different regions in its own course, and they all have similar common ground or theory behind them. It's fascinating and strange how the history of human beings and knowledge evolves. When you think about it, it seems like there has alwasy been an invisible hand controlling the history of science along the way and it's crazy to think about how our technology is so advanced nowadays, which makes me think what will the technology look like in another 100 year? 

Re: trivium & quadrivium

 "Quintillian (a.d. 35-95) suggested that a boy study grammar, music, geometry, and astronomy until he was sixteen, after which age he might advance to higher studies." I think it has some reflects on today's educational system. People need to study themselves before getting an advanced education. I read somewhere saying that people read enjoy reading books because books help them understand themselves. In one man's life, no one will ever get tired of getting to know themselves. All the learnings are more fun and sustainable if you enjoy it, "grit" is the most important factor for success. The pure happiness a man can have when doing something he enjoys cannot be described in words. That's why it's important to learn generally before specializing in certain areas. It is also why having a healthy mindset of learning is the first step of getting a higher education. People have to have the good fundamental basic knowledge to receive and make the best use of higher educations. 

Knowledge starts with human beings' basic needs; that's why learning from experiences is the best way of learning. That's why the new curriculum emphasizes the importance of applying knowledge in real-life situations. I think different subjects should be integrated altogether to provide a meaningful connection with each other. It also creates a multi-dimension way to think and learn!

Re: Alice Major on Mayan and other numbers

     It was fascinating to read this article on numbers and personality. It offers such a unique perspective way to see the meanings behind all the numbers. I think teaching should be put into context, giving stories to it. Psychologically, it is proven that students learn better when they involve their own life experiences. Infuse your own personality into math numbers can be creative and fun for students. 

    I also really liked the concept of how language has an influence on how people understand numbers in different cultures. For example, number 4 means stability in some cultures but means death in Chinese culture because it has a similar pronunciation of "death" in Chinese. A lot of buildings would skip floor level 4 in the elevator in China. Obviously, there is no scientific approval on that, but it just adds so many characteristics to different numbers.

    Using such a concept in lower-grade math classrooms will be very helpful and enjoyable for students. It gives students the freedom to make up their own personal connections to numbers and remember some boring math fundamental facts more fun! As someone who doesn't have great memorization, making up related stories helped me remember boring academic concepts. 

Re: Reflection on Assignment 1 (Sorry, it's so late)

 I really enjoyed the process of doing the assignment. It was such a different experience to have a group project online. I never really thought about how ancient math works in our modern math, especially from a math education perspective. Having the opportunity to learn more about how the pyramid was created and how people calculated its volume. My part was introducing how the pyramid was created in the old days, which gives me an in-depth understanding of why it's important to teach the history of math in a class. "whys" gives students the curiosity and motivation to study the "hows" in a math classroom setting. It also offers the most mathematical proofs with actual contexts, which gives a story for teachers to tell the class, making the context more interesting and attractive for students. For students who enjoy math, it gives them a sense of fulfillment of learning math and knowing the importance of math in tour lives. 

My teammates are both delightful to work with. Marius can always make jokes out of many tough situations and find positive aspects of everything I lack. Jacob is also very much knowledgeable of many things; he always offers a unique perspective on the topic, a lot I can learn from both of them! 

Re: Dancing Euclidean Proofs!

I have always thought of proofs as something very logical and routined and I like that aspect of it a lot. The structure of proofing something has its beauty in the form of clean lines and clear step-by-step procedure. However, dance to me is very soft and indirect. Proofs to me are like the school of Bauhaus in design, it's very logical and clear-minded with very little warmth to it. 

After reading the article, especially after watching the dance itself. I felt the warmth and logical beauty of proof through the dance itself. More accurately, I think the movement of the human body is a piece of art itself. 

I find it's fascinating that we can use our legs and arms to "prove" such complicated proof. The rhythm of the dance mirrors the logical side of the proof, it's planned with thoughts but flows so seemingly. 

For non-math people, it becomes so much easier to understand the basic concept of the proof through the use of our own bodies. 

I was also surprised to realize the natural symmetries of our body which is very mathematical in some ways. In conclusion, I appreciated the fact that they used the form of dance to show the beauty/logical thoughts behind proofs!

Re:Explication and commentary on a poem about Euclid (and a parody of it)!

 Euclid is often referred as "the father of Geometry". Geometry exists everywhere in nature, it is the most bare version of beauty. Euclid uses math to show the beauty of nature through the eye of geometry, he also used nature to explore the beauty of mathematics. These two things are naturally inseparable. Euclid's vision on geometry opened all of ours eyes, he created mathematical language to express the beauty of geometry around us. He had a pair of eyes to see through things and noticed the bare bone of lots of things that are related to math. 

Thanks to Euclid, we were able to use math to express/sketch the things we see in this world. We were able to document a lot of historical events using math! 

From the first poem, it seems like It's Euclid who lifted the veil of mystery of the mathematical behind all the natural beauty. The harmony of nature and math was all along there waiting for humans to discover it, and Euclid noticed it. The gate of math then revealed at that moment. Time never stopped, nature never waited for anyone, nature takes its course and it seemed like Euclid was the savior of the dark time of math and opened the gate of pandora's box of mathematics. 

The second poem seems like is criticizing the prasie most people had towards Eulid. It aruges that beauty is in everyone's eyes, math belongs to all of us. No one could be the maker of nature. In other words, no one was the maker of mathematics. Math has been always existed among us, in our day-to-day life. Math is like the air, we breath in and out every day. 

Maybe it's a bit off the topic, it reminded me of a movie called Prometheus. Who is the God, who made us? and, who made them? Who made this world and who created the nature which is incredibly beautiful and mathematical?