I am glad that I could collaborate with Aakriti and Nancy to exhibit our work in front of our classmates and demonstrate Ahmes' Loaves problem both in modern and ancient approaches. For me, as a teacher candidate in the subject of mathematics, the assignment is a process of experiencing the wisdom of ancient mathematicians who was able to solve "pure" mathematical problems without relying on algebra, thus broadening my horizon. By researching into the terminology of false position or regula falsi , we started our journey of exploring how ancient Egyptians solve an arithmetic problem. Ahmes' Loaves Problem [1] It did not take too much time for us to solve the problem by using modern algebraic solution. We let d be the common difference of the arithmetical progression and expressed each term in terms of d . By establishing an equation based on the second condition given by the question, we quickly obtained the common difference which is equal to 55/6. However, it was...
The big picture of pure mathematics has emerged in my mind since I started pursuing my master's degree in mathematics. It was the first time that I encountered the world of “symbol” in abstract algebra, mathematical analysis, and especially classic geometry which is totally different from the geometry I knew in my secondary school. After that period of time, the boundary between pure mathematics that I learned in graduate program and applied mathematics that I learned in undergraduate program became clear. However, the history of Babylonian word problems brings me a brand-new perspective on the idea of pure and applied mathematics, illuminating the era before the bloom of modern symbolic algebra and re-establishing an ambiguous connection between “pure” and “applied” instead of drawing a dichotomy between two realms. According to Jens Hoyrup’s distinction between Babylonian scribal school mathematics and Greek mathematics, we can visualize the trajectory of transformation of mathem...
Great!
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