Raymond EDCP 442

My partner Saiya and I will be working on the life of Émilie du Châtelet. Our art piece will be in the form of a sculpture. Here is a draft list of references we found for our research. Zinsser, J. P. (2007). Emilie du Chatelet: Daring Genius of the Enlightenment. Penguin. Tamboukou, M. (2023). Exceptional women in science education? Émilie Du Châtelet and Maria Gaetana Agnesi. Paedagogica Historica, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/00309230.2023.2238621 Shaw, W. (n.d.). Du Châtelet (1706-1749). Project Vox. https://projectvox.org/du-chatelet-1706-1749/ Pursuit of Knowledge. (2024, May 4). Émilie du Châtelet: Forgotten Physicist [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnaW7r6wMd4

As a student of the statistics discipline, I was astounded by the amount of history which lies within the topic of probability theory alone. In fact, everything I have presented on 5 slides was only a small subset of techniques used in modern generalized linear regression models. It was also surprising how many mathematicians reached the same conclusions on this subject. This further enforces my perception that many theorems are categorized as 'necessary' instead of 'arbitrary'. Moreover, when researching the origins of each contribution, I was surprised at how many probability theories were discovered when working on applications of astronomy or finance. While many math concepts are discovered from inspirations and artistic expressions, it was nice to see that there can also be discoveries through supporting applications of real-world problems.

Watching the Dancing Euclidean Proofs video gave me new perspectives on mathematical learning. I paused and rewatched the part where Carolina served as an anchor point while Samuel ran around her in a perfect circle. This is a beautiful way in which a circle is illustrated, through an equal radius in 360 degrees. In fact, words like 'radius' and 'degree' aren't even necessary when watching the video. The simplicity of a circle is enough for understanding. Another part which I paused on was when Samuels explained the choreography required a lot of thinking, which is a little unexpected. In my opinion, the choreography is an extension to the existing understanding of the Euclidean Proof which tests the person on his/her true understanding of the concept. This is how I approach mathematical learning as well, a true relational understanding should allow student to extend the topics further than just classroom exercises. People have a stereotypical view of the tedium and...

I think it does make a significant difference given the demographics which a BC classroom looks like. Not recognizing non-European contribution can be a form of culture oppression. While many students are not aware of this, learning about history of non-European Mathematics broadens the viewpoint similar to a social issue. For students who can feel like their culture is recognized, it could helps them understand the concepts better, or even more engaged in learning. For the naming of Pythagoras Theorem, I find it very euro-centric where it is named after the person who has discovered it. In the Chinese equivalent, the theorem is called 勾(gou)股(gu)定理(theorem) where 勾 and 股 represents opposite and adjacent in a right angle triangle. Hence, the naming is literally just Opposite-Adjacent Theorem. This showed the naming scheme was on the basis that it was a discovery, not an invention. It's the lack of person-centric meaning which speaks volume about the culture of traditional Chinese d...

After reading a brief history on Euclid's biography and his publication, I was surprised by how little I know about Euclid despite using 'Euclidean Geometry' for most of my life. In my opinion, the popularity of Euclidean's Geometry comes from the beauty of its simplicity. The simplicity only refers to the nature of this work as well as how humans can imagine and observe Euclidean's Geometry. Math as a human construct implies there aren't many inventions, most are called discoveries. In the case of Elements, the author(s) offers a theorem and axioms which are are still used until this day. Due to its wide range of application and tangibility, it is applied to many facade of our modern lives. Beauty is subjective. I see beauty in Euclidean postulates, common notions and principles for proofs. The discussion of beauty in Euclid's work is mostly by audiences or disciples familiar with the subject of Mathematics. Per Lockhart's lament, high school trigonomet...