Sourcebooks

• Classics of mathematics by Calinger, Ronald, 1995, Prentice Hall.
• A source book in mathematics by David Eugene Smith McGraw Hill 1928
• The mathematics of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India, and Islam : a sourcebook, edited by Victor Katz, 2007
• Some translations to English of primary sources in Convergence

Timelines of the history of mathematics

• Mathigon
• Chronological List of Mathematicians by Prof. David E. Joyce
• A Time-line for the History of Mathematics by Prof. William H. Richardson

Other interesting websites

• Vignettes of Ancient Mathematics

Primary Sources

• The Ishango bone
• The Ishango bone, a different view.
• The Ishango bone in Sketchfab

Primary Sources

• There are wonderful pictures of the Rhind (or Ahmose) Mathematical Papyrus in this and this pages of the British Museum.
• A translation and comentary of the Rhind Papyrus by Gay Robbins and Charles Schute, 1987. (You need to subscribe to the Internet Archives to read it, but the subscription is free)
• The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus Vol 1 translation by Arnolds Buffum Chace, 1927, Volume I (Here, Egyptian mathematics in general are discussed)
• The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus translation by Arnolds Buffum Chace, 1929, MAA (In this volume, you'll find photos of each of the problems, accompanied by the translation.)
• The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus translation and commentary by T. Eric Peet, 1923
• Manuscript fragment from the Mathematical Leather Roll in the British Museum. This document contains 26 sums of part that yield part. (A part is a fraction of the form 1/n)
• Adiscussion about the problems on the Lahun papirus.

Other materials

• Great discussion about ancient Egyptian Mathematics by faculty of the Open University in London.
• Ancient Egypt 101 - National Geographic clip
• About the Rhind or Ahmose Mathematical Papyrus
• Just for fun:Write your name in Egyptian hieroglyphics
• π on a wheel.

Links to use in class

• Volume of a square frustrum (truncated pyramid)
• Approximation of the area of the circle
• Scissor congruence app

Primary Sources

Note that you can drag and rotate the tablets above.

Other materials

• A discussion about Babylonian mathematics by the Open University, UK.
• The ancient secrets revealed by deciphered tablets BBC Ideas
• Just for fun:Write your name in cuneiform
• David Mumford on the Pythagorean Theorem .
• Old multiplication and reciprocals tablets by Anthony Phillips
• Ancient Babylonian astronomers were tracking planets using math believed to have first appeared in 14th-century Europe

How do do cuneiform writing

• Video about writing cuneiform numbers by Numberphile.
• Video about how do do the three symbols of cunieform writting (you need only two symbols for numbers) from this blog by the British Museum.
• Writing cuneiform. One more explanation in video.
• Written explanation of the technique for cuneiform writing I.
• Written explanation of the technique for cuneiform writing II.
• Interesting and funny video about cuneiform writing. (this last one is more about writing than about mathematics)

Primary Sources

Other materials

• Mayan Calendar Converter
• Breaking the Maya Code by Night Fire films
• Ancient Maya 101 National Geographic
• Timeline of decipherment of the Maya code
• Dresde Codex
• The Maya people and their calendars
• Stela C of Quirigua

Primary Sources

• Euclid's Elements, bilingual version in PDF.
• Euclid's elements in htlm, with hyperlinks that facilitate understanding.
• Archimedes "On the sphere and the cylinder"
• Archimedes’ Stomachion

Other materials

• A reproduction of Oliver Byrne's Elements of Euclid.
• Construction of equilateral triangle in Euclid's elements
• Quadratix - Geogebra
• Trisection by Hippias - Geogebra
• Food for thought: An interesting discussion about axioms.
• The School of Athens. Hover with your mouse over the characters to see their names.

Euclid Elements: Links to use in class

1. Bisection of an angle
2. Construction an equilateral triangle in Geogebra.
3. One Step in the Proof of Pythagoras' Theorem
4. Another step of Euclid's proof of the Pythagorean Theorem
5. Two apps( here and here) illustrating Euclid's proof of Pythagoras' Theorem
6. Some of the many, many proofs of the Pythagorean theorem
7. Youtube clip of the movie "Lincoln" (discussion of Euclid's Elements)
8. Of Euclid and equality by Noam D. Elkies
9. Morley Trisector theorem (1899!)
10. Morley Trisector theorem once more (1899!)

About rigor and proofs

1. Here you'll find a great discussion about the "proof" that all triangles are isosceles. Here you'll find a great video about it.

Primary Sources

Other materials

• On Ancient Chinese Mathematics by D. Struik, The Mathematics Teacher, Vol. 56, No. 6 (OCTOBER 1963), pp. 424-432.
• Proof of Gougu (Pythagorean) Theorem
• Proof of Gougu (Pythagorean) Theorem II
• Calculation of the Volume of the Sphere in Ancient China
• Volume of the pyramid
• A Chinese multplication table.
• Liu Hui, Zu Chongzhi and Zu Geng on the Volume of a Sphere

Primary Sources

Other materials

• Aryabhata's poem-table of sines

Primary Sources

Other materials

Primary Sources

Other materials

Primary Sources

Other materials

• Fermat's tangent line

Primary Sources

Other materials

• Fermat's tangent line

Secondary Sources

• About a famous story of Gauss