CTK Insights

It's hard to overestimate the influence Alcuin of York (c. 732-804) had on Western civilization. He also left the earliest known European collection of puzzles, Propositiones alcuini doctoris caroli magni imperatoris ad acuendos juvenes - Propositions by Alcuin Teacher to the Great Emperor Charles to Sharpen up the Young. The collection consists of 53 problems [...]

This is a beautifully illustrated collection of interviews and biographical etudes of 16 mathematicians of different backgrounds, varied professional interests, diverse level of achievement - all incredibly interesting as human beings. The sixteen interviewees lived and were active in the 1900s, though some are yet alive; the stories throw light - if only in the [...]

Nowadays, finding the area of curvilinear shapes falls in the purview of calculus. But the problem of finding areas draw much interest in antiquity and preoccupied mathematicians ever since. One of the acknowledged results by Hippocrates of Chios (470-410 B.C.) is the Squaring of a Lune. The problem of squaring a shape refers to a [...]

According to [P. Beckmann, p. 12], by 2000 BC, the ancient Babilonians already new that π is close to 25/8 (≈ 3.125), while the Egyptians estimated it as 4(8/9)² (≈ 3.1605). Beckmann, as many others, do not conceal his astonishment that in the Bible the apparent estimate is a simplistic 3. This is based on [...]

I just received a review copy of Fascinating Mathematical People by Donald Albers and Gerald Alexanderson (Princeton University Press, 2011). Right now I am into something else, but could not forego getting a quick first impression. Looks like I am going to enjoy reading the book. Here's something that caused me a healthy chuckle. I [...]

Augustus De Morgan's On the Study and Difficulties of Mathematics was first published by the Society for Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in 1831. I am in possession of the 2005 Dover edition, which - in my view - is a delightful reading. It is well known that the imaginary numbers had a hard time entering [...]