Historical Connections in Mathematics

HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS
IN MATHEMATICS
Volume I
Resources for Using

History of Mathematics
in the Classroom
Wilbert Reimer Luetta Reimer

Fresno Pacific University Fresno Pacific University
Brenda Wood, Illustrator

Tracey Lieder, Desktop Publisher
Leticia Rivera, Desktop Publisher
AIMS Education Foundation

Fresno, California
HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS IN MATHEMATICS 1 © 2012 AIMS Education Foundation

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1
Portrait of Pythagoras...........................................................................................................9
Pythagoras: The Master Teacher.........................................................................................10
Activities:
Number Shapes........................................................................................................12
Square, Oblong, and Triangular Numbers.................................................................13
Pythagorean Discoveries..........................................................................................14
Figurate Families......................................................................................................15
The Spider and the Fly.............................................................................................16
A Pythagorean Puzzle...............................................................................................17
Pyramid Puzzles........................................................................................................18
CHAPTER 2
Portrait of Archimedes........................................................................................................19
Archimedes: The Greek Streaker........................................................................................20
Activities:
Archimedes' Mobiles................................................................................................22
A Teeter-Totter Discovery.........................................................................................23
A Balancing Act.......................................................................................................24
Counting Kernels......................................................................................................25
Predicting Float Lines...............................................................................................26
The King's Crown: A Skit..........................................................................................27
CHAPTER 3
Portrait of Napier................................................................................................................29
Napier: The 16th Century Mathemagician..........................................................................30
Activities:
Lattice Multiplication................................................................................................32
Napier's Rods...........................................................................................................33
Russian Peasant Method of Multiplication.................................................................34
Earthquake Mathematics..........................................................................................35
The Magic Rooster: A Skit........................................................................................36
Napier's Magic: A Crossword Puzzle.........................................................................38
CHAPTER 4
Portrait of Galileo................................................................................................................39
Galileo: The Father of the Scientific Method........................................................................40
Activities:
Galileo Drops The Ball..............................................................................................42
Have Gravity: Must Travel.........................................................................................43
How High Can You Throw?.......................................................................................44
How Fast Can You Throw?........................................................................................45
Heartbeats and Pendulums.......................................................................................46
CHAPTER 5
Portrait of Fermat...............................................................................................................47
Fermat: The Marginal Mathematician.................................................................................48
Activities:
Primes and Squares..................................................................................................50
Prime Number "Machines"........................................................................................51
Number Tricks..........................................................................................................52

KEEP GOING
The Proof is in the Pudding.......................................................................................53
Suspicious Sailors....................................................................................................54
CHAPTER 6
Portrait of Pascal................................................................................................................55
Pascal: Launcher of the Computer Age...............................................................................56
Pascal's Triangle.................................................................................................................58
Activities:
Summing up Pascal..................................................................................................59
Pascal Magic............................................................................................................60
MATHEMATICS........................................................................................................61
Pascal's Perimeter....................................................................................................62
A Birthday Surprise..................................................................................................63
CHAPTER 7
Portrait of Newton...............................................................................................................65
Newton: Small But Mighty..................................................................................................66
Activities:
A Tower of Powers of 2.............................................................................................68
Chain Letter Madness...............................................................................................69
A Series Surprise......................................................................................................70
The Binomial Theorem.............................................................................................71
The Short Giant: A Skit............................................................................................72
CHAPTER 8
Portrait of Euler..................................................................................................................75
Euler: The Bridge to Topology............................................................................................76
Activities:
Vertices, Regions, and Arcs......................................................................................78
Traveling Networks...................................................................................................79
Faces, Vertices, and Edges.......................................................................................80
Knight's Move on the Chessboard.............................................................................81
Inside or Outside?.....................................................................................................82

CHAPTER 9
Portrait of Germain.............................................................................................................83
Germain: Mathematics in a Man's World.............................................................................84
Activities:
Four Fours...............................................................................................................86
$1.00 Words.............................................................................................................87
Palindromes.............................................................................................................88
Counting Divisors.....................................................................................................89
Happy Numbers.......................................................................................................90
Midnight Math: A Crossword Puzzle..........................................................................91
CHAPTER 10
Portrait of Gauss.................................................................................................................93
Gauss: The Prince of Mathematicians.................................................................................94
Activities:
Gauss's Challenge....................................................................................................96
Summing Odds........................................................................................................97
Last Digits................................................................................................................98
Average Ability.........................................................................................................99
What's for Lunch?...................................................................................................100
RESOURCES...................................................................................................................101
SUGGESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS.................................................................................103

KEEP GOING
INTRODUCTION AND SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHERS
“I am sure that no subject loses more than mathematics
by any attempt to dissociate it from its history.”
Glashier
Our goal in this book is to provide a collection of resources to make it easy for
teachers to integrate the history of mathematics into their teaching. While mathematics
history textbooks abound, there are not many sources which combine concise bio-
graphical information with activities to use in the classroom. We hope that the problem
solving experiences, the portraits, and the anecdotal stories will facilitate a broad,
natural linkage of human elements and mathematical concepts.
The value of using history in teaching mathematics is currently gaining emphasis.
Providing a personal and cultural context for mathematics helps students sense the
larger meaning and scope of their studies. When they learn how persons have discov-
ered and developed mathematics, they begin to understand that posing and solving
problems is a distinctly human activity.
Using history in the mathematics classroom is often a successful motiva-
tional tool. Especially when combined with manipulatives, illustrations, and relevant
applications, historical elements have the power to make mathematics “come alive”
as never before. By viewing mathematics from a historical perspective, students learn
that the process of problem solving is as important as the solution.
This book can be used in many ways. The teacher may choose to read or share
biographical information and anecdotes as an introduction to one or more of the
activities in a particular section. Portraits may be posted or distributed, and puzzles or
skits may be used independently. It may be most effective, however, to focus on one
mathematician at a time. A wide range of activities may be incorporated into a unit on
a specific mathematician, allowing the teacher to make cross-disciplinary connections
with social studies, language arts, and science.
Mathematicians may be selected for emphasis according to the concepts being
introduced in the mathematics curriculum or may be used at random for enrichment.
While some of the activities do not replicate the exact problems the mathematicians
worked on, they represent the areas of interest of those mathematicians.
Activities have been chosen to appeal to a wide range of interests and ability levels.
Complete solutions and suggestions for use are included in the back of this book.
Wilbert Reimer
Luetta Reimer

KEEP GOING
Pythagoras
c. 560 - c. 480 B. C.

PYTHAGORAS
THE MASTER TEACHER
Biographical Information: Anecdotes:

Pythagoras (pi-THAG-uh-rus) of Samos
(c.560-c.480 B.C.) was a Greek philosopher
and religious leader responsible for important
developments in mathematics, astronomy, and
music theory. Little is known about Pythagoras’s
early life, except that he was born on the island
of Samos and, as a young man, traveled exten-
sively. His followers became a “secret brother-
hood” which focused on religious rites as well
as intellectual pursuits.
There are several legends about Pythagoras’s Hiring a Student
death: one says he was slain by enemies in the Pythagoras was excited about his mathe-
presence of his young wife; another says he was matical discoveries. He wanted to share them
burned in a fire during a political riot. with someone, but no one would listen. Finally,
in desperation, he cornered a young boy in the
Contributions: marketplace and offered to teach him the arith-
The Pythagoreans: metic he had discovered. The boy refused. He
- were the first to use letters on geometric had no time for such frivolity. He had to work
figures. to help provide for his family. “Tell you what,”
- provided the first logical proof of the theo- Pythagoras implored. “I’ll pay you daily wages if
rem a2+b2=c2. you’ll just listen to me and try to learn.” It was a
- represented whole numbers as geometric deal; Pythagoras had started his first school.
shapes. Eventually, Pythagoras ran out of money.
- divided all numbers into even and odd. By then, his student was so intrigued that he
- demonstrated the construction of the five offered to pay Pythagoras to continue teaching
regular solids. him. Eventually, the teacher’s initial investment
- asserted that the earth was round. was returned!
Quotations by Pythagoras:
“Number rules the universe.”
“Everything is arranged according to number

and mathematical shape.”
“Number is the origin of all things, and the

law of number is the key that unlocks the secrets
of the universe.”
“Be silent, or say something better than

silence.”
The Pythagorean School

When Pythagoras was about 50 years old,
he selected approximately 300 wealthy persons

from the city of Croton to constitute his first of- their sacred symbol—the pentagram, a five-
ficial “school.” The curriculum consisted of four pointed star. They emphasized virtuous living
mathemata, or studies: arithmetica (number and friendship, and believed that “Knowledge
theory), harmonia (music), geometria (geom- is the greatest purification.”
etry), and astrologia (astronomy).
Pythagoras divided those who attended into
two groups. The acoustici were permitted only
to listen to the master from behind a curtain.
After three years of silent obedience, such stu-
dents could be initiated into the mathematici,
the advanced students who could actually see
Pythagoras in action.
As the curtain opened on the classroom stage,
Pythagoras appeared, dressed in a flowing white
robe with a golden wreath on his head and gold
sandals on his feet. After stating a problem, he
would withdraw, allowing time for the students
to work on the problem. His attendants provided A Pythagorean Celebration
soft background music on their instruments. Legend says that Pythagoras was so excited
After an interval, Pythagoras would reappear when he discovered the Pythagorean theorem
and demonstrate the solution with visual aids (a2 + b2 = c2) that he prepared an unusually gen-
such as colored sand or pebbles. erous sacrifice. He offered to the gods not one
but a hundred oxen. For centuries, mathemati-
cians have admired the beauty of this theorem,
but most everyone agrees that Pythagoras got
a little carried away in his celebration.
The Great Cover-Up

Pythagoras taught adamantly that everything
in the world depended upon whole numbers.
When one of his group discovered that some
lengths can not be represented as rational
numbers, that is, they cannot be expressed as
a whole number or the ratio of two whole num-
bers, the Brotherhood was scandalized. These
new numbers, like √ 2, were called irrational
numbers.
The Secret Brotherhood At first, every effort was made to keep this
The Pythagoreans were a religious and politi- shocking discovery of irrational numbers secret.
cal organization as well as a school. There were Members were warned not to breathe a word
many unusual requirements of members. They about it. Eventually, the truth “leaked” out, but
shared all things in common, but were strictly not without consequence. Hippasus, apparently
forbidden to discuss their discoveries outside guilty of talking, mysteriously fell off a boat and
the Brotherhood. They were vegetarian—deeply drowned.
respectful towards animals, whom they felt were
sometimes their friends reincarnated. They
would not wear wool, drink wine, eat beans,
pick up anything that had fallen, or stir a fire
with an iron poker. On their clothing they wore

NUMBER SHAPES
The Pythagoreans represented whole Pythagoras demonstrated many number
numbers as geometric shapes, often with relationships using number shapes. Use
pebbles on the sand. The following definitions practice golf balls and a glue gun to build these
reflect this concept. shapes and show the relationships.
A square number is the number of pebbles The sum of two consecutive triangular
in a square array. numbers is a square number.

+ =
The square number 9
Two times a triangular number is an oblong
A triangular number is the number of pebbles number.
in a triangular array.

+ =

The triangular number 6 Eight times any triangular number plus one
is a square number.
An oblong number is the number of pebbles
in a rectangular array having one more column
than rows.

+

+ +

+ + +

=
The oblong number 12 + +

An even number is the number of pebbles in
a rectangle having two rows. An odd number plus an odd number is an even
number.

+
=
The even number 10 An even number plus an odd number is an
odd number.
An odd number is the number of pebbles in
a rectangle having two rows with one extra
pebble.

+
=

An even number plus an even number is an
even number.
The odd number 11
+

=
SQUARE OBLONG TRIANGULAR
NUMBERS NUMBERS NUMBERS
Square numbers are numbers which can be Oblong numbers are numbers which can be Triangular numbers are numbers which can be
represented by dots in a square array. The represented by dots in a rectangle having one represented by dots in a triangular array. The
first four square numbers are pictured below. dimension one unit longer than the other. The first four triangular numbers are pictured
first four oblong numbers are pictured below. below.
• • • •
• • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
1st 2nd 3rd 4th • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
•• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
1st 2nd 3rd 4th • • • • • • • • • •
1st 2nd 3rd 4th
HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS IN MATHEMATICS

Square Number of Oblong Number of Triangular Number of
Number Dots Number Dots Number Dots
13
1st 1 1st 2 1st 1
2nd 4 2nd 6 2nd 3
3rd _______ 3rd _______ 3rd _______
4th _______ 4th _______ 4th _______
5th _______ 5th _______ 5th _______
6th _______ 6th _______ 6th _______
50th _______ 50th _______ 50th _______
nth _______ nth _______ nth _______
Complete the table to find the number of Complete the table to find the number of Complete the table to find the number of
dots in the nth square number. dots in the nth oblong number. dots in the nth triangular number.
© 2012 AIMS Education Foundation

PYTHAGOREAN DISCOVERIES
The Pythagoreans discovered many relationships between triangular,
square, and oblong numbers. Use this table to find some of these
relationships.
Triangular 1 3 6 10 15 21 28 36
Square 1 4 9 16 25 36 49 64
Oblong 2 6 12 20 30 42 56 72

1. The sum of two consecutive triangular numbers is a(n)
__________ number.
2. Two times any triangular number is a(n) __________ number.
3. Eight times a triangular number plus one is a(n)

__________ number.
4. Three times any triangular number plus the next triangular

number is a(n) __________ number.
5. An oblong number plus the corresponding square number is a(n)

__________ number.
6. The sum of two consecutive oblong numbers is twice a(n)

__________ number.
7. A triangular number plus the corresponding square number minus

the corresponding oblong number is a(n) __________ number.
•
••
•••
A triangular number is the number of dots in a triangular array.
A•••
••• square number is the number of dots in a square array.
•••
••••
•••• An oblong number is the number of dots in a rectangular array having one more
•••• column than rows.

FIGURATE FAMILIES
Numbers that can be represented by dots arranged in specific
geometric shapes are called figurate numbers. These numbers can be
divided into “families” according to their shapes.
Discovering the relationship between these number families can be

as much fun as making a family tree!
Complete the table below. Note the many horizontal and vertical
relationships. Take advantage of these patterns as you work.
Rank of Family Members

1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th
Triangular 1 3 6 10
Square 1 4 9
Pentagonal 1 5 12
Family
Hexagonal 1 6
Heptagonal 1
Octagonal
PENTAGONAL NUMBERS HEXAGONAL NUMBERS
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

The Spider
and
the Fly
Floor
Sidewall
Ceiling
30ft
12ft 12ft
A room is 30 feet long, 12 feet wide, and 12
feet high. At one end of the room, 1 foot from
the floor, and midway from the sides, is a fly.
At the other end, 11 feet from the floor, and
midway from the sides, is a spider. Determine
the shortest path by way of the floor, ends,
sides, and ceiling, the spider can take to
capture the fly. How long, in feet, is this path?

A PYTHAGOREAN PUZZLE
The Pythagorean theorem says that the sum of the areas of the
squares on the two legs of a right triangle is equal to the area of the
square on the hypotenuse.
In the puzzle shown, notice that the two squares on the legs of the
right triangle are made up of five pieces.
Cut out the puzzle and arrange the five pieces to make one square on
the hypotenuse. This illustrates the Pythagorean theorem!

PYRAMID PUZZLES
A significant contribution of the
Pythagoreans is the representation of
whole numbers as geometric shapes.
Imagine Pythagoras taking a number
of round pebbles and stacking them to
make a triangular pyramid.
Numbers which take this shape are called tetrahedral numbers.
Two popular puzzles which involve tetrahedral numbers can easily be

made with practice golf balls and an electric glue gun.
The objective of both puzzles is to put the pieces together to form a

triangular pyramid. One puzzle uses 6 pieces and the other 4 pieces.
Use your glue gun to construct the individual pieces and then solve
the puzzle!
PUZZLE NO. 1
These six pieces can be assembled to form a triangular pyramid.
+ + +
=
+ +
PUZZLE NO. 2
These four pieces can be assembled to form a triangular pyramid.

+ + + =

Archimedes
287 - 212 B. C.

ARCHIMEDES
THE GREEK STREAKER
Biographical Information: Perhaps some of the gold had been replaced

Archimedes (ar-ki-MEE-deez), the greatest with cheaper silver.
mathematician of ancient times, was born in To help him solve this problem, the King sent
287 B.C. in Syracuse, a Greek colony on the for Archimedes, who did not know what to do
east coast of Sicily. His father, Phaedius, was immediately. One day while sitting in the public
a noted astronomer. Archimedes studied at bath, he noticed that as he sank into the water,
the Museum of Alexandria, but spent most of the water level rose and his body felt lighter than
his life in Syracuse. In 212 B.C., he was killed usual. This gave him the clue he needed. The
by an attacking Roman soldier while solving a principles of buoyancy and water displacement
geometry problem in the sand. could be used to check the king’s suspicions
because equal weights of gold and silver are
Contributions: no longer equal when weighed in water. Silver,
Archimedes: having a greater volume, displaces more water
-made many original contributions to than gold.
geometry.
-laid the foundation for the integral
calculus.
-approximated the value of pi.
-developed the law of the lever.
-discovered the laws of buoyancy.
-invented the Archimedean water screw.
Quotation by Archimedes:
“Give me a spot where I can stand, and I
shall move the earth!” (on the law of the lever)
Anecdotes: Legend says that Archimedes was so excited

by this discovery that he jumped out of the bath
and ran naked through the streets to the palace,
shouting “Eureka! Eureka!” (“I have found it!”).
Upon testing, the crown was found to contain
silver, and the dishonest goldsmith paid dearly
for his crime.
The King’s Crown The Earth Mover

King Hieron often called on Archimedes to help Perhaps the most famous test of Archimedes’
him solve domestic and military problems. After creative problem solving resulted from another
all, few people could concentrate as Archimedes request of King Hieron. The king had built a mag-
could. On one occasion, the king had asked a nificent luxury ship for Ptolemy of Alexandria but,
goldsmith to design a new crown of solid gold. when it was finished, it was too large to launch.
For some reason, the king suspected the crafts- Archimedes came to the rescue with an ap-
man of dishonesty. The crown weighed as much paratus of cogwheels, pulleys, and levers. One
as the gold the king had given him to work with, man, sitting in a chair on the dock, was able
yet his instinct told him something was amiss. to use Archimedes’ devices to launch the ship,

much to the amazement and cheers of the enemy. He engineered catapults to thrust huge
crowd. Archimedes was so confident in his law boulders over the wall onto threatening ships.
of the lever that he boasted: “Give me a spot He constructed giant reflectors to beam the
where I can stand, and I shall move the earth!” sun’s rays onto the enemy, making their ships
erupt into flames. He built huge cranes which
could reach over the wall and literally pick up a
ship and shake it. After several months of such
warfare, the Romans became frightened and
fled when they saw so much as a rope dangling
over the edge of the wall; perhaps it was a new
contraption from Archimedes’ arsenal.
Archimedes’ Screw
One of the most practical of Archimedes’
inventions was the Archimedean screw, or
cochlias. This water-removing device was a tube,
open at each end, enclosing a rod. When the
lower end was immersed in water at an angle
and the upper end was rotated, the screw worked
like a straw, drawing the water up and out the
top. This was used in Egypt to get water out of
the Nile for irrigation, in Spain to pump water
from silver mines, and at sea to bail water out
of leaking ships. It continues to be used in many Death of a Genius
countries today. One day during the Roman attack on Sicily,
the Greeks relaxed their vigilance at the wall to
The Sand Reckoner celebrate the festival of Artemis, their goddess
In his best known book, The Sand Reckoner, of the moon. The Romans saw their opportunity
Archimedes describes the process he used to and seized the capital city of Syracuse.
measure the universe—in terms of how much Archimedes was not at the party. Rather, he
sand it would take to fill it! First, he counted was busy working on a geometry problem in the
how much sand it would take to make up a sand when a Roman soldier approached him.
poppy seed. Then he counted how many poppy Without even looking up, Archimedes barked
seeds would equal the size of a man’s finger. at the soldier to get out of
Next he calculated how many fingers it would his light; his work on circles
take to fill a stadium. He continued this process should not be interrupted.
until he came up with his answer: 1063 grains Although his commander had
of sand. This number was the largest number forbidden anyone to harm
ever imagined. Although Archimedes greatly Archimedes, the irate soldier
underestimated the size of the universe, he thrust his spear through the
introduced the use of exponents to write large mathematician, thus ending
numbers. the life of the greatest creative
genius of the Greek era.
Creative Defense
When the Romans attacked Sicily,
Archimedes was summoned to apply his cre-
ative energy to the defense. He designed an
incredible collection of weaponry to hold off the

ARCHIMEDES’ MOBILES
Archimedes’ discoveries about balance have many common applica-
tions, including hanging mobiles. Find the value of each weight in these
balanced mobiles. Disregard the weight of the connecting rods.

A TEETER-TOTTER DISCOVERY
A 40 lb child sits at one end of a teeter-totter (lever) which is 12 feet long and has the
fulcrum (point of balance) in the center as shown. How many feet from the fulcrum should a
60 lb child sit so the teeter-totter will balance?
To help you answer this question, examine the table below and discover one of the properties
Archimedes discovered about levers. The values in the table cause a lever to be in balance.
D1 W1 D2 W2
(Distance child 1 is from (Weight of child 1) (Distance child 2 is from (Weight of child 2)
the fulcrum) the fulcrum)
5 ft 40 lbs 2 ft 100 lbs
Using your discovery, fill in the missing values below:
4 ft 55 lbs 5 ft
5 ft 6 ft 125 lbs
60 lbs 3 ft 40 lbs
6 ft 115 lbs 138 lbs
Summarize your discovery by writing a formula expressing the relationship between D 1 ,

W1 , D 2 , and W 2 . This is Archimedes’ Law of the Lever.

A BALANCING ACT
Archimedes (287 - 212 B.C.) was interested
in finding the balance point, or center
of gravity, of various shapes. For some
shapes the center of gravity is obvious. The
center of gravity of a circle is its center.
Archimedes discovered that you can find

the center of gravity of any triangle by
drawing line segments from each vertex
to the midpoint of the opposite side. These
segments are called medians. The point
where the medians intersect is the center
of gravity (point of balance).
Cut several large triangles of varying shapes out of cardboard. Draw

a segment from each vertex to the midpoint of the opposite side.
The point of intersection is the balance point. Demonstrate this by
balancing the triangle with your finger or a pencil at this point. This
procedure will determine the balance point for any triangle!
COUNTING KERNELS
Archimedes, one of the greatest mathematicians of
all time, lived in Greece from 287 to 212 B.C. He was
interested in big numbers, so one day he decided to figure
out how many grains of sand it would take to fill the universe.
First, he counted how much sand it would take to make up a
poppy seed. Then he counted how many poppy seeds would
equal the size of a man’s finger. Next he calculated how many
fingers it would take to fill a stadium.
Archimedes continued this process until he came up with
his answer:
1063 grains of sand
(That’s 1 with 63 zeros after it!)
This number was the largest number ever imagined.

Although Archimedes greatly underestimated the size of
the universe, he introduced an easy way to write large numbers.
Use a technique like Archimedes’ to figure out how many kernels of

popcorn it would take to fill your classroom.
First, make a guess! _______________ kernels.
Select a small box and fill it with kernels. How many kernels fill the
box? __________
What is the volume of your box (V = L x W x H)? __________
What is the volume of your classroom? __________
How many boxes would fit into your room? __________
What is the approximate number of popcorn kernels which would fill your
classroom? __________

PREDICTING FLOAT LINES
A block of wood is placed in a container of
water. Can you predict how much of the block
will be submerged? This question is related
to Archimedes’ discovery about buoyancy,
called “Archimedes’ Principle.”
Use the density of each wood block to predict its float line. Remember,
water has the density of 1 gram/cm3. Anything with less density will
float. By computing the density of each block, you can find the portion
that will be submerged. For example, if the density is 1 4
g/cm 3
, then 1
4
of the block will be submerged.
Complete the table for several rectangular blocks of wood.
Wood Type Volume Mass Density Floatline

(in cm3) (in grams) M Prediction
D= (cm from
V
bottom)
Place a rubber band around each block where you predict the water line
will be.
Now place the blocks in a container of water. How close were your
predictions?

“The King’s Crown”
A Skit to Read or Dramatize
Characters: Props:
Narrator Crown (paper or cardboard will do)
Archimedes Cloth or handkerchief to cover crown
King Hieron Bath tub (such as a large cardboard box)
Two stage hands Robe for King (optional)

Narrator: Archimedes was the greatest mathematician of ancient times. He made many
important contributions to mathematics. Along with his discoveries and inven-
tions, Archimedes was a reliable problem solver for the King. One story which
is especially interesting is the story of the King’s crown!
(Enter King Hieron and Archimedes. King holds crown with handkerchief over it.)
King Hieron: Archimedes, I’ve got a another problem for you.
Archimedes: What is it, your majesty?
King Hieron: Well, you see, I just had this new crown made for me. (Takes handkerchief off crown.)
Archimedes: It’s wonderful, sir. Don’t you like it?
King Hieron: Oh, I love the way it looks, but I’m not sure about its quality. I took the necessary
amount of gold to the goldsmith for the making of the crown, but now I wonder
if he put some silver inside the crown, and kept some of the gold for himself!
Archimedes: (Scratching his head in thought) Hmm....Have you weighed the crown to see if
it weighs the same as the gold you took him?
King Hieron: I sure have, and it weighs the same. I hope you can solve this problem, Archimedes.
(Exit King Hieron with his crown. Archimedes begins to walk around, thinking.)
Narrator: Archimedes told the King he would think about it as he wandered off. As he
walked, he was thinking so hard about the King’s problem that he bumped into
things and forgot where he was going.
(Exit Archimedes. Stage hands bring out bath tub. Enter Archimedes, who climbs into the
bath tub.)

Narrator: The next day, Archimedes was relaxing in the bath tub. Suddenly an idea came
to him. He was so excited he jumped out of the tub!
(Archimedes jumps out and puts his hands up in the air.)
Archimedes: Hurray, I have found it! I noticed that when I sat down in the bath tub, the water
rose. If an object with a large volume is placed in water, a large amount of water
will rise. And if an object with a small volume but the same weight is placed
in water, a smaller amount of water will rise. I can’t wait to tell the King my
discovery!
(Exit Archimedes. Bath tub is left on the stage. Enter Archimedes with King Hieron.)
Narrator: Archimedes went to the King with his discovery. (Archimedes and King bend over
bath tub as if putting things in it.) Archimedes put the gold under the water and
measured how much the water rose. Then he did the same thing with the crown,
and the water rose higher. This proved that the crown could not be pure gold.
(Archimedes and King Hieron stand up and shake hands.)
King Hieron: Archimedes, you certainly are a genius!
Archimedes: Well, your Highness, a lot can be learned from taking a bath!

John Napier
1550 - 1617

NAPIER
16TH CENTURY “MATHEMAGICIAN”
Biographical Information: He invented a hydraulic screw and a revolving

John Napier (NAY-peer) was a Scottish axle which could remove water from flooded
mathematician who lived from 1550 to 1617. coal pits, and he experimented with what he
His family tree included many influential nobles called “chess arithmetic,” where digits moved
and statesmen. His mother’s brother, Adam like rooks and bishops on a board. Because of
Bothwell, assisted at the marriage of the Earl his almost limitless ingenuity, Napier’s friends
of Bothwell to Queen Mary, and also anointed and neighbors nicknamed him “Marvelous
and crowned the infant King James VI. Merchiston.”
As a young boy, Napier was educated at
home. When he was 13, his mother died and
he was sent to study at the University of St.
Andrews. He lived most of his life on the im-
posing family estate of Merchiston Castle, near
Edinburgh, Scotland. Napier held no profes-
sional post, but was always busy with scientific
and mathematical pursuits, developing a reputa-
tion as an intense and energetic amateur.
Contributions:
Napier was the inventor of logarithms, which The Drunk Pigeons
made numerical calculations faster and more Napier was tired of his neighbor’s pigeons,
accurate. He also developed another method who were always pecking the seeds and grain
for simplifying calculation, known as Napier’s out of his fields. He had warned the neighbor
Rods, usually made of bones or ivory. He was that he was going to do something drastic, but
the first mathematician to standardize the use it had not done any good. One day, in exaspera-
of the decimal point. Napier also invested his tion, he sent a message threatening to catch and
time in agricultural experimentation, military keep the birds the next time they flew over his
science, and religious and political causes. fields.
“Mr. Napier,” laughed the neighbor, “if you
Quotation by Napier: can catch them, you can have them!”
“There is nothing so troublesome to The next morning, Napier’s servants arrived
mathematical practice than multiplications, at work to find their master busily picking up
divisions, square and cubical extractions of pigeons and tossing them into a sack. They had
great numbers...I began therefore to consider never seen anything like it, but they weren’t
how I might remove those hindrances.” surprised.
Napier had a reputation for finding practical
Anecdotes: solutions to everyday problems, even though
Marvelous Merchiston his ideas were often unorthodox. His neighbors
At home on his estate, found out later that Napier had soaked some
Napier was always busy peas in brandy, and scattered them in the yard
working on a new inven- to attract the pigeons. After they had had their
tion or writing about a fill of the peas, he was able to pick them up by
new idea. He developed hand and toss them into the sack. The pigeons
the use of salt as fertilizer. were drunk!

The Clairvoyant Rooster simplifying computation. This discovery was met
Napier was suspicious of his new workers; with almost universal acclaim and acceptance,
one of them must be dishonest. Tools and not just by astronomers, but by all persons who
supplies were mysteriously but steadily disap- had been burdened by cumbersome arithmetic.
pearing. On questioning, each worker denied Logarithms, the principle on which slide rules
responsibility. Finally, Napier thought of a plan were based, essentially reduced multiplication
to catch the thief. and division to addition and subtraction.
Early one morning he gathered the workers
outside a dark storage room. He told them his
special truth-telling rooster was perched in-
side. Each worker was instructed to go in, pet Stick with Napier
the rooster on the back, and then come back In 1971, Nicaragua paid homage to the
out. The rooster would be able to tell who was world’s “ten most important mathematical
responsible for the missing items. One by one formulas” by issuing a set of commemorative
the workers filed into the shed to pet the rooster. stamps. Napier’s formula for logarithms is on
Then Napier asked them all to turn their hands one of these stamps.
palms up. All but one had greasy
black palms. Napier had clev-
erly coated his common black
rooster with lamp black. The
innocent workers petted the
rooster without fear, but
the guilty one took no
chances and kept his Napier’s Bones
hands in his pockets. Napier’s rods or bones, as they were some-
His clean hands gave times called, were an additional help to persons
him away! who depended on calculation. A set of rods con-
sisted of ten rectangular strips of ivory, wood,
Futuristic Weapons or metal, small enough to carry in the pocket
Napier spent years planning and drawing a much as people now
series of military machines. One of these was a carry pocket cal-
fantastic sailing device which could travel under culators. Each rod
water. Another was a moving vehicle which was marked with
could shoot in all directions as it moved. He numbers. By placing
imagined a piece of artillery which could kill all selected rods side
cattle within a mile’s radius. These projections by side, one could
became so horrifying to Napier that he rejected multiply quickly and
them all and insisted that prototypes never be accurately.
developed. Today, it is remarkable to see how
Napier’s ideas, sketched out in the 16th century, Get to the Point
are paralleled in the submarine, the tank, and Napier was the first mathematician to con-
the machine gun. sistently use the decimal point to separate the
whole number part from the fractional part of
Logarithms and Slide Rules a number. His usage quickly became standard
One of Napier’s greatest interests was astro- in Great Britain, but many European countries
nomy, and he groaned when he thought of continue to this day to use the decimal comma
the almost endless calculations required of instead.
astronomers. After twenty years of study and
experimentation, Napier introduced the use
of logarithms—an incredible breakthrough in

LATTICE MULTIPLICATION
A method of multiplication, used by the early Hindus, is called lattice
multiplication. A lattice diagram is drawn and additions are performed
diagonally. Study the examples below to uncover the method.
7 6 2 9 3
6 5 1 4 1
7 9 1 5
3 4 0 5 5
5 4 8 1 5 1
4 6 6
6 8 2 4 8
4 8 4 0 8
76 x 98 = 7448 293 x 56 = 16408
Use lattice multiplication to solve these problems.
4 6
3
46 x 35 =________ 259 x 37 =_____ 53 x 24 = ______
457 x 38 = __ _____ 63 x 75 =______ 836 x 28 = _____

NAPIER'S RODS

RUSSIAN PEASANT METHOD
OF MULTIPLICATION
In the 1800’s, peasants in a remote area of Russia
were discovered multiplying numbers using a
remarkably unusual process. This process, known as
the “Russian peasant method” of multiplication, is
said to be still in use in some parts of Russia.
Assume you want to multiply 18 X 25.
Halve this column; Double this

discard remainders column
X
18 25
Cross out all the rows which have
9 50 an even number on the left, then
add up all the remaining numbers
4 100 on the right.
2 200

1 400
450
Use the Russian peasant method of multiplication to solve these

problems.
1) 20 x 25 ___________ 3) 12 x 25 ___________
2) 16 x 30 ___________ 4) 22 x 75 ___________
EARTHQUAKE MATHEMATICS
When Napier (1550-1617) invented logarithms, he
had no idea they would someday be used to measure
earthquakes! The Richter scale measures the magnitude
of earthquakes using logarithms, which are exponents.
The Richter value is only part of the number describing
an earthquake's strength. It is the exponent using
10 as the base. If an earthquake has a
Richter value of 6, the magnitude of this
earthquake is 106.
To compare the magnitude of two
earthquakes, divide the larger by the
smaller. For example, to see how
much stronger an earthquake with
a Richter value of 7.8 is than one
with a value of 4.6, divide 107.8 by
104.6. The answer: approximately
1585 times stronger.
EARTHQUAKE QUESTIONS:
1. Many people think that an earthquake with a Richter value of 8 is
twice as strong as one with a value of 4. How do the two actually
compare in intensity?
2. Using the map above and a calculator, compare the following pairs
of earthquakes. Approximately how much stronger is the first
earthquake than the second?
(a) San Francisco, 1906 vs Loma Prieta, 1989
(b) Tehachapi, 1952 vs Mammoth Lakes, 1980
(c) Landers, 1992 vs Coalinga, 1983
(d) Eureka, 1980 vs San Fernando, 1971

“The Magic Rooster”
Characters:
Narrator
John Napier
Thief
Workers (three or four)
Props:
Several tools (garden or kitchen)
A dirty “rooster” such as a chalk eraser filled with dark chalk dust.
A screen or table to represent the shed.
Group may decide if it would be effective for the audience to view actual rooster petting
scene.
Narrator: The great mathematician, John Napier, made many discoveries in his lifetime. His
problem-solving techniques were so incredible he was sometimes accused of using
magic. In this story, Napier used that notion to solve a very practical problem. It’s
the story of the magic rooster!
(Enter Napier, talking to himself. Thief may quietly rummage around behind him, collecting
a few miscellaneous tools under his coat)
Napier: I just don’t understand. Ever since I hired these new workers, things have mysteri-
ously disappeared from my house! At first, I didn’t really notice, since only a tool
or two were missing, but now even the cook has complained about things missing
from the kitchen! I have to put a stop to this. What can I do? The thief would never
admit to stealing my things. I must think of a plan...
(Exit Thief. Napier sits down to think.)
Narrator: Napier thought and thought, trying to think of a clever way to discover which of the
new workers was the thief. Suddenly, he had an idea. He called all the workers for
a meeting.
(Enter all workers, including Thief.)
Napier: Someone has been stealing from me. Since no one has confessed, I have found a
sure way to catch the thief. In this shed is my black rooster, the magical one that
can tell the truth from lies. (Workers look at each other nervously.) Now, I want
each one of you to go into the dark shed, one at a time, and pet the rooster on the
back. The rooster will then tell me which one of you is guilty.
(One by one, the workers enter shed and pet the rooster. Just before his turn, the Thief steps
aside and whispers to the audience.)

Thief: (With his hand shielding his mouth from the other workers.) There’s no way I’m
going to touch that magical rooster! If I do, I will get in big trouble—and probably
lose my job! The master will never know if I don’t touch it, so...just to be safe...I’ll
only pretend to pet the black rooster.
(Thief enters shed.)
Narrator: So the thief entered the shed, stayed away from the rooster, and then came out to
stand in line with the others.
Napier: Very good. Now, let me see who the rooster has declared as the thief. Let me see
your hands.
(Workers hold out hands.)
Narrator: The workers held out their hands to Napier, palms up. He walked slowly past
them all and looked at the big, black smudges on their hands. All of the workers’
hands were dirty, except for the thief’s. Napier stopped in front of the man with
the clean hands.
Napier: You are the guilty one. Look at your hands—they’re clean. All of the other work-
ers knew they were innocent so they touched the rooster, but you were scared
since you were guilty. Because you refused to pet the rooster, I know you are the
thief!
(Thief puts his hands behind his back and shouts.)
Thief: Are you going to believe a stupid rooster? How can it know whether or not I’ve
been stealing?—even if it is magical!
Napier: You silly worker. The rooster is not magical. (Napier turns to all workers) Know-
ing that the guilty man would not touch the rooster, I covered it with greasy black
soot, collected after the oil lamps were cleaned. This way I would be able to tell
which man was too scared to touch the rooster. The thief would be the only one
with clean hands. (Napier turns to Thief) You may think it was only a “stupid
rooster,” but it definitely outsmarted you!

Napier’s Magic
Crossword Puzzle
ACROSS DOWN
3 Napier’s home country. 1 Someone who performs tricks or illusions.
6 The color of the innocent workers’ hands. 2 The century in which Napier lived.
7 A family mansion such as Napier lived in. 4 A receptacle for drinking liquids.
8 The “secret” ingredient fed to the pigeons. 5 These reduced multiplication and division to
9 The inside of your hands. addition and subtraction.
11 One of Napier’s workers was this. 6 Another name for Napier’s rods.
13 An examination. 10 What Napier did for relaxation and fun.
14 What Napier tossed to the birds. 12 Something we all enjoy.
15 The owner of the birds Napier captured. 14 The answer to a multiplication problem.
20 The point Napier made popular. 16 What mathematics was for Napier.
21 The answer to an addition problem. 17 What Napier’s rods could do.
22 A gorilla. 18 The birds which were eating Napier’s
23 Napier had one with something to “crow” seeds.
about. 19 Napier designed weapons for this time.

Galileo Galilei
1564 - 1642

GALILEO
FATHER OF THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Biographical Information: involvement and interest of the students. Here

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was an Italian was a fascinating subject! Much to his father’s
mathematician and scientist born near Pisa, chagrin, Galileo gave up the pursuit of medi-
Italy. His father was an impoverished nobleman cine and devoted his life to mathematics and
who, although he sold cloth for a living, was a astronomy.
good mathematician himself. Young Galileo was
talented in many areas. He was a fine musician The Swinging Chandelier
and an excellent painter; he impressed his teach- One day when Galileo went to the university
ers early with literary ability and mechanical chapel to pray, he witnessed the caretaker light-
ingenuity. ing the large hanging lamps. He had seen this
before, but had never closely observed the lamps
Contributions: swinging back and forth
Galileo: after being released from
-is often referred to as the “Father of the the worker’s hook.
Scientific Method.” By using his own
-discovered the laws of the pendulum. heartbeat as a timer, he
-helped “dethrone” Aristotle as the supreme discovered that each
authority in education. swing took the same
-developed the telescope. time, whether the lamp
-discovered the law of falling bodies. swung in a wide or
-was first to show that the path of a projectile narrow arc. He rushed
is a parabola. back to his room and
began a series of ex-
Quotations by Galileo: periments which resulted in Galileo’s law of
“Mathematics is the language with which the pendulum. Neither the size of the arc nor
God has written the universe.” the weight of the hanging object affected the
time of the swing. Only the length of the chain
“In questions of sciences, the authority of a could alter that.
thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of
a single individual.” The Leaning Tower Fiasco
While Galileo was a professor of mathematics
“The Bible shows us not how heaven goes, at Pisa, he began to question
but how to go to heaven.” Aristotle’s widely accepted
notion that the speed of any
Anecdotes: object’s fall was proportional
From Medicine to Math to its weight. After a series of
When Galileo was 17, his parents sent him private experiments, he set up
to the University of Pisa to study medicine. The a public demonstration at the
young student found the lectures boring; there Leaning Tower.
were no opportunities to experiment or work He publicized the date and
in a laboratory. One day while walking down time, inviting his colleagues to
the university’s hall, he overheard an excited come and watch; most came
professor discussing geometry. As he peeked only to scoff at his foolishness.
into the classroom, he was surprised by the

At the scheduled hour, Galileo ceremoniously was looking up. He continued to improve the
marched to the top of the tower and dropped telescope until he could see sunspots, mountains
two iron balls, one about ten times heavier than on the moon, Saturn’s rings, and the moons
the other. around Jupiter.
When the two balls appeared to land at the What he saw through his telescope convinced
same time, Galileo was ecstatic. Surely now Galileo that Copernicus was right; the sun—not
his fellows would take him seriously. But, even the earth—was the center of the universe. Such
though they had seen it with their own eyes, a notion was considered heretical. It became
they refused to believe it. Instead, they accused the cause of Galileo’s lifelong persecution.
Galileo of sorcery, deceit, and insolence. During
the next months, some of these witnesses went Conflict with the Church
to Galileo’s lectures just so they could hiss and Galileo’s support of the Copernican theory
sneer at him. led to a series of events which are among the
most shameful in the history of science. A deeply
The Scientific Method religious man and a devout Catholic, Galileo
Galileo had rejected any speculations about was grieved to find his work condemned by
the physical universe which could not be the Church as contrary to scripture. He thought
checked by observation and experience. To use about this a great deal, and reconciled for himself
a truly “scientific method,” he taught, one must the different roles of science and scripture. The
experiment, think about the results, and then Bible’s purpose, he said, was not to be a science
try to come up with a law or principle. Next it textbook. Rather, it was intended to teach man
is important to do more experiments to test the even more important spiritual truths, which no
theory. If these do not confirm it, think about it amount of experimentation could reveal.
some more or start over, and keep at this until The Church, however, could not accept this
the results are convincing. reasoning. In 1633, Galileo was brought before
the Inquisition and forced to recant. Ill, old, and
threatened, he denied his former teachings about
the earth’s motion. Legend says that as he rose
to his feet he muttered softly, “The earth does
move all the same.”
Galileo was sentenced to life imprisonment,
all his published works were banned and sup-
pressed, and he was forbidden to publish again.
Although his sentence was later commuted to
house arrest, Galileo’s spirit was broken. He
became blind and, until he died in January,
1642, lived in lonely isolation.
Glimpses of the Universe
While teaching at the University of Padua, Galileo’s Case Reviewed
where he was more respected than he had been Galileo was condemned by the Church for
at Pisa, Galileo heard about a “toy” invented attempting to prove that the earth revolves
by the spectacle maker, Hans Lippershey, of around the sun. More than 350 years later, in
Holland. By placing several lenses together in a 1992, Pope John Paul II issued a statement
tube, Lippershey and his assistant had been able reversing Galileo's conviction.
to magnify images seen through the tube.
Galileo went to work and perfected the “spy-
glass,” as it was called. Military leaders were
thrilled to have such an instrument at their
disposal; with it they could “spy” the enemy
ships which were still hours away. But Galileo

GALILEO DROPS THE BALL
Before the time of Galileo (1564 - 1642),
people thought that heavy objects fell faster
than light ones.

To demonstrate that this was not true,
Galileo dropped a cannonball and a pebble
from the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Both reached
the ground at the same time.
Later, Galileo also studied the time

Total Time Velocity of
and velocity of falling objects. of Fall Object
(seconds) (ft/second)
T V
Complete the table and find the
1 32
generalization Galileo and other
scientists uncovered. 2 64
3 96
REMEMBER...
An object gains speed when dropped. 4 128
(Assume no air resistance.)
5 160
6
QUESTON:
A penny dropped from the top of 7
the Empire State Building hits the
ground after about 10 seconds. 8
With what velocity does it strike
the ground? T

HAVE GRAVITY: MUST TRAVEL

This activity shows one of Galileo’s
important discoveries—the relationship
between the time of an object’s fall and
the distance traveled during the fall.
Complete the table and find the formula

for Galileo’s discovery.
Total Time Distance

Galileo, born in Italy in 1564, made of Fall
(seconds) (feet)
some amazing discoveries about
T D
physics, astronomy, and mathemat-
ics. He was so impressed by what 1 16
he saw and learned that he made a
statement which is now a famous 2 64
quotation:
3 144
“MATHEMATICS IS THE ALPHABET 4 256
WITH WHICH GOD HAS WRITTEN
THE UNIVERSE.” 5 400
6
QUESTION:
A boy drops a rock from a bridge 7
to the water below. If it takes 9
seconds for the rock to hit the 8
water, how high above the water is
the bridge? T

HOW HIGH CAN YOU THROW?
Have you ever wondered how high you can throw a ball? This is an
example of the kind of problem Galileo (1564 - 1642) investigated.
Here is a table showing the total time a ball is in the air and the
maximum height it reaches when thrown vertically.
Complete the table and discover the formula expressing the relationship
between H (height) and T (time).
Total Time in Height

Air Reached
(seconds) (feet)
T H
1 4
2 16
3 36
4 64
5 100
6
Find out how high you can throw a
7 ball by using this formula.
8 A friend with a stopwatch can

help you determine the total
T time the ball is in the air.

HOW FAST CAN YOU THROW?
Have you ever wondered how fast you can throw a ball?
Suppose a ball is thrown vertically up. Here is a table showing the total
time a ball is in the air and the velocity, in miles per hour, that it was
thrown.
Complete the table and discover the formula.

Total Time In Velocity
Air Thrown
(seconds) (miles/hour)
T V
1 11
2 22
3 33
4 44
5 55
Find out how fast you can throw a
6 ball by using this formula.
7
A friend with a stopwatch can
8 help you determine the total
time the ball is in the air.
T
Remember to throw the ball as
vertically as possible.

HEARTBEATS AND PENDULUMS
One day in a cathedral, Galileo observed a
great bronze lamp swinging back and forth
from the high ceiling. He noticed that even
though the size of the swing gradually
diminished, the time of each swing remained
constant. He checked this by using the only
timer he had with him—his own heartbeat!

Later, Galileo discovered the Pendulum Time of

relationship between the length Length Swing
of a pendulum and the time of a (feet) (seconds)
complete pendulum swing. L T
1 1.11
Complete the table to discover 4 2.22

Galileo’s formula.
9 3.33
16 4.44
25 5.55
QUESTION: 36
Jason swings on a giant rope
over the lake near his home. 49
If the rope is 100 feet long,
how much time does it take to 64
complete one swing?
L

Pierre de Fermat
1601 - 1665

FERMAT
THE MARGINAL MATHEMATICIAN
Biographical Information: tossed them into his desk. More preferred by
Pierre de Fermat (fair-MAH) was a French Fermat was the privilege of adding his own
mathematician, born in 1601, in Beaumont de comments and calculations to whatever
Lomagne. A hard-working student and scholar, mathematical book he was reading by simply
he chose to follow the tradition of his mother’s scribbling his insights in the margins.
family, building a career in law.
Fermat set up a legal practice in Toulouse The Famous Marginal Note
and became Commissioner of Requests for the In 1821, Claude Bachet published an ancient
local parliament. Highly respected for his legal text of Diophantus’s Arithmetica which inter-
knowledge and integrity, he was promoted to the ested Fermat very much. Some of Fermat’s
high rank of Kings’ Counsellor, a post which he finest results in number theory were recorded in
held for almost twenty years. He died in 1665 the margins of his copy of this old book. However,
in Castres, where he was trying a case. on one occasion the margin of the text was not
Mathematics was only a hobby for Fermat. large enough to hold his result.
Consequently, he published very little of his The problem posed by Diophantus was this:
work. It is only through the many letters he “Assuming that x, y, z, and n are positive inte-
wrote to other mathematicians that we know gers, when does xn + yn = zn have a solution?”
about his discoveries. Fermat wrote “I have found a most remark-
able proof proving that this problem does not
Contributions: have a solution when n is greater than or equal
Fermat made significant contributions to four to 3; however, the margin of this book is too
branches of mathematics: analytical geometry, small to hold it.”
the calculus, the theory of numbers, and the This statement has become the most famous
mathematical theory of probability. He is some- marginal note in the history of mathematics.
times called the greatest French mathematician Known as “Fermat’s Last Theorem,” no prob-
of the 17th century. The favorite mathematical lem in all of mathematics has attracted more
recreation of this “prince of amateurs” was the attention or generated more labor.
exploration of whole numbers. He is universally Could Fermat have really found a valid proof?
acclaimed as the founder of modern number His record is excellent. No one has ever found
theory, even though he personally thought it an error in any of his other work. His proofs have
was totally impractical and just for fun. passed careful inspection. Sometimes he conjec-
tured incorrectly, but he was always careful to
Anecdotes: distinguish between conjecturing and proving.
Just a Hobby Many scholars believe that Fermat indeed did
Because Fermat “played” with mathematics have a proof, but no one knows what it was!
in his leisure time, he felt no obligation to care-
fully record his discoveries or ideas. He kept no The Search for a Solution
notebooks with systematic explanations In 1908, the German mathematician
of his findings. P.Wolfskehl offered 100,000 marks to the
Instead, Academy of Science at Göttingen as a prize
he scrib- for the first complete proof of Fermat’s Last
bled his Theorem. Between 1908 and 1912 over
comments 1000 alleged proofs were submitted, but all
on loose sheets of contained errors.
paper and randomly

In 1993, Andrew Wiles made front page Fermat Numbers
headlines when he announced a proof of Fer- Mathematicians from the times of the ancient
mat's Last Theorem. Other mathematicians Greeks sought a formula that would produce
soon found an error in his work. Wiles spent prime numbers. Fermat was convinced that he
another year correcting the error. Today his had found one. He conjectured that
proof of this famous problem stands! n
2
Fn = 2 + 1
would produce primes. If n = 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4,
the prime numbers 3, 5, 17, 257, and 65,537,
respectively, are generated.
A century later, however, the great Swiss
mathematician Leonhard Euler showed that
F5 = 4,294,967,297 is composite. It can be
factored into 6,700,417 times 641. In fact, no
primes have been generated with Fermat’s
formula other than those he found.
The numbers Fn are known as Fermat Num-
Odd Primes bers. They increase rapidly with increasing n.
One day Fermat was thinking about the For example, F10 contains 309 digits, F36 has
odd primes: 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, etc. He more than twenty trillion digits, and F73 is so
observed that certain primes could be ex- large that if it were written out in digits the size
pressed as the sum of two perfect squares. of this type, all the books in all the libraries of
For example, 5 = 1 + 4, 13 = 4 + 9, 17 = the world would not be able to contain it!
1 + 16, etc.
The Fermat-Gauss Connection
In 1796, Carl Gauss, the famous German
mathematician, made a remarkable discovery
about Fermat numbers. Gauss had been working
on an ancient Greek problem, trying to determine
which regular polygons could be constructed
using only a straightedge and compass. He
proved that a regular n-gon is constructible in
this way if and only if n is a product of distinct
Fermat primes times a power of two. It was this
discovery, made when he was only 19, which
convinced Gauss to devote his entire life to
However, 3, 7, 11, and others cannot be ex- mathematics.
pressed as the sum of two squares. When can
an odd prime be expressed as the sum of two
squares?
Fermat discovered that the key is dividing
the prime by 4 and looking at the remainder.
If the remainder is 3, it cannot be done. If the
remainder is 1, it can be done. This result is
known as Fermat’s Two-Square Theorem.

PRIMES AND SQUARES
Can the prime number 5077
be expressed as the sum of
exactly two perfect squares?
Pierre de Fermat Prime Numbers Yes or No

1601 - 1665
3 No
Fermat discovered that certain odd 5 Yes 5 = 1 + 4
primes can be expressed as the sum of
exactly two perfect squares. 7 No
This is known as Fermat’s Two-Square 11 No

Theorem. 13 Yes 13 = 4 + 9
Complete the table to help you discover a 17 Yes 17 = 1 + 16

common property of those odd primes
19
which can be expressed as the sum of
two perfect squares. 23
Hint: Divide the prime by 4. 29
Use your discovery to determine 31

which of the following primes can be 37
expressed as the sum of two perfect
squares. 41
43
1. 5077
2. 2819 47
3. 8081
4. 4003 53

PRIME NUMBER "MACHINES"
Through the ages, people have searched
in vain for formulas or procedures which
will generate primes. Here are some of the
better attempts.
Try these formulas to see how they work.
1. Show that n2 + n + 17 is prime for all

counting numbers from 1 to 16.
2. n2 - n + 41 is a remarkable formula. It
generates primes for all counting numbers
from 1 to 40. Verify that primes are produced
for several values of n.
3. A better formula is n2 - 79n + 1601. This formula gives a prime number

for all counting numbers from 1 to 79. Verify that primes are produced for a
number of values for n.
4. In 1640, Fermat thought he had discovered a formula for generating prime

numbers:
n
22 + 1
Find the numbers generated by this formula when n = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4. These

numbers are prime.
More than 100 years later, Euler showed that the number
5
22 + 1 = 232 + 1 = 4,294,967,297
has factors 641 and 6700417, thus disproving Fermat’s conjecture.

NUMBER TRICKS
TRICK 1
1. Start with your house number.
2. Double it, and then add 5.
3. Multiply the sum by 50.
4. Now add your age to the product.
5. Add 365 days for the number of days in a year.
6. Subtract 615.
7. Place a decimal point where you would if the answer were dollars and cents.
KEY: The last two digits are your age. The rest is the house number.
TRICK 2
1. Choose any number.
2. Add 5.
3. Double the result.
4. Subtract 4.
5. Divide by 2.
6. Subtract the original number.
The result is always 3.
TRICK 3
1. Choose any number.
2. Add 3.
3. Multiply by 2.
4. Add 4.
5. Divide by 2.
6. Subtract the original number.
The result is always 5.
Now try making up some number tricks of your own.

THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING
The host of a party turned to a guest and said, “I have three daughters.”
“Is that so?” the guest responded. “How old are they?”
“Well, the product of their ages is 72, and the sum of their ages is my
house number.”
“Hm,” said the guest. “Excuse me a moment.”
The guest rushed to the door, looked at the house number, and returned to
his host. “I’m afraid I need a little more information.”
“All right,” the host replied. “The oldest likes strawberry pudding.”
The guest smiled and announced the ages of the three girls.
72 factored into three House

factors Number
1 1 72 74
1 2 36 39
To solve this problem, list all possible

ways in which 72 can be expressed as
the product of three factors. Order
does not matter. There are 12 possi-
bilities. Enter these in the table.
Note: All ages are whole numbers, and

there may be twins.
The ages of the daughters are
_______, _______, and _______.
The house number is ________.

Suspicious Sailors
Three shipwrecked sailors found themselves on an island where the only

food was coconuts. They gathered a large number of coconuts and decided
to get some needed sleep before they divided the pile into three equal
shares. During the night, one of the sailors awakened and, not trusting his
companions, decided to take his share of the collection without waiting
until morning. He found that after throwing away one of the coconuts
he could divide those remaining into three equal shares. He buried his
share, left the rest in a pile and went back to sleep. Later, one of the
other sailors awakened and went through the same routine: he threw
away one coconut, took one third of the remainder and buried them, then
went back to sleep. Still later the third sailor, no less suspicious then
his mates, went through exactly the same procedure.
What is the fewest number of coconuts the sailors must have collected
originally so that there would be a whole number of coconuts left after
all this?

Blaise Pascal
1623 - 1662

PASCAL
LAUNCHER OF THE COMPUTER AGE
Biographical Information: “I have made this letter longer than usual
Blaise Pascal (pahs-KAHL) was born on because I lacked the time to make it short.”
June 19, 1623, in Clermont-Ferrand, France. His
father worked for the government as a lawyer Anecdotes:
and also was a gifted mathematician. Pascal’s Child Prodigy
mother died when he was only three, so he and One day Pascal’s father came home to find
his two sisters were raised by their father. Pascal his young son doing geometry on the floor with
was a sickly child, and suffered from debilitating a piece of charcoal. Without formal schooling
health problems throughout his life. or even access to books, the 12-year old had
When Pascal was seven years old, the fam- rediscovered many of the geometric properties
ily moved to Paris. Although the young genius described by Euclid. Imme-
was educated at home, Paris provided many diately his father provided
opportunities for intellectual stimulation, includ- Pascal with books on
ing attendance at meetings of the prestigious mathematics, thus
French Academy. unlocking a world
Pascal never married, dedicating his life to of fascination for
creative work in mathematics, physics, philoso- his son.
phy, and religion. He died in 1662, at the age
of 39, of a malignant stomach ulcer. The First Calculator
When Pascal was 17, his father’s job involved
Contributions: considerable tax accounting. Every evening, the
Pascal made a significant impact on geom- elder Pascal labored over his books, trying to get
etry and other branches of mathematics, but he the accounts to balance. His son determined to
left an equally profound mark on theology and find an easier way to handle the long columns
philosophy. He invented and sold the first add- of computations, and set out to design an “arith-
ing machine. His studies in hydrostatics made metic machine” to do the tedious sums.
possible the syringe and hydraulic press, and his After much experimentation, Pascal succeeded
interest in probability theory opened a whole new in building the first calculator, a contraption
field of mathematics. Pascal’s interests ranged which used gears to add and subtract. Because
from the very practical, such as designing a of its high price, not many workers could
wheelbarrow, to the deeply introspective, such afford the machine, but over 50 of them were
as exploring the nature of pain. His most famous manufactured. A copy was
work is Pensees, (“Thoughts”), a collection of given to the king, and of
personal meditations. course, one was used
regularly by Pascal’s
Quotations by Pascal: father, who found his
“All the troubles of man come from his not burden greatly relieved.
knowing how to sit still.”
A Computer Language
“What goes beyond geometry goes beyond Pascal’s contemporaries considered his add-
man.” ing machine his greatest achievement. Today,
experts in technology have acknowledged the
“There is a God-shaped vacuum in the important contribution Pascal made by naming a
heart of each person which cannot be satis- computer language after him. “Pascal” is a high
fied by any created thing but only by God, level computer language designed largely by
the creator.” Niklaus Wirth at Zurich in the early 1970’s.

that two steel balls, placed at different points
on the curve, will always reach the end at the
same moment.
Gambling Leads to Good

Pascal first became interested in probability
when some friends approached him with a gam-
Pascal’s Triangle bling question. It seems they had been losing
Like most good mathematicians and sci- money and they hoped the mathematician could
entists, Pascal recognized the importance and help turn their luck around. Although he was
power of patterns. He spent much time exploring not personally interested in gambling, Pascal’s
and writing about the “arithmetic triangle,” correspondence with Fermat on this subject led
a triangular array of numbers that had been to the development of probability theory.
handed down by Chinese mathematicians sev-
eral centuries earlier. He discovered so many Pascal’s Wager
new properties of the triangle, and solved so One application of Pascal’s probability theory
many problems using it, that the triangle became is seen in “Pascal’s wager.” In this argument,
known as “Pascal’s Triangle.” Pascal expressed the conviction that belief in
God is rational: if God does not exist, one will
A Convincing Conversion lose nothing by believing in him anyway, whereas
One day as Pascal was out driving, his horses if he does exist, one stands to lose everything
became spooked and bolted over the wall of the by not believing.
bridge at Neuilly. Fortunately, the braces broke,
and Pascal’s carriage dangled on the precipice
as the horses plunged to their deaths. He inter-
preted this as a sign: he would give himself fully
to religion, forsaking his work in mathematics
and science. An application of Pascal’s discoveries
The Toothache Remedy Practical Projects

For a time, Pascal completely gave up his Much of Pascal’s theoretical findings have
work in mathematics and science to devote had very practical applications in the modern
himself to theology. He promised God not to world, but even during his lifetime he was con-
even think about his earlier pursuits. cerned with solving problems in his community.
During this period, Pascal was struck by a His work with fluid pressure led to the develop-
terrible toothache that nothing seemed to re- ment of hydraulic systems. He is credited with
lieve. In a desperate effort to take his mind off inventing the one-wheeled wheelbarrow. During
the pain, he allowed himself to think about the his last years, Pascal designed a public trans-
cycloid, the curve traced by a point on a circle portation system for the city of Paris. The plan
as the circle rolls along a straight line. Suddenly, was actually utilized for the first time in 1662,
Pascal noticed that his toothache was gone! He the year Pascal died.
took this as a sign that it was permissible to
study the cycloid, and devoted the next eight Pensees
days to exploring its many properties. In this time Pascal often wrote his thoughts in brief frag-
he succeeded in solving many of the problems ments, sometimes on small scraps of paper.
connected with the cycloid that had baffled his After his death, his sister, Gilberte, found his
contemporaries for years. He found, for instance, desk drawers and closets cluttered with these
that the cycloid curve profound but disorganized insights. Together
is the fastest path with others, she arranged them as best she
between two non- could, and published them as Pensees, Pascal’s
vertical points and best known work.
PASCAL'S TRIANGLE
THE SOURCE OF MANY PATTERNS
1
1 1
HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS IN MATHEMATICS

1 2 1
1 3 3 1
58
1 4 6 4 1
1 5 10 10 5 1
1 6 15 20 15 6 1
1 7 21 35 35 21 7 1
1 8 28 56 70 56 28 8 1
1 9 36 84 126 126 84 36 9 1
1 10 45 120 210 252 210 120 45 10 1
1 11 55 165 330 462 462 330 165 55 11 1

SUMMING UP PASCAL
Find the sum of all the numbers in a Pascal triangle with 8 rows. Add the
numbers in a Pascal triangle with 1 row. Do the same for a triangle with
2 rows, 3 rows, etc. until you see the pattern that emerges.
Record your results in the table shown.
What is the sum of all the numbers

in a Pascal triangle with Numbers of Sum of all
(a) 50 rows? Rows in Numbers in
(b) n rows? Triangle Triangle
1 1
1 (1 Row)
2 3
3 7
1 (2 Rows)
4
1 1
5
1 6
1 1 (3 Rows)
1 2 1 7
8
1
1 1 (4 Rows) 50
1 2 1
1 3 3 1 n

PASCAL MAGIC
Examine Pascal's triangle to the right. Notice
that the sum of all the numbers contained
inside the parallelogram is 9.
One of the numbers on the outside of the

parallelogram can help you find the sum very quickly.
Find the sum of all the numbers contained in each parallelogram and
relate the sum to one of the numbers found outside the parallelogram.
Find the sum of all the numbers contained in the parallelogram below.
Use the short cut discovered above to find your answer in less than
3 seconds!
Use a calculator to check your results.
Draw your own parallelogram and find the "magic" sum.

Note: The parallelograms must always contain the top "1" on Pascal's
triangle.
MATHEMATICS
M
Examine the arrangement of letters
A A
to the right. Starting at the top, how
T T T
many downward paths can you take to
H H H H
spell “MATHEMATICS”?
E E E E E
M M M M M M
First, try an easier problem. How
A A A A A
many paths can you take to spell
T T T T
“CRAZY” assuming you start at the
I I I
top and move diagonally down?
C C
S
There are six possible paths.
They are shown below.
C C C C C C
R R R R R R R R R R R R
A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A
Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z
Y Y Y Y Y Y

C
If you place these letters on top of Pas-
R R
cal’s triangle, with the “C” on the top “1,”
A A A
the triangle will reveal the
Z Z
solution to this problem!
Y
Now, using Pascal’s triangle, try to solve the original problem.

Make up your own problems, using any word with an odd number of
letters.
Let Pascal’s triangle provide the solution!
PASCAL’S PERIMETER
Pascal’s triangle contains many fascinating patterns, including one
featuring the sums of the numbers on the perimeter.
Pascal triangles with 2 rows, 3 rows, 4 rows, and 5 rows are provided
below. The sum of the numbers on the perimeter of each triangle is
shown in the table.
Find a general formula for this problem.
1
1 1 Number of Perimeter
Rows Sum
2 Rows
2 3
1
1 1
1 2 1
3 7
3 Rows
1
1 1 4 13
1 2 1
1 3 3 1
5 23
4 Rows
1
1 1 6
1 2 1
1 3 3 1
1 4 6 4 1
n
5 Rows
A BIRTHDAY SURPRISE
Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662) was one of the founders of
probability theory. A fascinating problem from probability deals
with birthdays.
How many people do you suppose

you have to ask before you find two
with the same birthday (the same
month and day)?
Guess! ________
Ask people at random and make a list of their names and

birthdays until two are the same.
When this occurs, stop. Count the number of names on
your list.
Are you surprised by the number? How does the result

compare with your guess?
What is the average number of names on a list, based on

the lists collected by the entire class?

KEEP GOING
Isaac Newton
1642 - 1727

NEWTON
SMALL BUT MIGHTY
Biographical Information: “I do not know what I may appear to the
Isaac Newton is considered one of the great- world; but to myself I seem to have been only
est mathematicians who ever lived. He was like a boy playing on the seashore, and divert-
born prematurely on Christmas Day, 1642. His ing myself in now and then finding a smoother
mother said he was so tiny she could have kept pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst
him in a quart pot. His father, a farmer, had died the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered
three months before his birth. When Isaac was before me.”
two years old, his mother remarried, and Isaac
was sent to live with his grandmother on a farm Quotations about Newton:
near Woolsthorpe. “Taking mathematics from the beginning of
An Englishman, Newton attended Trinity the world to the time of Newton, what he has
College at Cambridge, studying philosophy, done is much the better half.”
Bible, and science, in addition to many branches –Leibniz
of mathematics. He preferred mathematical
studies that led to an understanding of the “Nature and Nature’s laws lay hid in night;
physical world and the universe over pure or God said, ‘Let Newton be,’ and all was light.”
philosophical mathematics. After graduating, –Alexander Pope
Newton taught at Cambridge for many years
before being elected to Parliament. Later, he Anecdotes:
was appointed Master of the Mint. A “Purrfect” Solution?
Newton was a short man with a broad fore- When Newton was living at his grandmother’s
head and piercing brown eyes. He was shy and farm, he was asked to cut a small hole in the
reserved, and never married. Upon his death in barn wall so the cats could go in and out at their
1727, he was buried in Westminster Abbey, an pleasure. He accepted the project eagerly, and
honor previously reserved for royalty. carefully measured the cat to make the hole just
the right size. When he
Contributions: was finished, he discov-
Newton: ered that the cat had a
-scientifically established the theory of litter of adorable kittens.
universal gravitation. “They need a hole, too,”
-developed calculus and the generalized he thought, and he cut
binomial theorem. another, smaller hole
-pioneered studies in the nature of light. for the kittens. Later, as
he watched the kittens
Quotations by Newton: scampering through the same hole as their
“If I have seen farther than others, it is be- mother, he realized that one hole would have
cause I have stood on the shoulders of giants.” been enough!
“I do not frame hypotheses.” Just Child’s Play

When Newton was 12 years old, he was sent
When asked how he made his discover- to live with friends of his mother’s in Grantham.
ies, Newton said, “...by always thinking about There he attended school, but preferred to
them....I keep the subject of my inquiry con- experiment with the equipment and supplies
stantly before me, and wait till the first dawning in the workshop of the druggist with whom he
opens gradually, by little and little, into a full boarded. He distracted himself and the other
and clear light.” children by designing all sorts of toys. He

made kites that flew with lanterns inside them, devastation, it also did something good—it
frightening the villagers, who believed they were wiped out the plague.
comets. He made waterwheels, a wooden clock These events interrupted Newton’s career; he
powered by water, and a gristmill that ground went home to the farm. These two years were
wheat into flour by mouse-power. tremendously productive, for it was during this
period, Newton later said, that he made four of
A Windy Experiment his chief discoveries: (1) the binomial theorem,
When Newton was just a boy, he contrived (2) the calculus, (3) the law of gravitation, and
an experiment to measure the force of the wind. (4) the nature of colors.
On a very stormy day, he went
outdoors. With his face to Principia Published
the wind, he jumped several In 1685, Newton’s first volume of Principia
times, as far as he could. Then was published. In the next two years, he added
he turned around and, with two more volumes. The collection is considered
his back to the wind, jumped the most influential and most admired work in the
again. After measuring his history of science. The laws of motion developed
two longest jumps, he cal- and explained by Newton prepared the way for
culated the force of the wind, locomotives, automobiles, airplanes, and many
thus completing what he later other kinds of machinery and artillery.
called his first experiment.
Where’s Our Host?
Inspired by a Bully Newton had a reputation for being absent-
Newton didn’t care much for school or for minded. One evening while sharing dinner with
sports. He was smaller than most boys his age, guests, he excused himself to go to the cellar for
and the older boys often teased him. One bully more wine. When Newton did not return after
picked on him so much that Newton became fifteen minutes, the guests became concerned.
angry. When the ruffian kicked him in the Later, they learned that he had gone out another
stomach, Newton foolishly challenged him to door and walked to the chapel to pray, appar-
a fight. Everyone expected ently forgetting that he had guests.
Newton to be humiliated,
but his anger must have Just Bones
given him extra strength; On one occasion, Newton invited friends
the bully sulked home for dinner, but when they arrived, he was not
nursing his wounds. home. Finally, after a long wait, the cook served
Their teacher wisely the food. After dinner, the guests were in the
saw an opportunity sitting room enjoying coffee and conversation.
and dared Newton to also surpass the bully in Newton arrived, and greeted them warmly.
class work. While he had been next to last in “Come. Let’s have dinner together!” he urged.
his class academically, Newton accepted the They followed him into the dining room and
challenge and, by the end of the year, rose to watched in amused suspense as he lifted the
the top of his school. cover from the chicken platter. Upon seeing
only bones, Newton
The Plague Prompts Productivity exclaimed. “Dear
In 1665, just after Newton finished his B.A. me, I had forgotten
at Trinity College, Cambridge, the school that we had already
was closed because of the bubonic plague. eaten.”
Thousands of people died. In 1666, another
disaster, the Great Fire of London, destroyed
half the city. While the fire caused terrible

A TOWER OF
POWERS OF 2
1
Assume you have a large sheet of paper, 1000 of an inch
thick, or a thousand sheets to the inch. Imagine tearing this
paper in half and putting the two pieces together, one on top
of the other. Tear these two in half and place the resulting
four pieces together in a stack. Continue the
process, tearing each stack in half.
Suppose this is done 50 times. How high will the stack be?
Guess! __________
Complete the table to help you discover the pattern and solve
this problem.
Number of Number of
Tears Pieces
1 2
2 4
3 8
50
Hint: Write the numbers in the second column as powers of two.
Use a scientific calculator to express your answer in feet or miles.
CHAIN LETTER
MADNESS
One day Jennifer received this letter in the mail:
Dear Jennifer,
This is your lucky day! If you follow the instructions in this letter you will receive
thousands of dollars in the mail!
Here’s what you do:
First, send $1.00 to the person at the top of the list of names below. Take his/
her name off and move all the other names up one spot, adding yours in the number 4
position. Then make twenty copies of this new letter and send them to twenty of your
best friends.
1. Jim Smith
2. Allison Hunter
3. George Anderson
4. Sharon Barker
P.S. Don’t be a bad sport and break the chain, and don’t tell the Postal Service
about this letter (it’s illegal)!
How much would Jennifer get if the chain were not broken? $160,000.
This opportunity sounded too good to be true, and it was! Why?
Complete the table to find how many people would be needed to keep this letter going
through only 8 cycles. How does your result compare with the current world’s population
of about 7 billion?
Total Number
Number of People
Cycle Number of People Needed
Needed for Cycle
from Beginning
1 20 20
2 400 420
3 8000 8420

A SERIES SURPRISE
What is the sum of the series
1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 +…+ 1
1•2 2•3 3•4 4•5 5•6 99•100 ?
Adding a series of 99 fractions by finding a common denominator

would be frustrating and difficult! Instead, find the sum of this
series by observing a pattern.
Isaac Newton was one of the
inventors of the
calculus, in which series play
an important role.
Number of
Terms Sum
The first term equals 1/2. Find the sum of the series
by adding the first two terms, the first three terms,
1
etc., and enter your results in the table. 1
Discover the pattern to solve this problem! 2
2
1
= 1 2 3
1•2 2
3
1 1 1 1 2
+ = +
1•2 2•3 2 6
= 3
4
1
+ 1 +
1•2 2•3
1
3•4
=1
2
+
1
+ 1
6 12
= ? 5
99
QUESTIONS:
1. What does the sum of the series get closer to as the number of terms increases?
2. Finding the sum of the first n terms in a series is an important process. In calculus, this is
called the “nth partial sum.” What is the sum of the first n terms in this series?
3. Find the sum of the first 50 terms and the first n terms for the series
1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 +…
1•3 3•5 5•7 7•9 9•11
THE BINOMIAL THEOREM
The binomial theorem, a short cut for expanding a binomial without
doing a lot of tedious work, is an important mathematical tool. Isaac
Newton contributed to our understanding of this theorem. Many results
in mathematics have been proven using the binomial theorem.
1
Look at the various powers of a binomial and 1 1
discover what pattern emerges. 1 2 1
1 3 3 1
(a + b)0 = 1 1 4 6 4 1
1 5 10 10 5 1
1 6 15 20 15 6 1
(a + b)1 = 1a + 1b 1 7 21 35 35 21 7 1
(a + b)2 = 1a2 + 2ab + 1b2 Pascal's Triangle
(a + b)3 = 1a3 + 3a2b + 3ab2 + 1b3
(a + b)4 = 1a4 + 4a3b + 6a2b2 + 4ab3 + 1b4
What is the pattern with respect to the coefficients? (Hint: Look at

Pascal’s triangle.)
What is the pattern with respect to the letters and their exponents?
Use what you have discovered to find the missing values.
(a + b)5 = ___ a5 + ___ a4b + ___ a3b2 + ___ a2b3 + ___ ab4 + ___ b5
(a + b)6 = _____ +_____ +_____ +_____ +_____ +_____ +_____
(a + b)7 = ____ +____ +____ +____ + ____ +____ +____ +____

“The Short Giant”
Characters:
Matthew
James
Sir Isaac Newton
Mrs. Waterby
Mrs. Baker
(Matthew and James are standing in the city square, craning their necks as if looking for someone in the
crowd.)
Matthew: Look! There he is!
James: Where? I can’t see him! There are too many people and he’s too short. Where is he?
Matthew: Right there! Come on. Let’s go talk to him! (He winds his way through an imaginary crowd.)
James: Excuse me...pardon me...excuse me...I’m sorry, Ma’am. Will you slow down, Matthew!
Matthew: I can’t! We have to find out what his secret of discovery is. Otherwise, you and I will never
pass our mathematics course this year.
(They get to where Newton is standing with Mrs. Waterby and Mrs. Baker)
James: Sir Isaac Newton, it is a privilege to meet you. My name is James, and this is my friend, Matthew.
Newton: The pleasure is mine. What can I do for you two today?
Matthew: We have one question, Sir. What is your secret of discovery?
Newton: Secret? Well boys, I’m no different from anyone else. I don’t have any secret!
James and Matthew: (Together, somewhat disappointed) You don’t?
Newton: (Laughing) No, I don’t have a magic lamp or a rabbit’s foot for luck. I don’t even have a
golden hen.
Matthew: Well then, how do you make so many amazing discoveries?
Newton: (Scratching his chin) Well, I guess I do have a couple secret tools. They’re called hard work and
concentration. When I’m working on something, I am always thinking about it.
Mrs. Waterby: He sure is!
James: Who are you?
Mrs. Waterby: My name is Mrs. Waterby, boys. I’m a friend of Mr. Newton, and let me tell you, around him
there’s never a dull moment. Why, every time Mrs. Baker, my friend here, and I think about
what happened at his dinner party last month, we just can’t control...(She bursts into laughter
and cannot go on.)
(Mr. Newton smiles and rolls his eyes; Matthew and James wait for the story)
Mrs. Baker: Well, you see, Mr. Newton had invited half a dozen of us over for dinner, but when we got
there, he wasn’t home. His housemaid invited us in and served appetizers while we waited for

him to come home. Finally, after about an hour, she said the cook could keep the chicken
no longer, and we should gather around the table and eat without our host.
Matthew: Where was he? Had he forgotten? Was he sick?
Mrs. Waterby: Just hold on young man, we’ll get there. It was a marvelous dinner, served in grand style.
We had roast chicken, cornbread dressing, baby peas, and a delicious pudding for dessert.
We all took turns guessing what had happened to Mr. Newton. Mr. Baker thought maybe
someone had stopped him on the street with a problem.
Mrs. Baker: Yes, but Mrs. Walker was sure he had gone to the library. Mr. Waterby laughed and said he
might even be napping in his own bedroom down the hall.
James: Why would he forget dinner if he’d invited you?
Mrs. Baker: Remember. He just told you that when he’s working on a problem, that’s all he thinks about.
Matthew: Did he ever show up?
Mrs. Waterby: Oh sure, he did, long after we had finished dinner. But we got even with him. (She winks at
Newton) We persuaded the kitchen help to go along with a little joke. After we left the table,
it was reset as if we had never eaten. When Mr. Newton came home and saw us there, he
remembered his dinner plans and apologized for keeping us waiting so long.
Mrs. Baker: (Interrupting) “Let’s eat right away,” he said. He led the way to the dining room. We all tried
not to smile too big, but when he picked up the cover from the chicken platter and saw noth-
ing but the bones, we almost choked. Can you imagine what he said?
James and Matthew: No. What?
Mrs. Waterby: He said, “Oh, my, am I getting absent-minded! I forgot we had already eaten!”
Mrs. Baker: We laughed so hard we all got indigestion! But Mr. Newton never even noticed that he was
still hungry!
Newton: (Chuckling) All right ladies, that’s enough. I admit I am quite forgetful when an idea enters
my mind. Once, I was leading my horse up a hill and didn’t realize it had run away until I
tried to jump into the saddle!
Matthew: Sir, I’ve been wondering. Why don’t you publish more of these amazing findings that make
you forget all about your dinner guests? I’m sure other students, like James and me, would
be very interested.
Newton: Oh, I don’t know about that.
James: Oh, but we would, sir. Matthew and I were reading about your theories of motion, especially
concerning gravity. That was fascinating.
Matthew: And your work with light. You know, when you showed with a prism how white light could be
broken down into colors. You’ve even built telescopes! You must be the greatest mathemati-
cian that has ever lived!
Newton: Now, now. Don’t get carried away. I may have made a few discoveries, but without the think-
ers before me, I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish much. If I have seen farther than
others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.
James: I think every mathematician and scientist to come has just discovered a new giant—Sir Isaac
Newton.
KEEP GOING
Leonhard Euler
1707 - 1783

EULER
THE BRIDGE TO TOPOLOGY
Biographical Information: and use of it in textbooks made it widely known and
Leonhard Euler (OY-ler) was a Swiss math- accepted.
ematician born in Basel on April 15, 1707. His
father was an accomplished mathematician and Quotation about Euler:
a Calvinist minister; he trained Leonhard to fol- “He calculated just as men breathe, as eagles
low in his role as pastor of the village church. sustain themselves in the air.”
But young Euler’s love of mathematics, coupled –Francois Arago
with an unusual ability to concentrate, prompted
him to choose mathematics. Anecdotes:
Early in his career, Euler lost sight in one eye, The “Beethoven of Mathematics”
perhaps from observing the sun in his study of Perhaps it was Euler’s tremendous ability to
astronomy or, more likely, from a virus. By the visualize problems that enabled him to continue
age of 50, a cataract had stolen the sight from working after suffering a blow that would have
his other eye, and he was completely blind. defeated lesser men. He lost the sight in one
Euler loved children, and welcomed them eye as a young man; by the age of 50, he was
in his office even when he was deep in work. totally blind. With faith and courage, he told his
Legend says he could entertain a child on his family and friends, “Now I will have
lap, scratch a cat behind the ears, and perform fewer distractions.”
complex calculations in his mind—all at the When he realized that
same time. he was becoming blind,
Euler died of a stroke on September 18, 1783. Euler took action. He had
a large slate prepared. He
Contributions: chose several capable
Euler is the most prolific writer in mathematics young assistants, and
history. He wrote on topics ranging from artillery trained them to
and sound to lotteries, navigation, and magne- take dictation and
tism. He also wrote mathematics textbooks for to use notation in
elementary schools in Russia. But his primary his style. Euler sat with chalk in hand, recreating
interest was in pure mathematics. He is credited on the slate the incredible discoveries he “saw”
with revising almost all the branches of math- in his mind.
ematics that were then known, filling in details,
adding proofs, and arranging everything into a Settling an Argument
consistent form. Euler’s writings fill more than After spending many hours tediously sum-
80 large volumes. In his eulogy, more than 50 ming a complicated convergent series to 17
pages were required just to list the titles of his terms, two of Euler’s students found their
works. answers different in the 50th decimal place.
Modern mathematics owes a great debt to Euler. Neither wanted to do the work again, so each
Much of the language and notation used today argued loudly that he was correct. Finally, in
originated with Euler. He was the first to use the desperation, they went to see their professor.
small letters, a, b, and c, to indicate the sides of a Euler asked them to repeat the problem. Then,
triangle, and the corresponding upper case A, B, in just a few minutes, he worked the problem
and C for the opposite angles. It was Euler who —in his head—and gave them the answer they
standardized the use of the letter e to represent sought.
the base of the system of natural logarithms. And
Euler’s work established the use of the Greek letter π Teaching Abroad
for the ratio of circumference to diameter in a circle. Although Euler was Swiss by birth, he spent
The symbol had been used earlier but his adoption most of his life teaching in Russia and Germany.

In 1727 he was invited to teach mathematics at him how he could write so quickly and still get
the new St. Petersburg Academy. This was an everything right.
exclusive university of 20 professors represent- “Oh,” he replied modestly, “my pencil is more
ing various academic fields. Each professor was intelligent than I am.”
to bring two students. This small student body
guaranteed time for research and scholarly work.
After 14 years in Russia, Euler was invited
by Frederick the Great to head up the Prussian
Academy in Berlin. Here he served for 25 years,
but went back to live in St. Petersburg for the
last 17 years of his life.
The Pillaged Farm

While Euler was teaching in Germany, the Birth of Topology
Russians had not forgotten him. They contin- The legendary “Bridges of Konigsberg” prob-
ued to love and support him, and even sent lem had frustrated many before Euler. It seems
him a partial salary. In 1760, during the Seven that the old city of Konigsberg, in the Soviet
Year’s War, his farm at Charlottenburg, about Union, had planned a celebration featuring a
four miles from Berlin, was pillaged by Russian grand parade. Designing the parade route was
troops. When the Russian general found out who complicated by the fact that sections of the
owned the farm, he paid for all the damage. city were located on islands in the Pregel River
The Russian empress, Elizabeth, sent Euler an and connected to the mainland by a network
additional 4000 crowns. of seven bridges. City fathers insisted that each
bridge should be crossed by the parade once
The St. Petersburg Fire and only once. The planning committee must
In 1771, a massive fire swept through St. have either cancelled or compromised, because
Petersburg. Euler was sleeping soundly af- years later Euler proved that it was impossible
ter a long day of work on his theory of the to create the route they had desired.
motion of the moon. He was awakened and Euler drew the following diagram, based on
rescued by Peter Grimm, his faithful Swiss the city of Konigsberg, to help himself visualize
servant. While no one was injured in the fire, the problem.
the house was destroyed, along with most of The diagram of the Konigsberg bridge prob-
Euler’s papers and books. In sympathy and lem is called a network. It consists of points
respect for Euler’s great work, the Russian called vertices, paths connecting them called
empress, Catherine, presented him with a new, arcs, and regions bounded by the
completely furnished home. arcs. Euler found that unless one
could travel (trace) this network
without lifting pencil from paper or
retracing any path, the parade route
was impossible. This problem gave birth to the
fascinating mathematical study called topology.
Posterity through Postage

In 1983, 200 years after Euler’s death, the
German Democratic Republic (East Germany)
issued a stamp in honor
The Smart Pencil of Euler’s life in Berlin.
Euler wrote at a phenomenal pace. His output This stamp displays
averaged 800 printed pages a year, not count- one of his most famous
ing over 4,000 letters. Someone once asked formulas.

VERTICES, REGIONS, and ARCS
The figure to the right has 4 vertices,
1 enclosed region, and 4 arcs. This ←Vertex
information is recorded in the table. Arc → ←Region
For each of the figures shown below,
determine the number of vertices, Figure # 1
regions, and arcs.
Record these values in the table. V R A
Figure Vertices Regions Arcs
Figure # 1 4 1 4
Figure # 2 Figure # 3 Figure # 2
Figure # 3
Figure # 4
Figure # 4 Figure # 5
Figure # 5
Figure # 6
Figure # 7
Figure # 6 Figure # 7
Figure # 8
Figure # 9
Figure # 8
Figure # 10
EXERCISES:
1. Write a formula relating V, R, and A.
2. Make up two figures of your own and enter the results in the table
for figure #9 and Figure # 10.
Do your results agree with your formula?

TRAVELING NETWORKS
1. 2. 3.
4. 5.
6.
Try to travel (trace) these networks without taking your pencil off the
paper and without retracing any arc (path connecting two vertices).
Place a blank sheet of paper over the networks and try several.
Discover the rule Euler discovered by completing the table below.
Hint: Networks can only be traveled if they have fewer than a certain number of
odd vertices. An odd vertex has an odd number of arcs drawn from it;
an even vertex has an even number of arcs drawn from it.
Network Total No. of No. of Even No. of Odd Can it be
Vertices Vertices Vertices Traveled?
1 9 9 0 Yes
Draw some networks of your own and decide if they can be “traveled.”
FACES, VERTICES, and EDGES
Euler (1707 - 1783) discovered a formula giving the relationship between
the number of faces, vertices, and edges for polyhedrons. ←Vertex
Examine the polyhedrons below and complete the table to ←Face
help you discover Euler’s formula.
Notice that a cube has 6 faces, 8 vertices, and ←Edge

12 edges.
F V E
Polyhedron Faces Vertices Edges
Cube 6 8 12
Tetrahedron Tetrahedron
Square Pyramid
Triangular Prism
Square Pyramid
5-Prism
Chopped-Off Cube
Triangular Prism Octahedron
5-Pyramid
Soccer ball
Write Euler's
Formula
5-Prism
Chopped-Off Cube Octahedron 5-Pyramid Soccer ball

KNIGHT’S MOVE ON
THE CHESSBOARD
Like many other mathematicians, Euler was fascinated by the Knight’s Move
on the Chessboard problem.
The problem is to begin on any square you choose and then visit every square
on the board exactly once using a knight’s move.
Remember, in the game of chess, a knight always moves two squares in any
direction—forward, backward, or sideways—then one more square at right
angles to that.
Suppose we start the knight on the square labeled 1 below. One possibility
for the next three moves is indicated by the squares labeled 2, 3 and 4.
See how many squares you can visit using the knight’s move!
4 2

INSIDE OR OUTSIDE?
These two drawings illustrate simple closed curves, studied in topology.

A simple closed curve does not cross over itself, and it has a simple
inside and outside.
Determining whether points are inside or outside a simple closed curve

may appear difficult; however, it is very easy!
Discover the method and then determine which of the points A, B, and
C are inside and which are outside the curve.
Draw some simple closed curves of your own and determine whether
selected points are inside or outside.

Sophie Germain
1776 - 1831

SOPHIE GERMAIN
MATHEMATICS IN A MAN’S WORLD
Biographical Information: spear through the great thinker. Archimedes

Sophie Germain (zhair-MAN) was a French was oblivious, so absorbed in his problem that
mathematician born in 1776, in Paris. She was he ignored the threat.
the daughter of a wealthy, upper-class family, What could Archimedes have been working
but lived an austere personal life, and never on? Germain determined to find out; when she
married. Because she was a woman, Germain learned it was mathematics, she dedicated her
was denied entrance into the educational and life to the same absorbing pursuit.
scientific institutions that would have nurtured
her interests in mathematics and science. How-
ever, she gained a significant education through
extensive correspondence with some of the
finest mathematicians of her time. Germain died
of cancer in 1831 at the age of 55.
Contributions:
Sometimes referred to as “the Hypatia of the
19th century,” Germain made notable discover-
ies in number theory, acoustics and the theory
of elasticity. She is one of the few women whose
work is recorded in early mathematics history.
Quotation by Germain:
“Algebra is but written geometry and geom-
etry is but figured algebra.” Determined Disobedience
Although Germain’s parents provided her
Quotation about Germain: with a good education, they became alarmed
“When a person of the sex which, according when she preferred doing mathematics instead
to our customs and prejudices, must encounter of more traditionally feminine pursuits like cook-
infinitely more difficulties than men to familiarize ing and dancing. They agreed with the popular
herself with these thorny researches, succeeds theory that “brain work” could be a dangerous
nevertheless in surmounting these obstacles and strain on young girls. Germain often stayed up
penetrating the most obscure parts of them, then most of the night reading mathematics books
without doubt she must have the noblest cour- and trying to solve problems. To keep her from
age, quite extraordinary talents and a superior this, Germain’s parents devised a plan: they
genius.” –Carl Gauss would extinguish the heat in her room and re-
move all sources of light. The child would have
Anecdotes: no alternative but to crawl under the covers and
Inspired by Archimedes go to sleep.
One day while reading in her father’s fine The plan backfired, however, as Germain
library, Germain stumbled upon the story of smuggled candles into her room, hiding them
Archimedes’ death. In her imagination, the words in her shoes until the others in the household
painted a vivid picture. There was Archimedes, were sound asleep. Then she would sneak out
working on a problem in the sand. Above him of bed, wrap a comforter around her, and do
a Roman soldier stood poised, ready to run his mathematics by candlelight.

Sorry, No Girls Allowed
When Germain was 18, the historic École
Polytechnique was founded in Paris. This
school quickly became the leading center for
mathematicians and scientists in France; many
important advances can be traced to the students
and professors who worked there. But women
were not allowed. Grand Prize Winner
Although Germain was disappointed, she was Some of Germain’s most significant work was
not discouraged. She contacted some of the male on the mathematics of elasticity. In 1816, the
students and arranged to borrow their lecture French Academy offered a prize for research
notes. When it was time to submit projects, she in this area, and Germain submitted a paper
sent in her work too, but signed a man’s name: describing her findings. The prize—a one kilo-
“Monsieur LeBlanc.” The famous professor, gram gold medal worth 3000 francs—was not as
Lagrange, was so impressed with “LeBlanc’s” important as Germain’s distinction of being the
project that he wanted to meet him. Imagine first woman to receive the prestigious award.
his surprise when he found that “LeBlanc” was Unfortunately, the scientific community still
a woman! Germain feared his disapproval, but refused to take Germain seriously. They admired
Lagrange was open-minded and encouraging; her as a phenomenon, rather than accepting her
he even helped her establish a correspondence as a colleague. She was an excellent mathema-
with other scholars working in number theory. tician, but with training and support, she might
have been far more productive than she was.
The Gauss Connection
In 1804, Germain wrote to Carl Gauss, the
foremost German mathematician. She had read
his work in number theory, and she offered
suggestions based on her own research. Afraid
that her ideas would be rejected if Gauss knew
her sex, Germain again signed her name “M.
LeBlanc.” Gauss encouraged “LeBlanc” to send
more samples of “his” work.
The two corresponded for more than three
years before Germain finally disclosed her
true identity. Gauss became one of Germain’s
greatest fans. He recommended that she be
granted an honorary doctorate by the University
of Göttingen, where he worked. Unfortunately,
Germain died a month before she was to receive
the degree. She and Gauss never met.

FOUR FOURS
Using exactly four 4s and the operations +, -, x, and ÷, make
equations that equal 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.
0 =
1 =
2 =
3 =
4 =
5 =
6 =
7 =
8 =
9 =
$1.00 WORDS
A B C D E F G H I J K L M
26¢ 25¢ 24¢ 23¢ 22¢ 21¢ 20¢ 19¢ 18¢ 17¢ 16¢ 15¢ 14¢
N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
13¢ 12¢ 11¢ 10¢ 9¢ 8¢ 7¢ 6¢ 5¢ 4¢ 3¢ 2¢ 1¢
Suppose each letter of the alphabet is assigned a value as in the above

chart. Now, each name or word can be assigned a value.
Examples: JOE: 17 + 12 + 22 = 51¢
HOLIDAY: 19 + 12 + 15+ 18 + 23 + 26 + 2 = 115¢
CHALLENGES:
1. Which day of the week is a $1.00 word?
2. Which American made automobile is a $1.00 word?
3. Which Asian country is a $1.00 word?
4. Each of these sets of letters can be used to spell a $1.00 word.

Arrange the letters to form a word.
(a) L, C, K, S, B, and O.
(b) T, C, N, A, I, and O.
(c) O, R, V, E, F, R, and E.
5. Find as many words as you can that are worth exactly $1.00.

PALINDROMES
A number that reads the same both forward and backward is called a
palindrome. For example, 1221 and 35653 are palindromes.
Most numbers can be turned into palindromes 23

158
by the “reverse and add” method. Start with any +32
+ 851
number. Add the number obtained by reversing 55
1009
the digits, and continue this process until a 149 +9001
palindrome occurs. + 941 10010
1090 +01001
In the examples on the right, 23 becomes +0901 1 10 1 1
a palindrome in 1 step, 149 in 2 steps, and 1991
158 in 3 steps.

Some numbers require many steps to produce a palindrome. For
example, 89 requires 24 steps.
EXERCISES
1. Determine how many steps are required to convert each of the following
into palindromes.
(a) 449 (b) 918 (c) 364 (d) 1824
(e) 97 (f) 28 (g) 87 (h) 59
2. 2002 is a palindromic year. What is the next palindromic year?
3. Consider a digital clock where the displayed time changes every minute.
a) In a 12-hour period, how many of the shown times are palindromes?
b) How many minutes are there in 12 hours?
c) What percentage of the time in a 12-hour period does a digital
clock display palindromes?
COUNTING DIVISORS
Sophie Germain (1776-1831) was a French woman who
made significant discoveries in number theory. In this
activity, you will make a number theory discovery dealing
with divisors.
Number Number Number of

Factored Divisors
Into Primes
2 21 2
3 31 2
Prime numbers often play a key role in making 4 22 3

discoveries about numbers. There is an easy
process, using primes, for finding the number 5 51 2
of divisors for any number.
6 21 31 4
For example, the divisors of the number 12 7 71 2

are 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 12. Thus, 12 has 6
divisors. Factored into primes, 12 = 2231. 8 23 4
The exponents, namely 2 and 1, can be used
to get 6, the number of divisors for 12. 10 21 51 4
Complete the table to help you discover how 24 23 31 8

exponents can be used to determine the
144 24 32 15
number of divisors for any number.
300 22 31 52 18
EXERCISES
1. Find a number, in factored form, that has 400 24 52
exactly 100 divisors.
675
2. Find a number, in factored form, that has
exactly 1,000,000 divisors. 1,000
5,000
3. Find four numbers, each with exactly 6
divisors.
1,000,000
4. How many numbers have exactly 6 divisors?

HAPPY NUMBERS
Number theory is a fascinating branch of mathematics that studies
the properties of the counting numbers. This activity highlights some
interesting facts about a set of numbers called happy numbers.
A happy number is a counting number for which the sum of

the squares of the digits eventually ends in 1.
Is 19 a happy number? Is 11 a happy number?

Compute the sum of the squares of the 12 + 12 =1 + 1 = 2
digits of 19. 22 = 4
12 + 92 =1 + 81 = 82 42 = 16
Stop if the result is 1; otherwise repeat 12 + 62 =1 + 36 = 37
the process.
32 + 72 =9 + 49 = 58
Compute the sum of the squares of the
digits of 82 52 + 82 =25 + 64 = 89
82 + 22 =64 + 4 = 68 82 + 92 =64 + 81 = 145
62 + 82 =36 + 64 = 100 12 + 42 + 52=1 + 16 + 25 = 42
42 + 22 = 16 + 4 = 20
12 + 02 + 02 = 1 + 0 + 0 = 1
22 + 02 = 4
Stop; the result is 1.
We have returned to 4. The pattern above
19 is a happy number! will repeat indefinitely, never ending in 1.
Thus, 11 is not a happy number.
Every number that is not happy will enter this repeating cycle of eight numbers. When a
number enters this cycle, it cannot be a happy number because it will never end in 1.
EXERCISES:
1. Twenty of the first 100 counting numbers are happy numbers. Find them; use any
shortcuts you discover.
2. Is a happy number plus another happy number always a happy number?
3. Is the product of two happy numbers always a happy number?
4. Is 1776 a happy number year?
5. Find the point in the cycle at which each of these numbers enters.
(a) 33 (b) 15 (c) 154 (d) 80 (e) 38

MIDNIGHT MATH
Crossword Puzzle
ACROSS DOWN
2 Germain’s native country. 1 Famous mathematician who inspired
5 Germain’s first name. Germain.
7 One source of light. 3 These were not allowed in the university.
8 Germain often studied at this hour. 4 The part of your body that does the
11 Germain used a false _______. thinking.
12 Someone who gives money or blood. 6 Germain first studied in her father’s
13 What Germain wrote to other _______.
mathematicians. 9 Many people thought it was _________
15 Noise made by lions. for girls to study math; hazardous.
16 Germain used this to write. 10 In mathematics, a proven statement.
18 City where Germain lived. 13 What you need for studying in the dark.
14 To reason; use one’s mind.
17 Paris is famous for its many ___ galleries.

KEEP GOING
Carl Gauss
1777 - 1855

GAUSS
THE PRINCE OF MATHEMATICIANS
Biographical Information: Quotations by Gauss:
Johann Friederich Carl Gauss (gows) was a “Mathematics is the queen of the sciences, and
German mathematician, born in Braunschweig, number theory is the queen of mathematics.”
Germany, on April 30, 1777. His parents were
poor, and his father expected him to become a “It is not knowledge, but the act of learning
bricklayer or a gardener in the family tradition. which grants the greatest enjoyment.”
Were it not for his strong mother and a persis-
tent uncle, Gauss might not have received an “If others would but reflect on mathematical
education. truths as deeply and as continuously as I have,
In college, Gauss studied many subjects, but they too would make my discoveries.”
committed himself to mathematics as a lifelong
pursuit. He was not interested in fame or wealth, Anecdotes:
but studied and explored primarily for personal Precocious Preschooler
satisfaction. For nearly 50 years, Gauss was It was obvious from birth that Gauss was a
professor of mathematics and astronomy and genius. One day, when he was barely three years
director of the observatory at the University of old, little Carl overheard his father mumbling
Göttingen. the payroll figures for the workers in his small
The “Prince of Mathematicians,” as Gauss bricklaying business. Doing the arithmetic in
was sometimes called, died February 23, 1855, his head, Carl found an error
at age 78. With Archimedes and Newton, he is and corrected his father’s
considered one of the three greatest mathemati- computation. After that,
cians who ever lived. Carl was placed on a
stool overlooking the
Contributions: books whenever the
Gauss’s chief interest was in number theory, elder Gauss had to add
and he is known as its modern founder. His book a column of numbers.
on number theory, Disquisitiones arithmeticae,
(Arithmetic researches) is regarded as his great- A Short-cut Solution
est achievement. When Gauss was about 10, his teacher an-
In number theory, he was especially interested grily assigned the class of boys a long problem:
in prime numbers and in what is now called they should add the first one hundred numbers.
modular arithmetic. Gauss was finished with the problem in a matter
In other mathematical fields, Gauss discov- of seconds. The teacher was outraged. When
ered that a regular 17-sided polygon could be the slates were checked, Gauss’s sum was
inscribed, using only ruler and compass, in correct. The young scholar had recognized a
a circle. He made significant contributions to pattern (1+100=101; 2+99=101; 3+98=101)
higher algebra, statistics, and topology. and thus was able to solve the problem almost
Gauss developed the heliotrope, an instru- effortlessly (50x101=5050).
ment that made possible more precise trigo-
nometric understandings of the shape of the Royal Interest
earth. With William Weber, he invented an At the age of 14, Gauss, modest and shy, was
electromagnetic telegraph. introduced to Carl Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of
There are almost no fields of math and sci- Brunswick. The Duke was so impressed with
ence untouched by Gauss. His influence in many Gauss that he paid for his education at Caroline
areas is still felt today. College.

The Shape of a Lifetime This is an arithmetic based on remainders. For
Shortly before his 19th birthday, Gauss be- example, if the current time is 9:00 a.m. and we
came the first person to prove that one could ask what time it would be 8 hours later, modular
construct a regular polygon of 17 sides by the arithmetic could be used to solve
Euclidean method—using only a compass and this problem. Add 9 and 8 for 17.
straight edge. This was the first discovery in Next, divide 17 by 12 (numbers
Euclidean geometry that had been made in on the clock) for a remainder of
2,000 years. 5. The answer is 5:00 p.m.
Until this time Gauss had been interested There are many other appli-
in many subjects, including literature and lan- cations of modular arithmetic. It
guage, but this achievement turned him to a is used in computers to increase
focused pursuit of mathematics. In tribute, Gauss efficiency. It is employed in many codes and
requested that a 17-sided polygon be engraved ciphers. Random-number generators often use
on his tomb. Many years later, when the Gauss modular arithmetic, and geometric artworks
monument in Brunswick was designed, a stone- can be formed using modular arithmetic. Many
mason was commissioned to problems in number theory can be solved and
carve such a polygon on its proved quite easily with the use of modular
base. He refused, claiming it arithmetic.
would look too much like a
circle. Instead, he chiseled a The Mysterious Letters
17-pointed star. After Gauss’s first book was published, he be-
gan receiving letters from a Monsieur LeBlanc in
Predictably Perfect Paris, asking questions and making suggestions
Gauss was a perfectionist. When he shared about his work. Some of the ideas of the French-
his discoveries, they were always polished and man were remarkable, and they helped Gauss
concise, with no evidence of the thinking process clarify his thinking. Yet he always wondered who
he had used to achieve them. From this context this LeBlanc was,
comes his comment, “A cathedral is not a cathe- and, since he was
dral until the last piece of scaffolding is removed.” so capable, why
He was reluctant to publish anything until he was had Gauss never
positive it was complete and without error. No heard of him?
one has ever found a mistake in his work. Gauss was liv-
ing in Hanover
“Who’s the Greatest?” when Napoleon’s
The famous traveler and scientist, Alexander armies placed
von Humboldt (1769-1859) once asked the the city under siege. An officer knocked on
mathematician, Laplace, Gauss’s door and delivered this message:
“Who is the leading mathematician in Mademoiselle Sophie Germain wanted to
Germany?” know if he was okay or if he needed any-
“Pfaff” was the answer. thing. She assured Gauss that he would not
Von Humboldt was disappointed, but he be harmed or harassed during the French
pressed further.“What is your opinion of occupation. Gauss was puzzled; he knew no
Gauss?” one by the name of Germain.
“Oh, he is, of course, the greatest mathemati- Within the next several months, he discov-
cian in the world.” ered that “LeBlanc” was really a pseudonym
for Sophie Germain, one of the most brilliant
Modular Arithmetic French mathematicians. Although she felt she
Gauss was one of the first mathematicians to had to disguise her gender, some of the best
work on modular arithmetic, sometimes called influences on Gauss’s work came from her.
“clock arithmetic” in the elementary grades.

GAUSS’S CHALLENGE
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + . . . + 100 = ?
Carl Gauss
1777 - 1855 Number of
Carl Gauss Counting Sum
1777 - 1855
Numbers
One day when Gauss was ten years
old, his teacher gave the class a hard
problem: to find the sum of the first 1 1
100 counting numbers.
Gauss found an easy way to solve 2 3

this problem and was the only one in
the class to get the right answer! 3
Solve Gauss’s problem by first finding

the sum of the first counting number, 4
then the sum of the first two count-
ing numbers, the sum of the first
5
three, etc. until you see the pattern.
Record your results in the table. 6
1 = 1
7
1+2=3
100
1+2+3=?
1+2+3+4=? n

SUMMING ODDS
1 + 3 + 5 + 7 + . . . + 99 = ?
Find the sum of the first 50 odd Number of
numbers by first finding the sum of Odds Sum
the first odd number, then the sum
of the first two odd numbers, the 1 1
sum of the first three, etc., until
you see the pattern . 2 4
Record your results in the table. 3
1 = 1 4
1 + 3= 4 5
1+3+5=?
6
1+3+5+7=?
7
50
Now try your skill at finding the sum of the first 50 even numbers.
2 + 4 + 6 + 8 + 10 … + 100 = ?
What is the sum of the first n even numbers?

LAST DIGITS
What is the last digit of
9 12,317
?
To solve this problem, look at some simpler cases,
complete the table, and discover the pattern.
91 = 9 Power of 9 Last Digit
92 = 81 1 9
93 = 729
2 1
94 = _____
3 9
9 = _____
5
96 = _____ 4
ADDITIONAL CHALLENGES:
6
1. What is the last digit of 42325?
12,317
2. What is the last digit of 6 5678
?

AVERAGE ABILITY
To solve this problem, look at some

simpler cases, record your results in Number of
the table, and discover the pattern. Even Average
Numbers
Average of first two even numbers:
2 3
2+4 =3
2 3 4
Average of first three even numbers: 4

2+4+6 = 4

3 5
Average of first four even numbers: 6
2+4+6+8 = ?
50
4
n
Now try your skill at finding the average of the

(a) first 50 odd numbers.
(b) first n odd numbers.

WHAT’S FOR LUNCH?
The Roosevelt Elementary School offers a hot lunch program . On the first
school day the menu is pizza, corn, and brownies. The next school day’s menu
is determined by replacing each item with the next one on the list. Thus, on
the second school day the menu is hamburgers, peas, and ice cream. When the
bottom of a list is reached, the cooks start again at the top. For example, on the
fifth school day the menu is hot dogs, corn, and jello.
M E N U PLANNER
Modular arithmetic (the arithmetic of
remainders), developed by Gauss, can Main Dish Vegetable Dessert
help us determine the menu for any
given school day. Pizza Corn Brownies
Hamburgers Peas Ice Cream

For example, on the 14th day of school
the main dish will be hamburgers. Spaghetti Carrots Pudding
We use the remainder obtained when
14 is divided by 6 (the number of main Tacos Green Beans Cookies
dishes). Hot Dogs Jello
The remainder is 2. Therefore, the Macaroni

main dish is the second item on the and Cheese
list, hamburgers.
1. What will the vegetable be on the 27th day of school?
2. What will the dessert be on the 64th day of school?
3. What will the complete lunch menu be on the 56th day of school?
4. What will the complete lunch menu be on the 85th day of school?
5. On which of the first 50 school days will spaghetti be served?
6. On which of the first 50 school days will green beans be served?
7. Will spaghetti and green beans ever be served together? Explain.

RESOURCES FOR LIBRARY AND CLASSROOM
Abbott, David.
THE BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF SCIENTISTS: MATHEMATICIANS
New York: Peter Bedrick Books, 1986
This is an authoritative and accessible reference work. Includes a chronological introduction and
alphabetical arrangement of entries, plus a useful glossary.
Beckman, Petr
A HISTORY OF PI
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1971
Readable, interesting source which reveals the events and personalities associated with the
development of pi.
Bell, E.T.
MEN OF MATHEMATICS
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1965
The classic work in mathematics history. Includes lots of detailed, useful information.
Dunham, William
JOURNEY THROUGH GENIUS: THE GREAT THEOREMS OF MATHEMATICS
New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1990
This work explores some of the most significant and enduring ideas in mathematics, emphasizing
the humanity of the great mathematicians.
Eves, Howard W.
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS
Fifth Edition
New York: Saunders College Publishing, 1983
The most popular text for history of math classes. Eves traces the development of mathematics
with good humor and informative detail.
Eves, Howard W.
IN MATHEMATICAL CIRCLES (VOL 1 & 2)
Boston: Prindle, Weber & Schmidt, Inc., 1969
These popular books contain chronologically arranged anecdotes about mathematicians and their
discoveries. Delightful, short bits of information.
Hollingdale, Stuart.
MAKERS OF MATHEMATICS
London: Penguin Books, 1989
Chapters on mathematicians from Pythagoras to Einstein provide useful biographical information,
accompanied by a solid review of the mathematics these persons worked with.
Ipsen, D.C.
ARCHIMEDES: GREATEST SCIENTIST OF THE ANCIENT WORLD
Hillside, N.J.: Enslow Publishers, 1988
This book, written for young people, traces the life and discoveries of the Greek mathematician,
scientist, and inventor.
Ipsen, D.C.
ISAAC NEWTON: RELUCTANT GENIUS
Hillside, N.J.: Enslow Publishers, 1985
A biography of the 17th century English scientist who developed the theory of gravity, discovered
the secret of light and color, and formulated the system of calculus. Written for juvenile readers, the
book includes many helpful drawings and illustrations.
Mitchell, Merle
MATHEMATICAL HISTORY: ACTIVITIES, PUZZLES, STORIES, AND GAMES
Reston, Virginia: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1978
This is a collection of enrichment resources for use in the upper elementary grades. Activities may
be photocopied for classroom use.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

HISTORICAL TOPICS FOR THE MATHEMATICS CLASSROOM
Reston, Virginia: NCTM, 1989
This work, first commissioned in 1969, is designed to help teachers teach mathematics from a his-
torical perspective. It is divided into chapters on the history of numbers, the history of geometry, the
history of algebra, etc., and includes a useful list of resources.
Pappas, Theoni
THE JOY OF MATHEMATICS
San Carlos, CA: Wide World Publishing/Tetra, 1989
This book unveils the inseparable relationship of mathematics to the world in which we live. In one or
two page “glimpses,” the reader enjoys games, puzzles, interesting facts, and historic background.
Pappas, Theoni
MORE JOY OF MATHEMATICS
San Carlos, CA: Wide World Publishing/Tetra, 1991
Like Pappas’ first book, this collection also provides brief but fascinating information on how math-
ematics can be seen in nature, science, music, architecture, literature, and history.
Perl, Teri
MATH EQUALS—BIOGRAPHIES OF WOMEN MATHEMATICIANS
Menlo Park, CA: Addison-Wesley, 1978
This is a readable collection about the lives and work of nine women, including activities which relate
to their work.
Reimer, Luetta and Reimer, Wilbert

MATHEMATICIANS ARE PEOPLE, TOO, Volumes One and Two
Palo Alto, CA: Dale Seymour Publications, 1990, 1995
These illustrated stories dramatically recreate episodes from the lives of 30 mathematicians, includ-
ing seven women. For students to read or for teachers to read aloud, the books highlight the human
element in mathematics. Appropriate for students in grade three through secondary school.
Rosen, Sidney
GALILEO AND THE MAGIC NUMBERS
Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1958
This biography, written for young people, relates the important discoveries of Galileo in both math-
ematics and science.
Schaaf, William
MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE: AN ADVENTURE IN POSTAGE STAMPS
Reston, Virginia: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1978
This book traces, through illustration and historical insight, the way postage stamps mirror the
impact of mathematics and science on society.

SUGGESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS
SOME GENERAL SUGGESTIONS ON
HOW TO INTEGRATE MATHEMATICS HISTORY INTO THE CLASSROOM
Through writing:
Many options for writing projects may arise from mathematics history. Students may re-
search the life of a particular mathematician and write a report. They might read a biography
or a historical novel about a mathematician and write a book review. Or they may be asked to
write an imaginary interview, a newspaper story, a screenplay, or a poem about an individual
from math history.
Other possibilities include writing about the origin of a particular concept or symbol, such
as the = sign or π. Some might wish to write about how mathematics was understood in a
particular period or a particular place.
Through skits:
Choose a mathematician for special focus. Read to the class a brief biographical sketch or
a collection of anecdotes about the mathematician being studied. We suggest the information
in Mathematicians Are People, Too (Dale Seymour, 1990, 1995) or Historical Connections in
Mathematics. Older children may read and research on their own. Then divide the class into
small groups of four or five and challenge them to create a skit depicting one incident in the
life of this mathematician or highlighting one contribution of this mathematician. Each group
could keep its project secret until the announced day for class presentations. A skit session
provides an ideal opportunity to review and discuss the accomplishments of the individual
mathematician being studied. Productions may be tailored depending on time, materials avail-
able, age of class, etc. Some might simply write a script for oral reading while others might
build or collect props, memorize parts, and wear costumes.
Through the arts:

Challenge students to draw or paint a scene from the life of the mathematician being studied.
Remind them of the importance of researching the architecture, clothing, furnishings, etc. of
the time and place in which the mathematician lived.
Allow students to write a poetic ballad or lyrics to a song which would incorporate the major
life events/accomplishments of a particular mathematician.
Through reading aloud:

Students respond very positively to simply hearing stories read aloud. Build a collection
of brief and interesting stories to read in the classroom. Mathematicians Are People, Too was
written with this purpose in mind, but there are other sources as well. Enlarge and photocopy
the illustrations in Historical Connections in Mathematics onto transparencies, displaying them
at appropriate times during the reading.
Through hands-on experiences:

Many of the activities in this book invite hands-on experiences. While some can simply be
done using paper and pencil, students will become more involved and remember the concepts
better if they can participate more fully in the process. Encourage them to build models, to
conduct experiments, and to administer the surveys suggested. Reinforce the principles of the
scientific method as a problem solving tool.

KEEP GOING
SUGGESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS
FOR ACTIVITIES IN THIS BOOK
Chapter One: Pythagoras draw this line before folding the room. When the room
is folded, the path may surprise them!
Number Shapes: The Pythagorean Theorem will lead to the solution
Number shapes may be illustrated on the chalk- of 40 ft. (not 42 ft. as most people guess).
board, on a table, or on an overhead, by using any
circular objects. Perhaps the most effective way to
demonstrate the properties of these number shapes,
however, is with practice golf ball models. These light
weight balls, glued together, provide a powerful visual
tool to show, for example, that two odd numbers always
make an even number, or that two consecutive trian-
gular numbers make a square number. Students may
participate in building the models as a class project.
Square, Oblong, and Triangular Numbers:
Hint: Note that oblong numbers are twice triangular A Pythagorean Puzzle:
numbers.
Pythagorean Discoveries:
1. square 5. triangular
2. oblong 6. square
3. square 7. triangular
4. triangular
Figurate Families:
The Spider and the Fly:

Photocopy the “room” onto light card stock and
distribute to students. Most will know that the shortest
path between two points is a straight line. Ask them to

Chapter Two: Archimedes The King’s Crown:
This skit may be used in several ways. Students may
Archimedes’ Mobiles: simply be assigned parts for oral reading, either in their
This activity illustrates Archimedes’ law of the lever. seats or as a “Reader’s Theater.” A small group may
Encourage students to draw original mobiles for their wish to memorize parts, design props and costumes,
classmates to complete. and do a full performance. Consider a “theater day”
in mathematics, using this skit as well as the ones on
Napier and Newton.
Chapter Three: Napier
Lattice Multiplication:
To use this process, place one of the two numbers
to be multiplied on the top of the grid and the other to
the right. Then, in each square, write the product of
the number in that column and that row, placing the
tens digit in the upper triangle of the square and the
units digit in the lower triangle.
Add all numbers between each pair of diagonal
lines, beginning in the lower right hand corner. The
product is found taking in order the digits down the
left side and across the bottom.
A Teeter-Totter Discovery:
Formula: D1 X W1 = D2 X W2
A Balancing Act:
The triangles on this activity sheet may be enlarged
and duplicated on card stock for students to cut out
and balance. They may create additional triangles of Napier’s Rods:
their own to test this principle. Napier’s rods were actually an outgrowth of lattice
multiplication. Many teachers have found that working
Counting Kernels: with Napier’s rods is an activity which interests and
The solution to this activity depends on the size of motivates students.
the kernels used as well as the size of the room being
“filled.” Suppose it takes 160 kernels to fill a 1 cubic How to make a set of rods:
inch box and the room is 20' by 30' by 8'. The room is 1) For students, use the master in the activity
4800 cubic feet, or 8,294,400 cubic inches, requiring section to photocopy rods onto 8 1/2 x 11 inch
1,327,104,000 kernels to fill it. lightweight card stock or paper. Then cut them
This activity presents an ideal occasion to use the into strips and they are ready to use. Sets of
pocket calculator and scientific notation. strips can be kept in envelopes for future use.
2) For the chalkboard, mark a large sheet of poster
Predicting Float Lines: paper. Cut into strips and set them on the chalk
This activity may be used by the teacher as a tray for demonstration.
demonstration or the class may be divided into small 3) For the overhead projector, prepare a transpar-
groups to predict the float levels of various kinds of ency using the master supplied. Cut the strips
wood. Remind students to place the bottom portion out and project them on the screen or board.
of the wood block in the water.

How to use the rods: (3) 12 X 25 (4) 22 X 75
Let’s use the rods to multiply 836 by 7. Pick out the 6 50 11 150
rods 8, 3, and 6. Place them as shown. Put the index 3 100 5 300
rod at the left. 1 200 2 600
300 1 1200
1650
Earthquake Mathematics:
108 = 10,000; therefore an earthquake with a Richter
(1)
104
value of 8 is 10,000 times as strong as one with
the value of 4.

(2) (a) Approximately 16 times stronger.
7 x 836 is given in row 7. Add the numbers shown (b) Approximately 25 times stronger.
between the diagonal lines. Read the answer from left (c) 10 times stronger.
to right. (d) Approximately 4 times stronger.
The Magic Rooster: A Skit:

simply be assigned parts for oral reading, either in their
seats or as a “Reader’s Theater.” A small group may
wish to memorize parts, design props and costumes,
and do a full performance. Consider a “theater day”
Now let’s multiply a three digit number by a two digit in mathematics, using this skit as well as the ones on
number. Archimedes and Newton.
Napier’s Magic: Crossword Puzzle:

Pick out the rods 6, 7, and 4. Some research may be required to complete this
Place them as shown with the index rod to the left. puzzle. The teacher may tell the story of the mathemati-
cian and use the puzzle as review. One good strategy is
to read aloud the story, "Magician or Mathematician,"
from Mathematicians are People, Too, and then ask
students to use clues from the story to complete the
puzzle.
Read from rods row 8

Read from rods row 4

Let students discover how the rods can be used to
multiply three and four digit numbers.
Russian Peasant Method of Multiplication:
(1) 20 X 25 (2) 16 X 30
10 50 8 60
5 100 4 120
2 200 2 240
1 400 1 480
500 480

Chapter Four: Galileo How High Can You Throw?

Galileo Drops the Ball:
Students enjoy going outdoors and doing these

Answer to Question: 320 ft/sec experiments. To help them see the pattern, you may
offer this hint: Divide the numbers in the second
Have Gravity: Must Travel: column by 4.
How Fast Can You Throw?
Answer to Question: 1296 ft

To help students see the pattern, offer this hint: The “velocity thrown” values in the table have
Divide the numbers in the second column by 16. been rounded. For values of T less than or equal to 10
seconds, the formula V = 11T will give results within 1
mile per hour of the true value.

Heartbeats and Pendulums: Prime Number Machines:
1. n n2 + n + 17
1 19
2 23
3 29
4 37
5 47
6 59
7 73
8 89
9 107
10 127
11 149
12 173

13 199
Answer to Question: 11.1 seconds
14 227
Students may construct pendulums of different 15 257
lengths to verify Galileo’s results. 16 289
Chapter Five: Fermat

2. n n2 - n + 41
Primes and Squares: 3 47
9 113
16 281
3. n n2 - 79n + 1601
4 1301
11 853
39 41
77 1447
n
4. n 22 + 1
0 3
1 5
2 17
3 257
4 65,537
Students should discover that only primes with a

Number Tricks:
remainder of 1 when divided by 4 can be expressed
These “tricks” can be enjoyed by students at varied
as the sum of two perfect squares. Students with pro-
ability and interest levels. Some may just think they’re
gramming ability may be challenged to write a simple
fun, but will gain computational practice nevertheless.
computer program which would find the two squares
Others should be challenged to figure out how the tricks
for these primes.
work, using elementary algebra.
1. Yes. When 5077 is divided by 4, the remainder is 1.
2. No. When 2819 is divided by 4, the remainder is 3.
3. Yes. When 8081 is divided by 4, the remainder is 1.
4. No. When 4003 is divided by 4, the remainder is 3.

The Proof is in the Pudding: To help students find the formula, suggest they
72 factored into House create an additional column in which they increase
three factors Number each number in the second column by one.
1 1 72 74
1 2 36 39
Pascal Magic:
The sum of the numbers in the parallelogram is
always one less than the number the bottom corner
points to. On the activity sheet, the sums are 14, 5,
and 461.
MATHEMATICS:
“MATHEMATICS” may be spelled using 252 down-
ward paths. When the “MATHEMATICS” array of letters
is placed on Pascal’s triangle, the bottom “S” will fall
in the center of the 11th row, on the number 252.
Pascal’s Perimeter:
The ages of the daughters are 3, 3, and 8.

The house number is 14.
Since the guest could not determine the ages after

looking at the house number, the house number must
have been 14. The two choices associated with 14
necessitated more information. When the host said his
oldest daughter liked strawberry pudding, the guest
knew she was not a twin. Hence, the daughters are 3,
3, and 8.
Suspicious Sailors:
The fewest number of coconuts collected originally
is 25. In the morning, 6 would be left.
This problem may be approached in a variety of
ways, including algebraically or by simple trial and error.
Chapter Six: Pascal Some students may need a hint to solve this problem.
Suggest that the perimeter sums may be broken into
Summing Up Pascal: a power of two and an odd. Note that the sum of any
row in Pascal’s triangle is always a power of two.
A Birthday Surprise:
The result of this activity surprises almost everyone!
The average number of names on a list, theoretically, is
23. For classes of 30 or more, results should be close
to this average.

Chapter Seven: Newton A Series Surprise:

A Tower of Powers of Two:
Answers to Questions:
1. 1
2. n/(n+1)
Having students guess how high the stack will be 3. #of terms sum
is an important part of this activity. Such a commit- 1 1/3
ment on the student’s part draws her or him into the 2 2/5
problem. Typical guesses range from half an inch to 3 3/7
two or three feet. While no one should be embarrassed 4 4/9
by such guesses, the class will probably not believe 50 50/101
the correct answer of 17,769,885 miles. n n/(2n+1)
A simple scientific calculator makes it easy to ex-
press the answer in miles. To change the number of The “surprise” in this activity is how easy it is to
pieces to inches, divide by 1000, since there are 1000 add the fractions once the pattern is observed.
pieces per inch. Then change inches to feet by divid-
ing by 12, and divide feet by 5,280 to find the number The Binomial Theorem:
of miles. This activity allows students to make several dis-
coveries about the Binomial Theorem. The coefficients
Chain Letter Madness: are found in the rows of Pascal’s triangle. The expo-
nents of the “a”s decrease by one each time, and the
exponents of the “b”s increase by one.
“The Short Giant”: A Skit

simply be assigned parts for oral reading, either in their
This activity is particularly interesting to students seats or as a “Reader’s Theater.” A small group may
because many of them have already had experience wish to memorize parts, design props and costumes,
with chain letters. Teachers may wish to point out that and do a full performance. Consider a “theater day”
the number of people needed to complete a mere 8 in mathematics, using this skit as well as the ones on
cycles of the letter shown is about four times the cur- Archimedes and Napier.
rent population of the world!

Chapter Eight: Euler Faces, Vertices, and Edges:
Vertices, Regions, and Arcs:
For this problem, models may be useful to help the

students visualize the various solids. They may even
enjoy constructing some of them.
Formula: V + R - 1 = A or V + R = A + 1 To complete the table for a soccer ball, students
will need to examine one. The values can be obtained
This activity gives students experience in the in- by marking with a pen the faces, vertices and edges
ductive process. They are asked to observe a series of as the student is counting them.
specific networks and, on the basis of their observa-
tions, form a generalization about networks. Euler’s Formula: F + V - 2 = E or F + V = E + 2.
In this problem, an “arc” is any curved or straight
segment. A “vertex” is a point from or to which an arc Knight’s Move on the Chessboard:
is drawn. Each vertex is indicated by a dot. Here is one solution to this challenge:
Traveling Networks:
Euler’s rule: A network can be traveled only if it

has two or fewer odd vertices. Furthermore, if it has Most students should be able to fill approximately
two odd vertices, the tracing must begin at one of the the first 50 squares. A good strategy is to first move
odd vertices and will end at the other odd vertex. near the edges of the board.

Inside or Outside:
Answers:
Point A = inside
Point B = outside
Point C = inside
Note: To determine if a point is inside or outside
the closed curve, draw a line from any point on the
outside to the selected point in the design. If this line

crosses the curve an odd number of times, the point is Counting Divisors:
inside. If it crosses an even number of times, the point
is outside.
Students enjoy designing curves for their classmates.
Remind them that the curve may not cross itself.
Chapter Nine: Germain
Four Fours:
Each problem may have several solutions. Here
are some sample solutions.
0 = 4-4+4-4
1 = (4 ÷ 4) ÷ (4 ÷ 4)
2 = (4 ÷ 4) + (4 ÷ 4)
3 = (4 + 4 + 4) ÷ 4
4 = (4 - 4) x 4 + 4
5 = (4 x 4 + 4) ÷ 4
6 = [(4 + 4) ÷ 4] + 4
7 = 4 + 4 - (4 ÷ 4)
8 = 4 x 4 - (4 + 4)
9 = 4 + 4 + (4 ÷ 4)
$1.00 Words:
Answers:
1. Thursday This activity is an interesting application of factor-
2. Dodge ing. The pattern which students must identify is this:
3. China Increase each exponent by one; then multiply these
4. (a) blocks values to discover how many divisors a number has.
(b) action Exercises: Note: Many answers are possible. These
(c) forever are only examples.
Teachers could keep a growing list of $1.00 words

1. 29 X 34 X 51
posted in the classroom.
Invite students to research the Greek system in 29 X 39
which the alphabet also served as numerals. Note
that all names and words at that time had numerical 299
values.
Palindromes: 2. 2999,999
Answers to Exercises: 2999 X 3999
1. a) 3 steps
b) 4 steps 29 X 39 X 59 X 79 X 119 X 139
c) 5 steps
d) 3 steps
e) 6 steps 3. 25 = 32
f) 2 steps 22 X 31 = 12
g) 4 steps
h) 3 steps 21 X 32 = 18
2. 2112
3. a) 57 32 X 51 = 45
b) 60 X 12 = 720 35 = 243
c) 57/720 = 7.9%
52 X 71 = 175
32 X 111 = 99
4. An infinite number.

Happy Numbers: Chapter Ten: Gauss
Solutions to Exercises:
1. 1, 7, 10, 13, 19, 23, 28, 31, 32, 44, 49, 68, 70, 79, Gauss’s Challenge:
82, 86, 91, 94, 97, 100.
2. No. For example, 7 + 10 = 17, which is not a happy
number.
3. No. For example, 7 X 23 = 161, which is not a
happy number.
4. No. 1776 is not happy.
5. a) 37 b) 16 c) 42 d)89 e) 58.
Midnight Math Crossword Puzzle:

Some research may be required to complete this
puzzle. The teacher may tell the story of the mathemati-
cian and use the puzzle as review. One good strategy
is to read aloud the story, "Mathematics at Midnight,"
from Mathematicians Are People, Too, and then ask
students to use clues from the story to complete the
puzzle.
Note: This activity sheet illustrates a method differ-

ent from the one described in the anecdote about Gauss
solving this problem. Students should be reminded
that often there are several equally effective ways of
solving the same problem.
In this activity, students should recognize the trian-
gular numbers in the second column.

Summing Odds: Additional Challenges:
1.Power of 4 Last Digit 2.Power of 6 Last Digit
1 4 1 6
2 6 2 6
3 4 3 6
4 6 4 6
5 4 5678 6
6 6
2325 4
Average Ability:

In this activity, students should recognize the num-

bers in the second column as square numbers.
For even numbers:

Number of Evens Sum
1 2
2 6
3 12
4 20
50 50 X 51 = 2550
n n(n+1) Average of odd numbers:
Number of Odd Numbers Average

2 2
Last Digits:
3 3
4 4
5 5
50 50
n n
What’s For Lunch?

This activity gives students experience solving dif-
ficult sounding problems very simply by using Gauss’s
concept of modular arithmetic.
Solutions:
1. Carrots (27 divided by 4 results in a remainder of 3).
2. Cookies (64 divided by 5 results in a remainder of 4).
3. Hamburgers, Green Beans, Brownies.
4. Pizza, Corn, Jello.
5. 3rd, 9th, 15th, 21st, 27th, 33rd, 39th, 45th.
Upon completing the table, students should discover 6. 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, 20th, 24th, 28th, 32nd, 36th,
that the final digit for powers of 9 is 40th, 44th, 48th.
9 when the power is odd, and 7. No. The school day spaghetti is served is always
1 when the power is even. an odd number, whereas the school day for green
beans is always an even numbered school day.

The AIMS Program
AIMS is the acronym for “Activities Integrating Mathematics and Science.” Such integration
enriches learning and makes it meaningful and holistic. AIMS began as a project of Fresno Pacific
University to integrate the study of mathematics and science in grades K-9, but has since expanded
to include language arts, social studies, and other disciplines.
AIMS is a continuing program of the non-profit AIMS Education Foundation. It had its inception
in a National Science Foundation funded program whose purpose was to explore the effectiveness
of integrating mathematics and science. The project directors, in cooperation with 80 elementary
classroom teachers, devoted two years to a thorough field-testing of the results and implications of
integration.
The approach met with such positive results that the decision was made to launch a program to
create instructional materials incorporating this concept. Despite the fact that thoughtful educators
have long recommended an integrative approach, very little appropriate material was available in
1981 when the project began. A series of writing projects ensued, and today the AIMS Education
Foundation is committed to continuing the creation of new integrated activities on a permanent basis.
The AIMS program is funded through the sale of books, products, and professional-development
workshops, and through proceeds from the Foundation’s endowment. All net income from programs
and products flows into a trust fund administered by the AIMS Education Foundation. Use of these
funds is restricted to support of research, development, and publication of new materials. Writers donate
all their rights to the Foundation to support its ongoing program. No royalties are paid to the writers.
The rationale for integration lies in the fact that science, mathematics, language arts, social
studies, etc., are integrally interwoven in the real world, from which it follows that they should be
similarly treated in the classroom where students are being prepared to live in that world. Teachers
who use the AIMS program give enthusiastic endorsement to the effectiveness of this approach.
Science encompasses the art of questioning, investigating, hypothesizing, discovering, and
communicating. Mathematics is a language that provides clarity, objectivity, and understanding. The
language arts provide us with powerful tools of communication. Many of the major contemporary
societal issues stem from advancements in science and must be studied in the context of the social
sciences. Therefore, it is timely that all of us take seriously a more holistic method of educating our
students. This goal motivates all who are associated with the AIMS Program. We invite you to join us in
this effort.
Meaningful integration of knowledge is a major recommendation coming from the nation’s
professional science and mathematics associations. The American Association for the Advancement
of Science in Science for All Americans strongly recommends the integration of mathematics,
science, and technology. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics places strong emphasis
on applications of mathematics found in science investigations. AIMS is fully aligned with these
recommendations.
Extensive field testing of AIMS investigations confirms these beneficial results:
1. Mathematics becomes more meaningful, hence more useful, when it is applied to situations
that interest students.
2. The extent to which science is studied and understood is increased when mathematics and science
are integrated.
3. There is improved quality of learning and retention, supporting
the thesis that learning which is meaningful and relevant is
more effective.
4. Motivation and involvement are increased dramatically as
students investigate real-world situations and participate
actively in the process.
We invite you to become part of this classroom teacher
movement by using an integrated approach to learning and sharing
any suggestions you may have. The AIMS Program welcomes you!

Get the Most From Your Hands-on Teaching
When you host an AIMS workshop for elementary Online and Correspondence Courses
and middle school educators, you will know your AIMS offers online and correspondence courses
teachers are receiving effective, usable training they on many of our books through a partnership with
can apply in their classrooms immediately. Fresno Pacific University.
• Study at your own pace and schedule
AIMS Workshops are Designed for Teachers • Earn graduate-level college credits
• Hands-on activities
• Correlated to your state standards
• Address key topic areas, including math content,
science content, and process skills
• Provide practice of activity-based teaching
• Address classroom management issues and
higher-order thinking skills
• Include $50 of materials for each participant
• Offer optional college (graduate-level) credits
AIMS Workshops Fit District/Administrative Needs

• Flexible scheduling and grade-span options
• Customized workshops meet specific schedule,
topic, state standards, and grade-span needs
• Sustained staff development can be scheduled
throughout the school year
• Eligible for funding under the Title I and Title II
sections of No Child Left Behind
• Affordable professional development—consecutive-
day workshops offer considerable savings
Call us to explore an AIMS workshop

1.888.733.2467
See all that AIMS has to offer—visit us online

http://www.aimsedu.org
Check out our website where you can: Become a fan of AIMS!
• preview and purchase AIMS books and individual activities; • Be the first to hear of new
• learn about State-Specific Science and Essential Math; products and programs.
• explore professional development workshops and online • Get links to videos on using
learning opportunities; specific AIMS lessons.
• buy manipulatives and other classroom resources; and • Join the conversation—share
• download free resources including articles, puzzles, and how you and your students are
sample AIMS activities. using AIMS.
Hands-On Math and Science
AIMS for YOU While visiting the AIMS website, sign up for our
FREE AIMS for You e-mail newsletter to get free
activities, puzzles, and subscriber-only specials
Sign up today!
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delivered to your inbox monthly.

AIMS Program Publications
Actions With Fractions, 4-9 Primarily Magnets, K-2
The Amazing Circle, 4-9 Primarily Physics: Investigations in Sound, Light,
Awesome Addition and Super Subtraction, 2-3 and Heat Energy, K-2
Bats Incredible! 2-4 Primarily Plants, K-3
Brick Layers II, 4-9 Primarily Weather, K-3
The Budding Botanist, 3-6 Probing Space, 3-5
Chemistry Matters, 5-7 Problem Solving: Just for the Fun of It! 4-9
Common Core: 5th Grade Practices, 5 Problem Solving: Just for the Fun of It! Book Two, 4-9
Concerning Critters: Adaptations & Proportional Reasoning, 6-9
Interdependence, 3-5 Puzzle Play, 4-8
Counting on Coins, K-2 Ray’s Reflections, 4-8
Cycles of Knowing and Growing, 1-3 Sensational Springtime, K-2
Crazy About Cotton, 3-7 Sense-able Science, K-1
Critters, 2-5 Shapes, Solids, and More: Concepts in Geometry, 2-3
Earth Book, 6-9 Simply Machines, 3-5
Earth Explorations, 2-3 The Sky’s the Limit, 5-9
Earth, Moon, and Sun, 3-5 Soap Films and Bubbles, 4-9
Earth Rocks! 4-5 Solve It! K-1: Problem-Solving Strategies, K-1
Electrical Connections, 4-9 Solve It! 2nd: Problem-Solving Strategies, 2
Energy Explorations: Sound, Light, and Heat, 3-5 Solve It! 3rd: Problem-Solving Strategies, 3
Exploring Environments, K-6 Solve It! 4th: Problem-Solving Strategies, 4
Fabulous Fractions, 3-6 Solve It! 5th: Problem-Solving Strategies, 5
Fall Into Math and Science*, K-1 Solving Equations: A Conceptual Approach, 6-9
Field Detectives, 3-6 Spatial Visualization, 4-9
Floaters and Sinkers, 5-9 Spills and Ripples, 5-12
From Head to Toe, 5-9 Spring Into Math and Science*, K-1
Getting Into Geometry, K-1 Statistics and Probability, 6-9
Glide Into Winter With Math and Science*, K-1 Through the Eyes of the Explorers, 5-9
Gravity Rules! 5-12 Under Construction, K-2
Hardhatting in a Geo-World, 3-5 Water, Precious Water, 4-6
Historical Connections in Mathematics, Vol. I, 5-9 Weather Sense: Temperature, Air Pressure, and
Historical Connections in Mathematics, Vol. II, 5-9 Wind, 4-5
Historical Connections in Mathematics, Vol. III, 5-9 Weather Sense: Moisture, 4-5
It’s About Time, K-2 What on Earth? K-1
It Must Be A Bird, Pre-K-2 What’s Next, Volume 1, 4-12
Jaw Breakers and Heart Thumpers, 3-5 What’s Next, Volume 2, 4-12
Looking at Geometry, 6-9 What’s Next, Volume 3, 4-12
Looking at Lines, 6-9 Winter Wonders, K-2
Machine Shop, 5-9
Magnificent Microworld Adventures, 6-9 Essential Math
Marvelous Multiplication and Dazzling Division, 4-5 Area Formulas for Parallelograms, Triangles, and
Math + Science, A Solution, 5-9 Trapezoids, 6-8
Mathematicians are People, Too Circumference and Area of Circles, 5-7
Mathematicians are People, Too, Vol. II Effects of Changing Lengths, 6-8
Mostly Magnets, 3-6 Measurement of Prisms, Pyramids, Cylinders, and
Movie Math Mania, 6-9 Cones, 6-8
Multiplication the Algebra Way, 6-8 Measurement of Rectangular Solids, 5-7
Out of This World, 4-8 Perimeter and Area of Rectangles, 4-6
Paper Square Geometry: The Pythagorean Relationship, 6-8
The Mathematics of Origami, 5-12 Solving Equations by Working Backwards, 7
Popping With Power, 3-5
Positive vs. Negative, 6-9 * Spanish supplements are available for these books. They
Primarily Bears*, K-6 are only available as downloads from the AIMS website.
Primarily Critters, K-2 The supplements contain only the student pages in
Spanish; you will need the English version of the book for
the teacher’s text.
For further information, contact:
AIMS Education Foundation • 1595 S. Chestnut Ave. • Fresno, California 93702
www.aimsedu.org • 559.255.6396 (fax) • 888.733.2467 (toll free)

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HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS

Resources for Using

Wilbert Reimer Luetta Reimer

Brenda Wood, Illustrator

AIMS Education Foundation

HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS IN MATHEMATICS 1 © 2012 AIMS Education Foundation

HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS IN MATHEMATICS 3 © 2012 AIMS Education Foundation

HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS IN MATHEMATICS 5 © 2012 AIMS Education Foundation

HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS IN MATHEMATICS 7 © 2012 AIMS Education Foundation

HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS IN MATHEMATICS 9 © 2012 AIMS Education Foundation

Biographical Information: Anecdotes:

“Everything is arranged according to number

“Number is the origin of all things, and the

“Be silent, or say something better than

HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS IN MATHEMATICS 10 © 2012 AIMS Education Foundation

The Great Cover-Up

HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS IN MATHEMATICS 11 © 2012 AIMS Education Foundation

HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS IN MATHEMATICS

© 2012 AIMS Education Foundation

2. Two times any triangular number is a(n) __________ number.

3. Eight times a triangular number plus one is a(n)

4. Three times any triangular number plus the next triangular

5. An oblong number plus the corresponding square number is a(n)

6. The sum of two consecutive oblong numbers is twice a(n)

7. A triangular number plus the corresponding square number minus

HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS IN MATHEMATICS 14 © 2012 AIMS Education Foundation

Discovering the relationship between these number families can be

Rank of Family Members

PENTAGONAL NUMBERS HEXAGONAL NUMBERS

1st 2nd 3rd 4th 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS IN MATHEMATICS 15 © 2012 AIMS Education Foundation

HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS IN MATHEMATICS 16 © 2012 AIMS Education Foundation

HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS IN MATHEMATICS 17 © 2012 AIMS Education Foundation

Numbers which take this shape are called tetrahedral numbers.

Two popular puzzles which involve tetrahedral numbers can easily be

The objective of both puzzles is to put the pieces together to form a

These six pieces can be assembled to form a triangular pyramid.

These four pieces can be assembled to form a triangular pyramid.

HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS IN MATHEMATICS 18 © 2012 AIMS Education Foundation

HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS IN MATHEMATICS 19 © 2012 AIMS Education Foundation

Biographical Information: Perhaps some of the gold had been replaced

Anecdotes: Legend says that Archimedes was so excited

The King’s Crown The Earth Mover

HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS IN MATHEMATICS 20 © 2012 AIMS Education Foundation

HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS IN MATHEMATICS 21 © 2012 AIMS Education Foundation

HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS IN MATHEMATICS 22 © 2012 AIMS Education Foundation

5 ft 40 lbs 2 ft 100 lbs

6 ft 70 lbs 4 ft 105 lbs

Using your discovery, fill in the missing values below:

6 ft 115 lbs 138 lbs

Summarize your discovery by writing a formula expressing the relationship between D 1 ,

HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS IN MATHEMATICS 23 © 2012 AIMS Education Foundation

Archimedes discovered that you can find

Cut several large triangles of varying shapes out of cardboard. Draw

This number was the largest number ever imagined.

Use a technique like Archimedes’ to figure out how many kernels of

First, make a guess! _______________ kernels.

What is the volume of your box (V = L x W x H)? __________

What is the volume of your classroom? __________

How many boxes would fit into your room? __________

HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS IN MATHEMATICS 25 © 2012 AIMS Education Foundation

Complete the table for several rectangular blocks of wood.

Wood Type Volume Mass Density Floatline

HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS IN MATHEMATICS 26 © 2012 AIMS Education Foundation

46 x 35 =______ 259 x 37 =_ 53 x 24 = ____

457 x 38 = _ 63 x 75 = 836 x 28 = _

___, _, and _____.