MATH 3560 - History of Mathematics
MATH 3560: History of Mathematics (UNSW). Taught by Professor N. J. Wildberger, this course provides an overview of the history of mathematics, in 17 lectures; meant for a broad audience, not necessarily mathematics majors. Starting with Greek mathematics, Professor N. J. Wildberger discusses Hindu, Chinese and Arabic influences on algebra; the development of coordinate geometry, calculus and mechanics; the course of geometry from projective to non-Euclidean in the 19th century; complex numbers and algebra; differential geometry; and topology. This course roughly follows John Stillwell's book 'Mathematics and its History' (Springer, 3rd ed).
| Lecture 13 - The Number Theory Revival |
After the work of Diophantus, there was something of a lapse in interest in pure number theory for quite some while. Around 1300 Gersonides developed the connection between the Binomial theorem and combinatorics, and then in the 17th century the topic was again taken up, notably by Fermat, and then by Euler, Lagrange, Legendre and Gauss. We discuss several notable results of Fermat, including his famous last theorem, his work on sums of squares, Pell's equation, primes, and rational points on curves.
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