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 16 - Differential Geometry |
Differential geometry arises from applying calculus and analytic geometry to curves and surfaces. This video begins with a discussion of planar curves and the work of C. Huygens on involutes and evolutes, and the related notions of curvature and osculating circle. We discuss involutes of the catenary (yielding the tractrix), cycloid and parabola. The evolute of the parabola is a semi-cubical parabola. For space curves we describe the tangent line, osculating plane, principle normal and binormal.
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