Does it make a difference to our students learning if we acknowledge (or don't acknowledge) that non-European sources of Mathematics? Why, or how?
I think that it is important to study the history of math in a fully holistic manner. It doesn't make any sense to me why someone would study Greek math history but not Chinese? Are their discoveries any less impressive or important? I would think not. The arguments behind teaching math history as part of the curriculum; understanding the trial-and-error aspect of math, understanding that math is always evolving, would surely also apply to Chinese math history. I guess it is true what they say, history is written by those that create it and in our western world we are more attuned to the western history of math, I think that should change though.
What are your thoughts on the naming of the Pythagorean Theorem, and other named mathematical theorems and concepts (for example, Pascal's triangle)
The naming of proofs and math concepts is a complicated subject. On one hand, the Babylonians and Egyptians understood the relationship between sides of a triangle prior to Pythagoras, so why should he go down in history as the master of the triangle? Is it because his way of thinking was very western? Prior generations had possibly placed less importance on individual fame and recognition, placed less importance on a formal proof process and Pythagoras has reaped the rewards of such. On the other hand, where do you draw the line? If not the Pythagoras Triangle then what? The Egyptian triangle? But then the Babylonians would be up-in-arms. I think that there is no solution to this problem and if Pythagoras was the one that made the theory famous, I'm fine with that.
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