The Legacy Of Felix Klein

This open access book provides an overview of Felix Klein's ideas, highlighting developments in university teaching and school mathematics related to Klein's thoughts, stemming from the last century. It discusses the meaning, importance and the legacy of Klein's ideas today and in the future, within an international, global context. Presenting extended versions of the talks at the Thematic Afternoon at ICME-13, the book shows that many of Klein's ideas can be reinterpreted in the context of the current situation, and offers tips and advice for dealing with current problems in teacher education and teaching mathematics in secondary schools. It proves that old ideas are timeless, but that it takes competent, committed and assertive individuals to bring these ideas to life. Throughout his professional life, Felix Klein emphasised the importance of reflecting upon mathematics teaching and learning from both a mathematical and a psychological or educational point of view. He also strongly promoted the modernisation of mathematics in the classroom, and developed ideas on university lectures for student teachers, which he later consolidated at the beginning of the last century in the three books on elementary mathematics from a higher standpoint. This work was published by Saint Philip Street Press pursuant to a Creative Commons license permitting commercial use. All rights not granted by the work's license are retained by the author or authors.

This open access book provides an overview of Felix Klein’s ideas, highlighting developments in university teaching and school mathematics related to Klein’s thoughts, stemming from the last century. It discusses the meaning, importance and the legacy of Klein’s ideas today and in the future, within an international, global context. Presenting extended versions of the talks at the Thematic Afternoon at ICME-13, the book shows that many of Klein’s ideas can be reinterpreted in the context of the current situation, and offers tips and advice for dealing with current problems in teacher education and teaching mathematics in secondary schools. It proves that old ideas are timeless, but that it takes competent, committed and assertive individuals to bring these ideas to life. Throughout his professional life, Felix Klein emphasised the importance of reflecting upon mathematics teaching and learning from both a mathematical and a psychological or educational point of view. He also strongly promoted the modernisation of mathematics in the classroom, and developed ideas on university lectures for student teachers, which he later consolidated at the beginning of the last century in the three books on elementary mathematics from a higher standpoint.

About Felix Klein, the famous Greek mathematician Constantin Carathéodory once said: “It is only by illuminating him from all angles that one can come to understand his significance.” The author of this biography has done just this. A detailed study of original sources has made it possible to uncover new connections; to create a more precise representation of this important mathematician, scientific organizer, and educational reformer; and to identify misconceptions. Because of his edition of Julius Plücker’s work on line geometry and due to his own contributions to non-Euclidean geometry, Klein was already well known abroad before he received his first full professorship at the age of 23. By exchanging ideas with his most important cooperation partner, the Norwegian Sophus Lie, Klein formulated his Erlangen Program. Various other visionary programs followed, in which Klein involved mathematicians from Germany and abroad. Klein was the most active promoter of Riemann’s geometric-physical approach to function theory, but he also integrated the analytical approaches of the Weierstrass school into his arsenal of methods. Klein was a citizen of the world who repeatedly travelled to France, Great Britain, Italy, the United States, and elsewhere. Despite what has often been claimed, it must be emphasized that Klein expressly opposed national chauvinism. He promoted mathematically gifted individuals regardless of their nationality, religion, or gender. Many of his works have been translated into English, French, Italian, Russian, and other languages; more than 300 supporters from around the world made it possible for his portrait to be painted by the prominent impressionist Max Liebermann. Inspired by international developments, Klein paved the way for women to work in the field of mathematics. He was instrumental in reforming mathematical education, and he endorsed an understanding of mathematics that affirmed its cultural importance as well as its fundamental significance to scientific and technological progress.

This book presents a collection of essays that explore the life and works of Tatjana Afanassjewa (1876–1964), a Russian–Dutch physicist–mathematician. Readers will discover a scientist whose work on the foundations of thermodynamics significantly influenced the field itself as well as the philosophy of physics. This book highlights the philosophical consequences of her work in physics and mathematics and discusses historical aspects of her writings on the foundations of physics. In addition, it features English translations and critical reviews of key selections from her texts. First and foremost, the book highlights the numerous contributions that Afanassjewa made to the field. In particular, the authors examine her work on the foundations of thermodynamics and statistical physics, starting in the 1920s and extending to 1956, well after the untimely death of her husband in 1933. They also explore her almost entirely forgotten work on the didactics of mathematics. In addition, they discuss her influential collaboration with her husband, the Austrian physicist Paul Ehrenfest (1880–1933). The portrait that emerges is that of a highly original physicist and mathematician, whose legacy continues to influence scientists and philosophers today and whose lesser-known works deserve more attention than they have received. Readers will find a rich body of work that continues to this day to yield insights into the foundations of physics and mathematics.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. The book presents the Proceedings of the 13th International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME-13) and is based on the presentations given at the 13th International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME-13). ICME-13 took place from 24th- 31st July 2016 at the University of Hamburg in Hamburg (Germany). The congress was hosted by the Society of Didactics of Mathematics (Gesellschaft für Didaktik der Mathematik - GDM) and took place under the auspices of the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI). ICME-13 brought together about 3.500 mathematics educators from 105 countries, additionally 250 teachers from German speaking countries met for specific activities. Directly before the congress activities were offered for 450 Early Career Researchers. The proceedings give a comprehensive overview on the current state-of-the-art of the discussions on mathematics education and display the breadth and deepness of current research on mathematical teaching-and-learning processes. The book introduces the major activities of ICME-13, namely articles from the four plenary lecturers and two plenary panels, articles from the five ICMI awardees, reports from six national presentations, three reports from the thematic afternoon devoted to specific features of ICME-13. Furthermore, the proceedings contain descriptions of the 54 Topic Study Groups, which formed the heart of the congress and reports from 29 Discussion Groups and 31 Workshops. The additional important activities of ICME-13, namely papers from the invited lecturers, will be presented in the second volume of the proceedings.

A unique series of fascinating research papers on subjects related to the work of Niels Henrik Abel, written by some of the foremost specialists in their fields. Some of the authors have been specifically invited to present papers, discussing the influence of Abel in a mathematical-historical context. Others have submitted papers presented at the Abel Bicentennial Conference, Oslo June 3-8, 2002. The idea behind the book has been to produce a text covering a substantial part of the legacy of Abel, as perceived at the beginning of the 21st century.

An investigation of mathematics as it was drawn, encoded, imagined, and interpreted by architects on the eve of digitization in the mid-twentieth century. In Formulations, Andrew Witt examines the visual, methodological, and cultural intersections between architecture and mathematics. The linkages Witt explores involve not the mystic transcendence of numbers invoked throughout architectural history, but rather architecture’s encounters with a range of calculational systems—techniques that architects inventively retooled for design. Witt offers a catalog of mid-twentieth-century practices of mathematical drawing and calculation in design that preceded and anticipated digitization as well as an account of the formal compendia that became a cultural currency shared between modern mathematicians and modern architects. Witt presents a series of extensively illustrated “biographies of method”—episodes that chart the myriad ways in which mathematics, particularly the mathematical notion of modeling and drawing, was spliced into the creative practice of design. These include early drawing machines that mechanized curvature; the incorporation of geometric maquettes—“theorems made flesh”—into the toolbox of design; the virtualization of buildings and landscapes through surveyed triangulation and photogrammetry; formal and functional topology; stereoscopic drawing; the economic implications of cubic matrices; and a strange synthesis of the technological, mineral, and biological: crystallographic design. Trained in both architecture and mathematics, Witt uses mathematics as a lens through which to understand the relationship between architecture and a much broader set of sciences and visual techniques. Through an intercultural exchange with other disciplines, he argues, architecture adapted not only the shapes and surfaces of mathematics but also its values and epistemic ideals.

This book is the first in a series of three volumes that comprehensively examine Mario Pieri’s life, mathematical work and influence. The book introduces readers to Pieri’s career and his studies in foundations, from both historical and modern viewpoints. Included in this volume are the first English translations, along with analyses, of two of his most important axiomatizations — one in arithmetic and one in geometry. The book combines an engaging exposition, little-known historical notes, exhaustive references and an excellent index. And yet the book requires no specialized experience in mathematical logic or the foundations of geometry.