The Fascinating 'Gauss'
Thursday September 27, 2007
"I want you to add up all of the numbers between 1 and 100, including both 1 and 100."
As the story goes, that's the question that our young mathematician Gauss was given by his teacher when he showed his natural curiosity and thirst for knowledge. And, as the story goes, he gave the answer to this question within minutes, completely astonishing his teacher. Read more about one of my favorite mathematician.
As the story goes, that's the question that our young mathematician Gauss was given by his teacher when he showed his natural curiosity and thirst for knowledge. And, as the story goes, he gave the answer to this question within minutes, completely astonishing his teacher. Read more about one of my favorite mathematician.
Comments
I think it is important to teach students a little bit about the history of mathematics and mathematicians before teaching methods for solving this or that equation.
Too many schools jump right into math solving techniques without teaching students about the people responsible for the math we play with.
Regarding the above comment:
History is NOT mathematics. A teacher could very well say something about the history - however, there are plenty of things the teacher could say that is directly connected to the mathematics.