Magnificent Mistakes in Mathematics Posamentier Dr Alfred S Mercy College New York USA City College of the City University of New York Mercy College New York USA Mercy College New York USA Mercy Col
Two veteran math educators demonstrate how some "magnificent mistakes" had profound consequences for our understanding of mathematics' key concepts. In the nineteenth century, English mathematician…
Specifikacia Magnificent Mistakes in Mathematics Posamentier Dr Alfred S Mercy College New York USA City College of the City University of New York Mercy College New York USA Mercy College New York USA Mercy Col
Two veteran math educators demonstrate how some "magnificent mistakes" had profound consequences for our understanding of mathematics' key concepts. In the nineteenth century, English mathematician William Shanks spent fifteen years calculating the value of pi, setting a record for the number of decimal places. Later, his calculation was reproduced using large wooden numerals to decorate the cupola of a hall in the Palais de la Decouverte in Paris. However, in 1946, with the aid of a mechanical desk calculator that ran for seventy hours, it was discovered that there was a mistake in the 528th decimal place. Today, supercomputers have determined the value of pi to trillions of decimal places. This is just one of the amusing and intriguing stories about mistakes in mathematics in this layperson's guide to mathematical principles. In another example, the authors show that when we "prove"