Classroom Activities Based on Ancient India Mathematics
| Event Start Date: January 2, 2015 | Event End Date: January 2, 2015 | Event Venue: V. G Kulkarni Auditorium (G6), Main Building, HBCSE. |
Speaker: Jean Michel Delire, Lecturer at Haute Ecole de Bruxelles and at the University of Brussels
On
January 2nd, 2015, 3:30pm to 4:30 pm
At
V. G Kulkarni Auditorium (G6), Main Building, HBCSE.
About the talk:
It is widely known that the construction of vedic altars gave rise to many problems in geometry that ancient Indian mathematicians tackled. In his talk he will describe how the construction of the fire altar in the shape of a bird leads to fractional calculations. He will illustrate this through the manipulation of wooden puzzles. The construction of a square with poles and a cord raises interesting questions about exactness and proof. After the description of the implementation of these activities in the classroom, he will add some remarks about the advantages teachers and pupils could take from such historical approaches to mathematics, remarks corroborated by the observations already made by our students during their teaching practice.
The talk is derived from an exhibition of a triennial festival devoted to six aspects of the Indian rational thinking: geometry of the vedic ritual, calculations with the Indian decimal place value system, astronomy of Savai Jai Singh II (1689-1743), architecture of the Minakshi temple in Madurai, ayurvedic medicine, and games originating from India. The exhibition consists of 18 large panels illustrated with objects and models.
About the speaker:
Jean Michel Delire has a PhD in Philosophy and Letters and Master’s degree in Mathematics and in Oriental History and Philology. The topic of his dissertation was the Baudhāyana Śulbasūtra and its commentary Śulbadīpikā by Dvārakānātha. He teaches and trainins future mathematics teachers in the Haute Ecole de Bruxelles & also lectures on Science and civilization of India – Sanskrit texts at the University of Brussels.
