Évelyne Barbin – författare

This book seeks to explore the history of descriptive geometry in relation to its circulation in the 19th century, which had been favoured by the transfers of the model of the École Polytechnique to other countries. The book also covers the diffusion of its teaching from higher instruction to technical and secondary teaching. In relation to that, there is analysis of the role of the institution – similar but definitely not identical in the different countries – in the field under consideration. The book contains chapters focused on different countries, areas, and institutions, written by specialists of the history of the field. Insights on descriptive geometry are provided in the context of the mathematical aspect, the aspect of teaching in particular to non-mathematicians, and the institutions themselves. 

This book explores the evolving relationship between the history and epistemology of mathematics and mathematics education over the past fifty years. Beginning with the international movement that emerged in the 1970s, it celebrates the enduring and expanding role of historical and epistemological perspectives in shaping teaching practices.

Organized into seven thematic sections, the volume examines core issues such as how historical and epistemological insights enhance understanding of mathematical concepts, interdisciplinarity as a tool for teaching, and innovative approaches to teacher training. It also delves into the use of historical problems, ancient texts, and textbooks as teaching resources, alongside an analysis of the social and political dimensions of mathematics education.

Special attention is given to the impact of the "modern mathematics" reform and its legacy in rekindling interest in the history of mathematics in education. Featuring contributions from diverse geographical and historical contexts, this book is an essential resource for teachers, researchers, and anyone passionate about the rich interplay of history, epistemology, and mathematics.

This book brings together 10 experiments which introduce historical perspectives into mathematics classrooms for 11 to 18-year-olds. The authors suggest that students should not only read ancient texts, but also should construct, draw and manipulate. The different chapters refer to ancient Greek, Indian, Chinese and Arabic mathematics as well as to contemporary mathematics. Students are introduced to well-known mathematicians—such as Gottfried Leibniz and Leonard Euler—as well as to less famous practitioners and engineers. Always, there is the attempt to associate the experiments with their scientific and cultural contexts.

The aim of this book is to analyse historical problems related to the use of mathematics in physics as well as to the use of physics in mathematics and to investigate Mathematical Physics as precisely the new discipline which is concerned with this dialectical link itself. So the main question is: When and why did the tension between mathematics and physics, explicitly practised at least since Galileo, evolve into such a new scientific theory?

The authors explain the various ways in which this science allowed an advanced mathematical modelling in physics on the one hand, and the invention of new mathematical ideas on the other hand. Of course this problem is related to the links between institutions, universities, schools for engineers, and industries, and so it has social implications as well.

The link by which physical ideas had influenced the world of mathematics was not new in the 19th century, but it came to a kind of maturity at that time. Recently, much historical research has been done into mathematics and physics and their relation in this period. The purpose of the Symposium and this book is to gather and re-evaluate the current thinking on this subject. It brings together contributions from leading experts in the field, and gives much-needed insight in the subject of mathematical physics from a historical point of view.