2019 Festival: How Many Degrees are in a Martian Circle? (10:15am showing)

Who chose the number 360 for the count of degrees in a circle? Why that number? And why do mathematicians prefer not to use that number for mathematics? Why is the chosen direction of motion in mathematics counterclockwise when the rest of world naturally chooses clockwise? Why are fingers and single digit numbers both called digits? Why do we humans like the numbers 10, 12, 20, and 60 particularly so? Why are logarithms so confusing? And why is base e the “natural” logarithm to use? What happened to the beautiful vinculum (opens new window)? (Bring back the vinculum, I say!) Why did human circle-ometry become trigonometry? Let’s spend a session together exploring tidbits from the human—and nonhuman—story and development of mathematics.

This presentation will be repeated from 2:00-2:45pm.