Episodes of interferences of war and math in the life and work of Werner Fenchel

No presente artigo, estudamos episódios da vida e obra do matemático alemão-dinamarquês Werner Fenchel na perspectiva da importância da Segunda Guerra Mundial. Por um lado, veremos como a sociedade matemática, em particular o matemático Harald Bohr, ajudou Fenchel a estabelecer uma vida acadêmica em Copenhague, na Dinamarca. Por outro lado, veremos como a organização da contribuição do cientista para o esforço de guerra nos EUA durante a guerra e o financiamento militar pós-guerra da pesquisa acadêmica no período pós-guerra interferiu em alguns dos trabalhos matemáticos de Fenchel, especialmente em sua contribuição para a teoria da dualidade na programação não linear. Como tal, o estudo apresentado neste artigo contribui para nossa compreensão de como a matemática e as condições de um determinado local e tempo interferem na história da matemática

Enacting Inquiry Learning in Mathematics through History

International audienceWe explain how history of mathematics can function as a means for enacting inquiry learning activities in mathematics as a scientific subject. It will be discussed how students develop informed conception about i) the epistemology of mathematics, ii) of how mathematicians produce mathematical knowledge, and iii) what kind of questions that drive mathematical research. We give examples from the mathematics education at Roskilde University and we show how (teacher) students from this program are themselves capable of using history to establish inquiry learning environments in mathematics in high school. The realization is argued for in the context of an explicit-reflective framework in the sense of Abd-El-Khalick (2013) and his work in science education

Episódios de interferências da Guerra e da Matemática na vida e na obra de Werner Fenchel

In the present paper we study episodes of the life and work of the German-Danish mathematician Werner Fenchel from the perspective of the significance of the Second World War. On the one hand, we will see how the mathematical society, in particularly the mathematician Harald Bohr, helped Fenchel to set up an academic life in Copenhagen, Denmark. On the other hand, we will see how the organisation of scientists’ contribution to the war effort in the USA during the war, and the post war military financing of academic research in the post war period interfered with some of Fenchel’s mathematical work, especially his contribution to duality theory in nonlinear programming. As such, the study presented is this paper contributes to our understanding of how mathematics and conditions of a particular place and time interfere in the history of mathematicsNo presente artigo, estudamos episódios da vida e obra do matemático alemão-dinamarquês Werner Fenchel na perspectiva da importância da Segunda Guerra Mundial. Por um lado, veremos como a sociedade matemática, em particular o matemático Harald Bohr, ajudou Fenchel a estabelecer uma vida acadêmica em Copenhague, na Dinamarca. Por outro lado, veremos como a organização da contribuição do cientista para o esforço de guerra nos EUA durante a guerra e o financiamento militar pós-guerra da pesquisa acadêmica no período pós-guerra interferiu em alguns dos trabalhos matemáticos de Fenchel, especialmente em sua contribuição para a teoria da dualidade na programação não linear. Como tal, o estudo apresentado neste artigo contribui para nossa compreensão de como a matemática e as condições de um determinado local e tempo interferem na história da matemática

“Clebsch took notice of me”: Olaus Henrici and surface models.

The (Danish born) German mathematician Olaus Henrici (1840–1919), having spent a short time as an apprentice engineer, began his mathematical studies in 1859 in Karlsruhe where he came under the influence of Clebsch, as he later recalled: “Of greater importance to me was the fact that Clebsch took notice of me. He induced me to devote myself exclusively to Mathematics. During the three months summer vacation in 1860 I remained in Karlsruhe earning a little money by private teaching. I was honoured by seeing much of Clebsch. Practically every morning I called for him at 10 o’clock for a long walk during which much Mathematics was talked. It was only later that I realised how very much I had learned during these lessons without paper or blackboard.” [1, p.71] With recommendations from Clebsch, Henrici went to Heidelberg to study with Hesse and in 1863 he took a PhD in algebraic geometry before moving to Berlin to attend the lectures of Weierstrass and Kronecker. Unable to make a living in Germany, he moved to London in 1865 to work with a friend on some engineering problems. The enterprise was not successful so he turned to mathematics tutoring and continued with his mathematical research. Through Hesse he obtained an introduction to Sylvester, and through Sylvester he got to know Cayley, Hirst and Clifford. In 1870 he succeeded Hirst as the Professor of Pure Mathematics at University College, and in 1880, on the death of Clifford, he took over the chair of Applied Mathematics. Four years later, he was appointed as the founding professor of Mathematics and Mechanics at the newly formed Central Technical College where he established a Laboratory of Mechanics, a position he retained until he retired in 1911