Mathematical Etymology

Etymology is the study of words and their origins.  As you could probably tell from class, I love the study of the words we use every day.  It helps to understand what words mean and why we use them.  It is especially useful in mathematics to understand vocabulary and where it comes from.  Many of the mathematical terms we use in class has Latin or Greek roots and when we see where they come from, it helps put their definition into proper perspective.

 

For this assignment, look up at least 8-10 different mathematical terms and the etymology behind them.  A good place to find the origin of different words is usually in the opening paragraph of a Wikipedia article.  Also www.etymonline.com has a great resource library for etymology of many words.  Try getting as much information as you can on the history of the mathematical term, prefixes, suffixes and present it as a 1-2 page summary to Mr. Eckersley before the end of the marking period.

 

Specific rules are as follows:

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• The assignment must have at least 3 interesting full sentences on the history of the mathematical term and its origins. 

• The assignment must be typed up with a title, name and marking period on it.

• The assignment must include mathematical vocabulary only.  It is not limited to the vocabulary we are studying at the time, although it might be most useful for you to use them anyway. 

• Please include a list of references on the back page of the report indicating where your information came from.

• Plagiarism (taking information from a website word-for-word) is strictly prohibited and will result in no points awarded.

• Extra credit will be offered up to 20 points that may be distributed amongst any test, quiz, project, class work or homework grade and will be dispersed per the student's wishes.

• Each mathematical term (if done correctly with all requirements met) may be worth up to 2 points each.  You may do as many as you wish to reach your 20 point maximum. 

• All extra credit points will be determined solely by Mr. Eckersley.

 

Some examples of mathematical vocabulary that might be interesting to research are as follows 
(Note: there are hundreds more that you may choose from):

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• vinculum

• rhombus

• trapezoid

• parallelogram

• exponent

• radicand

• radical

• linear

• coefficient

• constant

• rational

• integer

• permutation

• combination