Math Education Seminar: The Experimental Geometer: How John Wallis Saved Mathematics in Restoration England

About this event

Amir Alexander, UCLA Title: The Experimental Geometer: How John Wallis Saved Mathematics in Restoration England Abstract: At a time when mathematicians are rethinking the foundations of their field, it is worth recalling an earlier crisis and how it was dealt with. In the late 17th century the Royal Society championed an experimental approach to the study of nature as the proper path to the advancement of knowledge and the preservation of civic peace. Mathematics was admired, but also feared, as dangerously dogmatic and coercive. In response John Wallis, the leading mathematician in the…

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