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Betty Schneider Math

Math 114 bio paper
revised Feb. 2002

MATH 114 BIOGRAPHY PAPER Winter 2002 Schneider

General :the paper will briefly describe the lives of two famous mathematicians and compare and contrast them
 

your grade will be reduced if:
A.) you do not explicitly compare and contrast the live
       implicit comparison Blanc was born in 1792  in Paris ( on p 1)
                                    on page 2 Elkins was born in Paris in 1821
       explicit comparison they were both born in Paris but were a whole
                    generation apart
B.) make an attempt to tell what life was like (not just for them) in
    the times in which they lived  

WARNING You may not choose Issac Newton or
the pair Maria Agnesi and Julia Robinson
the pair Maria Agnesi and Mary Cartwright
or the pair Julia Robinson and Mary Cartwright

Paper will be due on Sept 20 as stated in class in class

Length must be at least the equivalent of 3 ½ pages double spaced

Use no more than 2 graphics ( unless you have a really compelling reason ) taking up no more than 2/3 of a page

Use MLA guidelines ( that includes putting summaries or paraphrases into your own words, remember you have the alternative of using borrowed language in quotation marks and properly citing the source)

You will lose a letter grade if there are too many grammar and spelling errors


The paper should have these parts
I.) a short description of teach person's life and mathematical accomplishments ( in layman's terms) about a page each

II.) Compare and contrast their lives (one and ½ pages ) in such areas as:
        political stability where they lived and elsewhere,
        how class distinctions were in their times and where they fit,
        what education was typical and what did they get
        were they good or bad students
        did they do one great work or many small works or what
        how did they earn a living
        were they in contact with other mathematicians
        what mathematicians influenced them and what mathematicians did they
                               influence.
       What practical applications does their work have
 
III.) minimum of 2 references ( properly cited)

Some names to get you started are :Niels Abel, Maria Agnesi, Abu al-Khwarizmi, Archimedes, Stefan Banach, any of the Bernoullis, Georg Cantor, Cardano, Chebyshev, Richard Courant, Mary Cartwright Dedekind, Fermat, l"Hospital, DeMorgan, Euclid, Erasthothenes, Erdos, Euler, Gauss, Hilbert, Kirckhoff, Kline , Galois, Gelfand, Godel, Halmos, Hypatia, Hardy, Pascal, Lesbesgue, Leibnitz, Lagrange, Laplace, Markov, Moebius, von Neumann, Noether, Pythagoru, Riemann, Ramanujan, Julia Robinson, Weierstrass, Quinne, Shannon, Dantzig, Weyl, Andre Weil ( the list is not complete and you may choose others with my approval )