Interesting story in the history of mathematics: Thales saw people reading the notice and went up to have a look. The initial notice said that Pharaoh wanted the smartest person in the world to measure the height of the pyramid. So I went to Pharaoh.
Pharaoh asked Thales what tools he used to measure the pyramids. Thales said he only used a stick and a ruler. He put the stick next to the pyramid. When the shadow of the stick was as long as the stick, he measured the length of the shadow of the pyramid and half the length of the bottom of the pyramid. Add these two lengths to get the height of the pyramid. Thales is really the smartest man in the world. He can easily measure the height of the pyramid without climbing to the top.
Interesting story in the history of mathematics Part II: During the Warring States Period, Qi Weiwang and General Tian Ji raced horses. Qi Weiwang and Tian Ji each had three good horses: getting on, winning and dismounting. The race is divided into three times, and thousands of dollars are bet on each horse race. Because the horsepower of the two horses is almost the same, and Qi Weiwang's horse is better than Tian Ji's, most people think that Tian Ji will lose.
However, Tian Ji took the advice of his disciple Sun Bin (a famous strategist) and dismounted Qi Weiwang's horse, Ma Zhong of Qi Weiwang and Qi Weiwang. As a result, Tian Ji beat Qi Weiwang 2-/kloc-0-and won a lot of money. This is an example of China's ancient substitution game theory to solve problems.
Interesting story in the history of mathematics Part III: Meteorologist Lorenz put forward a paper entitled "Will butterflies flap their wings to cause tornadoes in taxonomic groups?" This paper discusses that if the initial condition of a system is a little worse, its result will be very unstable. He dubbed this phenomenon "the butterfly effect". Just like we roll the dice twice, no matter how deliberately we roll, the physical phenomena and points thrown twice are not necessarily the same. Why did Lorenz write this paper?
This story happened in the winter of 196 1 2008. He operated the meteorological computer in the office as usual. Usually, he only needs to input meteorological data such as temperature, humidity and air pressure, and the computer will calculate the possible meteorological data at the next moment according to the built-in three differential equations, thus simulating the meteorological change map.
Interesting story in the history of mathematics Chapter 4: Tang Priest and his disciples are walking in the endless desert. They are hungry and tired. Pig thought, how nice it would be to have a good meal! The Monkey King is not as greedy as Bajie. Wukong just wants to drink a glass of water. The Monkey King wanted to think, a family appeared in front of him. There is only a glass of milk on the table at the door. The Monkey King hurried forward to drink, but the master said? Wait a minute, Great Sage. If you want to drink this glass of milk, you must answer a math problem. ?
The Monkey King thought, just a math problem can't beat me. The Monkey King agreed. There is a problem in the host's house: pour a glass of milk, you first drink 1/2 and then drink 1/3 and finally drink all the drinks. Do you drink more milk and water? Why?
In the evening, I saw a problem in the Olympiad Book: the number of apple trees in the orchard is three times that of pear trees. Master Lao Wang fertilizes 50 apple trees and 20 pear trees every day. A few days later, all the pear trees were fertilized, but the remaining 80 apple trees were not fertilized. Excuse me: How many apple trees and pear trees are there in the orchard?
I am not intimidated by this question, but it can stimulate my interest. I think the apple tree is three times as big as the pear tree. If you want to fertilize two kinds of trees on the same day, does Master Lao Wang have to fertilize them every day? 20? 3? Fertilize 20 apple trees and 20 pear trees.
In fact, he only fertilized 50 apple trees every day, which was 10, and finally 80. Therefore, Master Lao Wang has been fertilizing for 8 days. 20 pear trees a day, 8 days is 160 pear trees. According to the first condition, there are 480 apple trees. This is to solve the problem with the idea of hypothesis, so I think the hypothesis method is really a good way to solve the problem.
Interesting stories in the history of mathematics Chapter 6: Archimedes has many stories, the most famous of which is the story of the bath where Archimedes' principle was discovered.
The king made a golden crown. He suspected that the craftsman had stolen some gold with silver, so he asked Archimedes to identify whether it was made of pure gold and not to damage the crown. Archimedes thought hard about the crown all day. One day, Archimedes went to the bathroom to take a bath. He went into the bath tub. When he immersed himself in the bath bucket, some water overflowed from the side of the bucket. Archimedes saw this phenomenon and crackled in his mind. I found it! ?
Archimedes put an equal weight gold nugget and a silver nugget into a container filled with water, and found that the silver nugget discharged much more water. So Archimedes took a gold nugget with the same weight as the crown and put it in a container filled with water to measure the displacement; Then put the crown in a container filled with water to see if the amount of water discharged is the same, and the problem will be solved. With further research, Archimedes principle, the most important cornerstone of fluid mechanics, was born.
Chapter 7: Interesting Story in the History of Mathematics: When Gauss was still in the second grade of primary school, one day his math teacher wanted to take time out of class to deal with some personal affairs, so he planned to give his students a difficult problem to practice. His topic is:
1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+ 10=?
Because addition has just been taught, the teacher thinks it will take a long time for students to solve this problem. I can also take this opportunity to deal with unfinished business. But in the blink of an eye, Gauss had stopped writing and sat there doing nothing. The teacher saw it and called Gauss angrily.
But Gauss said he had figured out the answer, which was 55. The teacher was startled and asked how Gauss worked it out. Gauss replied:? I just found that the sum of 1 and 10 is the sum of1,2 and 9, 1 1, 3 and 8, 1 1, 4 and 7. And because11+1+11+11= 55, I worked it out like this. ? Hearing this, the teachers and students all gave Gauss a thumbs-up. Later Gauss grew up and became a great mathematician.
Eight strange stories in the history of mathematics: Bajie went to Huaguoshan to find Wukong, and the Great Sage was not at home. The little monkeys treated Bajie warmly and picked 100 of the best peaches in the mountain. Bajie said happily. Everybody eat together! ? How to eat? Counting 30 monkeys, Bajie found a branch, drew a picture on the ground and listed the formula, 100. 30=3 1
The pig head pointed to the top three and said generously, Everyone eats three peaches. Look, the rest 1 I ate it! ? The little monkeys were very grateful to Bajie. They thanked him one by one, and then each took his share.
When Wukong came back, the little monkeys told Wukong how generous Bajie was today and why he only ate a peach. Wukong cried when he saw Pig's arrangement. What a fool! He ate too many peaches and kept his mouth shut. I'll find him! ?
Haha, do you know how many peaches Bajie ate?