Math History Mistakes

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       THIRTEEN MISUNDERSTANDINGS

                            IN THE

             HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS



  In the interest of historical accuracy let it be known that

....



  1) Fibonacci's daughter was not named "Bunny."



  2) Michael Rolle was not Danish, and did not call his

     daughter "Tootsie."



  3) William Horner was not called "Little-Jack" by his

     friends.



  4) The "G" in G. Peano does not stand for "grand."



  5) Rene Descartes' middle name is not "push."



  6) Isaac Barrow's middle name is not "wheel."



  7) There is no such place as the University of Wis-cosine,

     and if there was, the motto of their mathematics

     department would not be "Secant ye shall find."



  8) Although Euler is pronounced oil-er, it does not follow

     that Euclid is pronounced oi-clid.



  9) Franklin D. Roosevelt never said "The only thing we have

     to sphere is sphere itself."



10) Fibonacci is not a shortened form of the Italian name that

    is actually spelled: F i bb ooo nnnnn aaaaaaaa

    ccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccc

    iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.



11) It is true that August Mobius was a difficult and

    opinionated man. But he was not so rigid that he could

    only see one side to every question.



12) It is true that Johannes Kepler had an uphill struggle

    in explaining his theory of elliptical orbits to the

    other astronomers of his time. And it is also true that

    his first attempt was a failure. But it is not true that

    after his lecture the first three questions he was asked

    were "What is elliptical?" What is an orbit?" and "What

    is a planet?



13) It is true that primitive societies use only rough

    approximations for the known constants of mathematics.

    For example, the northern tribes of Alaska consider the

    ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle to

    be 3. But it is not true that the value of 3 is called

    Eskimo pi. Incidentally, the survival of these tribes is

    dependent upon government assistance, which is not always

    forthcoming. For example, the Canadian firm of Tait and

    Sons sold a stock of defective compasses to the government

    at half-price, and the government passed them onto the

    northern natives. Hence the saying among these peoples:

    "He who has a Tait's is lost."



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