Journal for History of Mathematics (한국수학사학회지)

The Korean Society for History of Mathematics (한국수학사학회)
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Rethinking the Name and Use of Pythagorean Theorem from the Perspectives of History of Mathematics and Mathematics Education

'피타고라스 정리'의 명칭과 활용에 대한 비판적 고찰

  • Chang, Hyewon (Dept. of Math. Edu., Seoul National Univ. of Edu.)
  • Received : 2021.10.19
  • Accepted : 2021.12.10
  • Published : 2021.12.31
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Abstract

It has been argued that as for the origin of the Pythagorean theorem, the theorem had already been discovered and proved before Pythagoras, and the historical records of ancient mathematics have confirmed various uses of this theorem. The purpose of this study is to examine the relevance of its name caused by Eurocentrism and the weakness of its use in Korean school mathematics and to seek improvements from a critical point of view. To this end, the Pythagorean theorem was reviewed from the perspectives of the history of mathematics and mathematics education. In addition, its name in relation to objective mathematical contents regardless of any specific civilization and its use as a starting point for teaching the theorem in school mathematics were suggested.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the 2021 Research Fund of Seoul National University of Education.

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