• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.19-30
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• 2008

Cavalieri is chiefly remembered for his work on the problem "indivisibles." Building on the work of Archimedes, he investigated the method of construction by which areas and volumes of curved figures could be found. Cavalieri regarded an area as made up of an indefinite number of parallel line segments and a volume of an indefinite number of parallel plane areas. He called these elements the indivisibles of area and volume. Cavalieri developed a method of the indivisibles which he used to determine areas and volumes. We call this Cavalieri's principle which states that there exists a plane such that any plane parallel to it intersects equal areas In both objects, then the volumes of the two objects are equal. Cavalieri's principle and method of the indivisibles are very important to understand of volume of a pyramid for gifted students.

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.17-30
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• 2011

This study inquires into the change between two method of indivisibles, which Cavalier suggested. To cope with the objection of use of indivisibles, he modified his first method of indivisibles. Through the analysis of this transition, this study reveals the feature that Cavalier changed into reflecting the density of the figures so as to avoid the paradox related to the indivisibles and this change has the aspect of incomplete lemma-incorporation method according to Lakatos' theory.

• School Mathematics
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.27-43
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• 2006

The objective of this paper is to design teaching units to foster secondary pre-service teachers' mathematising abilities. In these teaching units we focus on generalizing area of a 2-dimensional triangle and volume of a 3-dimensional tetrahedron to n-volume of n-simplex In this process of generalizing, principle of the permanence of equivalent forms and Cavalieri's principle are applied. To find n-volume of n-simplex, we define n-orthogonal triangular prism, and inquire into n-volume of it. And we find n-volume of n-simplex by using vectors and determinants. Through these teaching units, secondary pre-service teachers can understand and inquire into n-simplex which is generalized from a triangle and a tetrahedron, and n-volume of n-simplex which is generalized from area of a triangle and volume of a tetrahedron. They can also promote natural connection between school mathematics and academic mathematics.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.115-140
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• 2009

Freudenthal has advocated the mathematisation theory. Mathematisation is an activity which endow the reality with order, through organizing phenomena. According to mathematisation theory, the departure of children's learning of mathematics is not ready-made formal mathematics, but reality which contains mathematical germination. In the first place, children mathematise reality through informal method, secondly this resulting reality is mathematised by new tool. Through survey, it turns out that area unit of Korea's seventh elementary mathematics textbook is not correspond to mathematisation theory. In that textbook, the area formular is hastily presented without sufficient real context, and the relational understanding of area concept is overwhelmed by the practice of the area formular. In this thesis, first of all, I will reconstruct area unit of seventh elementary textbook according to Freudenthal's mathematisation theory. Next, I will perform teaching experiment which is ruled by new lesson design. Lastly, I analysed the effects of teaching experiment. Through this study, I obtained the following results and suggestions. First, the mathematisation was effective on the understanding of area concept. Secondly, in both experimental and comparative class, rich-insight children more successfully achieved than poor-insight ones in the task which asked testee comparison of area from a view of number of unit square. This result show the importance of insight in mathematics education. Thirdly, in the task which asked testee computing area of figures given on lattice, experimental class handled more diverse informal strategy than comparative class. Fourthly, both experimental and comparative class showed low achievement in the task which asked testee computing area of figures by the use of Cavalieri's principle. Fifthly, Experiment class successfully achieved in the area computing task which resulting value was fraction or decimal fraction. Presently, Korea's seventh elementary mathematics textbook is excluding the area computing task which resulting value is fraction or decimal fraction. By the aid of this research, I suggest that we might progressively consider the introduction that case. Sixthly, both experimental and comparative class easily understood the relation between area and perimeter of plane figures. This result show that area and perimeter concept are integratively lessoned.