• The Mathematical Education
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.48-73
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• 1986

Though the tradition of Korean mathematics since the ancient time up to the 'Enlightenment Period' in the late 19th century had been under the influence of the Chinese mathematics, it strove to develop its own independent of Chinese. However, the fact that it couldn't succeed to form the independent Korean mathematics in spite of many chances under the reign of Kings Sejong, Youngjo, and Joungjo was mainly due to the use of Chinese characters by Koreans. Han-gul (Korean characters) invented by King Sejong had not been used widely as it was called and despised Un-mun and Koreans still used Chinese characters as the only 'true letters' (Jin-suh). The correlation between characters and culture was such that, if Koreans used Han-gul as their official letters, we may have different picture of Korean mathematics. It is quite interesting to note that the mathematics in the 'Enlightenment Period' changed rather smoothly into the Western mathematics at the time when Han-gul was used officially with Chinese characters. In Koryo, the mathematics existed only as a part of the Confucian refinement, not as the object of sincere study. The mathematics in Koryo inherited that of the Unified Shilla without any remarkable development of its own, and the mathematicians were the Inner Officials isolated from the outside world who maintained their positions as specialists amid the turbulence of political changes. They formed a kind of Guild, their posts becoming patrimony. The mathematics in Koryo significant in that they paved the way for that of Chosun through a few books of mathematics such as 'Sanhak-Kyemong', 'Yanghwi-Sanpup' and 'Sangmyung-Sanpup'. King Sejong was quite phenomenal in his policy of promotion of mathematics. King himself was deeply interested in the study, createing an atmosphere in which all the high ranking officials and scholars highly valued mathematics. The sudden development of mathematic culture was mainly due to the personality and capacity of king who took anyone with the mathematic talent into government service regardless of his birth and against the strong opposition of the conservative officials. However, King's view of mathematics never resulted in the true development of mathematics perse and he used it only as an official technique in the tradition way. Korean mathematics in King Sejong's reign was based upon both the natural philosophy in China and the unique geo-political reality of Korean peninsula. The reason why the mathematic culture failed to develop continually against those social background was that the mathematicians were not allowed to play the vital role in that culture, they being only the instrument for the personality or politics of the king. While the learned scholar class sometimes played the important role for the development of the mathematic culture, they often as not became an adamant barrier to it. As the society in Chosun needed the function of mathematics acutely, the mathematicians formed the settled class called Jung-in (Middle-Man). Jung-in was a unique class in Chosun and we can't find its equivalent in China or Japan. These Jung-in mathematician officials lacked tendency to publish their study, since their society was strictly exclusive and their knowledge was very limited. Though they were relatively low class, these mathematicians played very important role in Chosun society. In 'Sil-Hak (the Practical Learning) period' which began in the late 16th century, especially in the reigns of Kings Youngjo and Jungjo, which was called the Renaissance of Chosun, the ambitious policy for the development of science and technology called for. the rapid increase of he number of such technocrats as mathematics, astronomy and medicine. Amid these social changes, the Jung-in mathematicians inevitably became quite ambitious and proud. They tried to explore deeply into mathematics perse beyond the narrow limit of knowledge required for their office. Thus, in this period the mathematics developed rapidly, undergoing very important changes. The characteristic features of the mathematics in this period were: Jung-in mathematicians' active study an publication, the mathematic studies by the renowned scholars of Sil-Hak, joint works by these two classes, their approach to the Western mathematics and their effort to develop Korean mathematics. Toward the 'Enlightenment Period' in the late 19th century, the Western mathematics experienced great difficulty to take its roots in the Peninsula which had been under the strong influence of Confucian ideology and traditional Korean mathematic system. However, with King Kojong's ordinance in 1895, the traditional Korean mathematics influenced by Chinese disappeared from the history of Korean mathematics, as the school system was hanged into the Western style and the Western mathematics was adopted as the only mathematics to be taught at the Schools of various levels. Thus the 'Enlightenment Period' is the period in which Korean mathematics shifted from Chinese into European.

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.91-105
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• 1985

Though the tradition of Korean mathematics since the ancient time up to the "Enlightenment Period" in the late 19th century had been under the influence of the Chinese mathematics, it strove to develop its own independent of Chinese. However, the fact that it couldn't succeed to form the independent Korean mathematics in spite of many chances under the reign of Kings Sejong, Youngjo, and Joungjo was mainly due to the use of Chinese characters by Koreans. Han-gul (Korean characters) invented by King Sejong had not been used widely as it was called and despised Un-mun and Koreans still used Chinese characters as the only "true letters" (Jin-suh). The correlation between characters and culture was such that , if Koreans used Han-gul as their official letters, we may have different picture of Korean mathematics. It is quite interesting to note that the mathematics in the "Enlightenment Period" changed rather smoothly into the Western mathematics at the time when Han-gul was used officially with Chinese characters. In Koryo, the mathematics existed only as a part of the Confucian refinement, not as the object of sincere study. The mathematics in Koryo inherited that of the Unified Shilla without any remarkable development of its own, and the mathematicians were the Inner Officials isolated from the outside world who maintained their positions as specialists amid the turbulence of political changes. They formed a kind of Guild, their posts becoming patrimony. The mathematics in Koryo is significant in that they paved the way for that of Chosun through a few books of mathematics such as "Sanhak-Kyemong, "Yanghwi - Sanpup" and "Sangmyung-Sanpup." King Sejong was quite phenomenal in his policy of promotion of mathematics. King himself was deeply interested in the study, createing an atmosphere in which all the high ranking officials and scholars highly valued mathematics. The sudden development of mathematic culture was mainly due to the personality and capacity of King who took any one with the mathematic talent onto government service regardless of his birth and against the strong opposition of the conservative officials. However, King's view of mathematics never resulted in the true development of mathematics per se and he used it only as an official technique in the tradition way. Korean mathematics in King Sejong's reign was based upon both the natural philosophy in China and the unique geo-political reality of Korean peninsula. The reason why the mathematic culture failed to develop continually against those social background was that the mathematicians were not allowed to play the vital role in that culture, they being only the instrument for the personality or politics of the King. While the learned scholar class sometimes played the important role for the development of the mathematic culture, they often as not became an adamant barrier to it. As the society in Chosun needed the function of mathematics acutely, the mathematicians formed the settled class called Jung-in (Middle-Man). Jung-in was a unique class in Chosun and we can't find its equivalent in China of Japan. These Jung-in mathematician officials lacked tendency to publish their study, since their society was strictly exclusive and their knowledge was very limited. Though they were relatively low class, these mathematicians played very important role in Chosun society. In "Sil-Hak (the Practical Learning) period" which began in the late 16th century, especially in the reigns of King Youngjo and Jungjo, which was called the Renaissance of Chosun, the ambitious policy for the development of science and technology called for the rapid increase of the number of such technocrats as mathematicians inevitably became quite ambitious and proud. They tried to explore deeply into mathematics per se beyond the narrow limit of knowledge required for their office. Thus, in this period the mathematics developed rapidly, undergoing very important changes. The characteristic features of the mathematics in this period were: Jung-in mathematicians' active study an publication, the mathematic studies by the renowned scholars of Sil-Hak, joint works by these two classes, their approach to the Western mathematics and their effort to develop Korean mathematics. Toward the "Enlightenment Period" in the late 19th century, the Western mathematics experienced great difficulty to take its roots in the Peninsula which had been under the strong influence of Confucian ideology and traditional Korean mathematic system. However, with King Kojong's ordinance in 1895, the traditonal Korean mathematics influenced by Chinese disappeared from the history of Korean mathematics, as the school system was changed into the Western style and the Western matehmatics was adopted as the only mathematics to be taught at the schools of various levels. Thus the "Enlightenment Period" is the period in which Korean mathematics sifted from Chinese into European.od" is the period in which Korean mathematics sifted from Chinese into European.pean.

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.27-52
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• 2009

This article discusses the contributions of the leader Oswald Veblen, who was the president of AMS during 1923-1924. In 2006, Korea ranked 12th in SCIE publications in mathematics, more than doubling its publications in less than 10 years, a successful model for a country with relatively short history of modern mathematical research. Now there are 192 four-year universities in Korea. Some 42 of these universities have Ph.D. granting graduate programs in mathematics and/or mathematical education in Korea. Rapid growth is observed over a broad spectrum including a phenomenal performance surge in International Mathematical Olympiad. Western mathematics was first introduced in Korea in the 17th century, but real significant mathematical contributions by Korean mathematicians in modern mathematics were not much known yet to the world. Surprisingly there is no Korean mathematician who could be found in MaC Tutor History Birthplace Map. We are at the time, to have a clear vision and leadership for the 21st century. Even with the above achievement, Korean mathematical community has had obstacles in funding. Many people thinks that mathematical research can be done without funding rather unlike other science subjects, even though they agree fundamental mathematical research is very important. We found that the experience of early American mathematical community can help us to give a vision and role model for Korean mathematical community. When we read the AMS Notice article 'The Vision, Insight, and Influence of Oswald Veblen' by Steve Batterson, it answers many of our questions on the development of American mathematics in early 20th century. We would like to share the story and analyze its meaning for the development of Korean Mathematics of 21st century.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.91-104
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• 2023

The records system is believed to have started in Italy in the 14th century in line with trade developments in Europe. In 1491, Luca Pacioli, a mathematician, and an Italian Franciscan monk wrote the first book that described double-entry accounting processes. In many countries, including Korea, the government accounting standards used single-entry bookkeeping rather than double-entry bookkeeping that can be aggregated by account subject. The cash-based and single-entry bookkeeping used by the government in the past had limitations in providing clear information on financial status and establishing a performance-oriented financial management system. Accordingly, the National Accounting Act (promulgated in October 2007) stipulated the introduction of double-entry bookkeeping and accrual accounting systems in the government sector from January 1, 2009. Furthermore, the Korean government has also introduced International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), and the System of National Accounts (SNA). Since 2014, Korea owned five national accounts. In Korea, valuation began with the 1968 National Wealth Statistics Survey. The academic origins of the valuation of national wealth statistics which had been investigated by due diligence every 10 years since 1968 are based on the 'Engineering Valuation' of professor Marston in the Department of Industrial Engineering at Iowa State University in the 1930s. This field has spread to economics, etc. In economics, it became the basis of capital stock estimation for positive economics such as econometrics. The valuation by the National Wealth Statistics Survey contributed greatly to converting the book value of accounting data into vintage data. And in 2000 National Statistical Office collected actual disposal data for the 1-digit asset class and obtained the ASL(average service life) by Iowa curve. Then, with the data on fixed capital formation centered on the National B/S Team of the Bank of Korea, the national wealth statistics were prepared by the Permanent Inventory Method(PIM). The asset classification was also classified into 59 types, including 2 types of residential buildings, 4 types of non-residential buildings, 14 types of structures, 9 types of transportation equipment, 28 types of machinery, and 2 types of intangible fixed assets. Tables of useful lives of tangible fixed assets published by the Korea Appraisal Board in 1999 and 2013 were made by the Iowa curve method. In Korea, the Iowa curve method has been adopted as a method of ASL estimation. There are three types of the Iowa curve method. The retirement rate method of the three types is the best because it is based on the collection and compilation of the data of all properties in service during a period of recent years, both properties retired and that are still in service. We hope the retirement rate method instead of the individual unit method is used in the estimation of ASL. Recently Korean government's accounting system has been developed. When revenue expenditure and capital expenditure were mixed in the past single-entry bookkeeping we would like to suggest that BOK and National Statistical Office have accumulated knowledge of a rational difference between revenue expenditure and capital expenditure. In particular, it is important when it is estimated capital stock by PIM. Korea also needs an empirical study on economic depreciation like Hulten & Wykoff Catalog A of the US BEA.