• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.153-168
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• 2008

This study investigates how high achievers solve a given mathematical problem. The problem, which comes from 'SanHakIbMun', a Korean mathematics book from eighteenth century, is not used in regular courses of study. It requires students to determine the area of a gnomon given four dimensions(4,14,4,22). The subjects are 84 sixth grade elementary school students who, at the recommendation of his/her school principal, participated in the mathematics competition held by J university. The methods used by these students can be classified into two approaches: numerical and decomposing-reconstructing, which are subdivided into three and six methods respectively. Of special note are a method which assumes algebraic feature, and some methods which appear in the history of eastern mathematics. Based on the result, we may observe a great variance in methods used, despite the fact that nearly half of the subject group used the numerical approach.