____________________________
Jo Sanders
Washington Research Institute
150 Nickerson Street, Suite 305
Seattle, WA 98109
Phone (206) 285-9317
Fax (206) 285-1523
E-mail <jsanders@halcyon.com>
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 19 Nov 1997 16:16:46 -0600
From: David Barnes <cidb@showme.missouri.edu>
Reply-To: eqteam97@wfu.edu
To: eqteam97@wfu.edu
Subject: Re: "witch of Agnesi" (fwd)
The Jim Wilson at the University of Georgia offers (offered?) a course
named Using Computers in Mathematics Instruction. Two students, Daphne
Golden and Melissa Hanzsek-Brill, did a paper on the Witch of Agnesi.
They offer the following historical background.
"Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1719-1799) of Milan was a gifted scholar and
linguist who was first published at the age of nine with a Latin essay
defending higher education for women. She was a well-published scientist by
the age of 20 and was made an honorary member of the faculty at the
University of Bologna with the consent of the pope at the age of thirty.
She later retired to devote herself to her religious work. Her two volume
textbook was the first comprehensive textbook on the calculus after
L'Hopital's earlier book. She is most famous for her curve Agnesi called
versiera, or turning curve. We know this curve by the name the "witch of
Agnesi" because a British mathematician, John Colson, translated the word
versiera incorrectly."
The Daphne and Mellisa's complete paper, including GSP files that let see
how it is constructed and investigate the curve, are available via Jim's
site at
http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu/Texts.Folder/Agnesi/witch.html
Dave
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Mathematics Education FAX: (573) 882-4481
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Website: http://www.coe.missouri.edu/~cibarnes
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