Experiments

The following pages are part of a larger project that I hope to finish one day... Some pages are essentially complete, others are perennially under construction. I add to the pages as I find the time, so check back occasionally to see what has changed. Mail comments, suggestions, or questions to carother@bgnet.bgsu.edu.

Biographical references on these pages are linked to the History of Mathematics pages at the Mathematical MacTutor archive.

Be forewarned that some pages are heavy laden with (mostly very small) graphics, and that no page can be fully enjoyed without displaying its graphics.

  1. Infinite Sets
    An elementary discussion of infinite sets, including both countable and uncountable sets.

  2. The Cantor Set
    A famous and quite curious construction of an infinite set based on the nested interval theorem.

  3. The Babylonian Method for Computing Square Roots
    An ancient technique for computing square roots that has evolved into an effective computer algorithm for computing all manner of transcendental functions.

  4. A Common Book of Pi
    Closely related to the Babylonian algorithm is Archimedes' algorithm for computing Pi. I also discuss the pre-computer history of Pi and list several cool formulas for Pi. These pages won StudyWeb's Academic Excellence Award.

    StudyWebAward

If you prefer, you may also browse a plain vanilla table of contents (just a list of filenames at the moment -- I'll add descriptions one of these days!).

Neal Carothers - carother@bgnet.bgsu.edu