math_def

Mathematics

The following definition is compliments of Dr. David Moursund.
I would like to refer you to his website http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~moursund/Math/ where you will find a wealth of information involving some of the latest research in Improving Mathematics Education.

What is Mathematics?
Mathematics is an old, broad, and deep discipline (field of study). People working to improve math education need to understand "What is Mathematics?"

Einstein would find it difficult to compete with the following credentials:

Dr. David Moursund received his doctorate in mathematics (specializing in numerical analysis) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in January 1963. He has been teaching and writing in the field of information technology in education since then. He was an Assistant Professor and then an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and in the Computing Center (Engineering) at Michigan State University, 1963-1967. He was an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and the Computing Center at the University of Oregon, 1967-1969. He was the first chairman of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oregon from 1969 to 1975. He is now a full professor in the College of Education at the University of Oregon.

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Word Orgin:
mathematics Etymologically, mathematics means 'something.' Its ultimate source was the greek verb manthanein 'learn,' which came from the same Indo-european base (*men-, *mon-, *mn- 'think') as produced English memory and mind. Its stem form math-served as a basis of a noun mathema 'science,' whose derived adjective mathematikos passed via Latin mathematicus and Old French mathematique into English as mathematic, now superseded by the contemporary mathematical. Mathematics probable comes from French les mathematiques, a rendering of the Latin plural noun mathematica. From earliest times the notion of 'science' was bound u[ with that of 'numerical reasoning,' and when mathematics reached English it was still being used for various scientific disciplines that involved geometrical calculation, such as astronomy and physics, but gradually over the centuries it has been narrowed down to a cover tern for the abstract numerical sciences such as arithmetic, algebra, and geometry.
The abbreviated form maths dates from the early 20th century, the preferred American form mathe from the late 19th century.
The original meaning of the word's Greek ancestor is preserved in English polymatth 'person of wide learning.'

Ayto, J. (1990). Arcade Dictionary of Word Origins. New York: Arcade Publishing

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