Victor J. Katz, Professor Emeritus of the University of the District of Columbia
Department of Mathematics, Computer Science, & Physics, Immaculata University
Friday, March 13, 2009, 4:30 am EDT
Immaculata University
Loyola Hall Rm. 116
Thursday, March 12, 2009
11:35 AM
Combinatorics in Islamic and Hebrew Sources
Although there is evidence of knowledge of the basic
combinatorial formulas from long before, the earliest attempts to
systematically derive them were accomplished by Islamic
mathematicians in North Africa and Jewish mathematicians in
southern Europe during the Middle Ages. We will consider the
reasons for interest in combinatorial questions and see how
these mathematicians worked out their basic ideas. We will then
consider the possibilities of transmission of these ideas to
European mathematicians of the Renaissance and later.