The necklace
Personatges:
Tema: Equations
Competències
Competència en Comunicació Lingüística
Competència Matemàtica, en ciència, tecnologia i enginyeria
Competència personal, social i aprendre a aprendre
Competència en consciència i expressions culturals
Matèries i cursos per Sistema Educatiu
Espanya > Matemàtiques > 3r ESO > Sentit algebraic
Espanya > Matemàtiques > 3r ESO > Sentit socioafectiu
Enunciat
Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia, a 17th-century Venetian philosopher and mathematician, was the first woman to obtain a PhD. At this time, Italian society was passionate about debates on philosophy and mathematics, considered inseparable branches of knowledge. Mathematical logic problems are a clear example.
Use logic and numerical computation to solve the following problem.
A necklace broke
while two lovers played.
A row of pearls escaped:
the sixth part fell to the ground,
the fifth part remained in the bed,
the young woman saved the third part,
her beloved picked up the tenth part,
and the cord remained with six pearls.
Tell me, reader, how many pearls did
the necklace of the blessed have?
- Solve the problem using your knowledge of equations.
- You can also use logic and numerical calculation to solve it.
Observacions i context
- Although priority has been given to solving the problem using equations, we include another possible solution without the use of equations, using numerical calculation and logic.
- Elena Cornaro Piscopia was an esteemed member of various academies throughout Europe and received visits from scholars from all over the world. She liked to debate and lecture on theology and compose music. Even today, she is widely cited by scholars and writers.
- Although she mastered almost all branches of knowledge, at the University of Padua she taught mathematics to students from all over Europe.
- In her time, Italy was more advanced than the rest of Europe and there were already women studying science and mathematics at the University, but access to a doctorate was still forbidden to them. When she was not allowed to study for a doctorate in Theology, since she ran into the intransigence of the Church that could not conceive of a woman teaching monks, she decided to prepare for a doctorate in Philosophy.
- Predecessors of Piscopia are Theano of Crotone (c.546 – c.450 BC) and Hypatia of Alexandria (c. 370 - c. 416 AD), who were also mathematicians and philosophers; Sophia Brahe (1555-1643), astronomer, horticulturist, alchemist and genealogist.
- Her contemporaries were renowned astronomers, such as Elisabeth Hevelius (1647-1693); Jeanne Dumée (1660-1706); Margaret Flamsteed (1670-1730); Maria Margarethe Winckelmann Kirch (1670-1720) or Maria Clara Eimmart (1776-1707); and important scientists, such as Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717), naturalist, entomologist and scientific illustrator; and the mathematician Marie Crous.
Descripció
Solving a problem using first degree equations. Through a comprehensive reading of the statement, it is necessary to identify the keywords of the statement and transform them into mathematical language; organize the information, select the appropriate notation, activate previous knowledge, and find the strategy for solving the problem.
It is important to check the result.