Maria Gaetana Agnesi - Research Paper Example

Maria Gaetana Agnesi Maria Agnesi happens to be a female mathematician born inItaly on May 16th 1718 and passed away on 9th January 1799 at the same place of birth. Her father happens to be wealthy therefore; he acquires the best tutors in the land of Italy for Agnesi. She at the tender age of nine had the knowledge of different languages and later at the age of nine, she had a book that mainly focuses on defending Latin women to acquire higher education. She later had a book known as ‘Propositiones Philosophicae’ consisting of research on philosophy and natural sciences (Cupillari) The mathematic books of Agnesi contain deeper explanations and numerous examples.

The books contain various methods of tackling a problem and numerous examples of the same kind question. However, the language in use is simple for learners to understand the mathematical concepts easily and encourage love of mathematics in general. Most of the textbooks currently only have few examples and a formula to solve a problem in a particular topic. This serves as a great disadvantage to students as mathematics as a subject requires numerous examples as well as different ways of solving a question (Cupillari) Therefore, there are distinct features that distinguish textbooks written by Agnesi and other mathematical textbooks.

Some of the distinct features include thesimple language in use Agnesi had the knowledge of different languages and therefore, coming up with a simpler mathematical language was easy for her. She simplifies her books into easy language containing important details explaining the derivation of a particular mathematical formula and most importantly how to use the formula to solve a mathematical problem in the specific topic providing better option to other textbooks. numerous examples Textbooks of Agnesi contain many examples in each topic providing adequate self-assessment questions for the students.

The best textbooks should contain numerous examples on how to make use of a mathematical formula to solve a question. Students using Agnes i’s textbooks acquire higher grades due to the many examples in provision comparing to students using other textbooks.Alternative methods in the same topic Numerous alternative methods are in provision in Agnesi mathematics textbooks in comparison to other mathematics textbooks. It provides choices to students on which method to master depending on the understanding of the question and the knowledge of the concept to use.

This provides the opportunity of choosing a particular way of doing a question, which is rare in other textbooks (Baltimore) A cubic curve refers to an algebraic curve with the specific curve order 3. The form of shows a cubic function a cubic function is clearly shown by a polynomial function of degree 3. If f(x)=0 a cubic equation is in production of the form where x3 is x is in the power of 3 X2 is x in the power of 2 The coefficients a,b,c and d represent real numbers, in addittion, when solving the cubic functyion, it mainly refers to finding the specific value of x assuming that f(x)=0.

In the cubic function there is the critical points which refers to the particular values of x when the gradient of the cubic functtion is zero. The values are derived if derivative of the cubic function is equal to zero which results to an equation that utilises the quadratic formula to obtain the values of x. there are specific points in the cubic curve that is the points on inflection, local maximum and local minimum (Web) ‘During 1798, Agnesi publishes her known summation treatise providing the curve according to Grandi.

As a result, the contemporary word in Italian Aversiera having its derivation from Latin Adversarius which happens to be a nickname to the devil was similar to the Witch. This makes the proffesor of cambridge to wrongly provide a different meaning to the curve. Presently, the work of Agnesi and the curve provide different suggestions to the of the different meanings to the curve by the Cambridge proffesor (Mazzotti) Work cited"Cubic Curve." -- from Wolfram MathWorld. Web.Mazzotti, Massimo.

The World of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Mathematician of God. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins UP, 2007. Print.Cupillari, Antonella. A Biography of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, an Eighteenth-century Woman Mathematician: With Translations of Some of Her Work from Italian into English. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen, 2007. Print.