iCHSTM 2013 Programme • Version 5.3.6, 27 July 2013 • ONLINE (includes late changes)
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Mathematical narratives of history in popular mathematics books: the case of non-Euclidean geometry
Cheng Yi-Chin | Department of Mathematics, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan

Besides mathematics textbooks, popular mathematics books are another type of media for people to gain mathematical knowledge. In contrast with mathematical textbooks in Taiwan, authors of popular mathematics books can adapt the knowledge of mathematics with more flexibility, including introductions of stories in the history of mathematics. The history of Euclidean and Non-Euclidean Geometries contains some of the most interesting episodes in the history of science, from Euclid’s composition of the structure of the Elements around 300BC, to the trials and errors in demonstrating the fifth postulate in the following centuries, and to the eventual birth of the new systems in the 1800s. Because of the importance and theatricality of Non-Euclidean Geometry in the history of the development of mathematical ideas, many authors have delved into this topic. In view of the phenomenon, this paper discusses some of the best-selling popular mathematics publications of different genres, all of which are translated into Chinese, including Leonard Mlodinow’s Eulcid’s Window: The story of Geometry from Parallel Lines to Hyperspace, Robert Osserman’s Poetry of The Universe, Gaurav Suri and Hartosh Singh Bal’s A Certain Ambiguity: A Mathematical Novel, Okabe Tsuneharu’s Manga Kika Nyuumon, and Philip Martin’s Einstein and Eddington.The first two titles are categorized as general popular mathematical books, the third one as a mathematical fiction, the fourth as a mathematical comics and the last as a film. By adopting literary methods, this presentation will explore how the authors narrate the story of non-Euclidean geometry and what messages they want to convey. Their narrative styles and fruitful contents in the history of science and mathematics are the reason why they get wide circularity.