There are 61 NRICH Mathematical resources connected to History, you may find related items under Cross-curricular contexts.
Broad Topics > Cross-curricular contexts > History
Infinity is not a number, and trying to treat it as one tends to be a pretty bad idea. At best you're likely to come away with a headache, at worse the firm belief that 1 = 0. This article discusses the different types of infinity.
In Classical times the Pythagorean philosophers believed that all things were made up from a specific number of tiny indivisible particles called ‘monads’. Each object contained a different number of particles, and so they believed that ‘everything was number’.
In the time before the mathematical idea of randomness was discovered, people thought that everything that happened was part of the will of supernatural beings. So have things changed?
Noticing the regular movement of the Sun and the stars has led to a desire to measure time. This article for teachers and learners looks at the history of humanity's need to measure things.
Can you decode the mysterious markings on this ancient bone tool?
Can you make a hypothesis to explain these ancient numbers?
If you think that mathematical proof is really clearcut and universal then you should read this article.
This article -useful for teachers and learners - gives a short account of the history of negative numbers.
What was it like to learn maths at school in the Victorian period? We visited the British Schools Museum in Hitchin to find out.
Hilbert's Hotel has an infinite number of rooms, and yet, even when it's full, it can still fit more people in!
Most stories about the history of maths seem to be about men. Here are some famous women who contributed to the development of modern maths and prepared the way for generations of female mathematicians.
The second in a series of articles on visualising and modelling shapes in the history of astronomy.
This article explores ths history of theories about the shape of our planet. It is the first in a series of articles looking at the significance of geometric shapes in the history of astronomy.
Take a line segment of length 1. Remove the middle third. Remove the middle thirds of what you have left. Repeat infinitely many times, and you have the Cantor Set. Can you find its length?
Take a line segment of length 1. Remove the middle third. Remove the middle thirds of what you have left. Repeat infinitely many times, and you have the Cantor Set. Can you picture it?
Pythagoras of Samos was a Greek philosopher who lived from about 580 BC to about 500 BC. Find out about the important developments he made in mathematics, astronomy, and the theory of music.
This article for pupils and teachers looks at a number that even the great mathematician, Pythagoras, found terrifying.
If you would like a new CD you would probably go into a shop and buy one using coins or notes. (You might need to do a bit of saving first!) However, this way of paying for the things you want did not always exist. Find out more ...
Have you ever wondered how maps are made? Or perhaps who first thought of the idea of designing maps? We're here to answer these questions for you.
Read this article to find out about the discoveries and inventions of Archimedes.
Have you ever noticed how mathematical ideas are often used in patterns that we see all around us? This article describes the life of Escher who was a passionate believer that maths and art can be intertwined.
This article describes the scope for practical exploration of tessellations both in and out of the classroom. It seems a golden opportunity to link art with maths, allowing the creative side of your children to take over.
Read all about Pythagoras' mathematical discoveries in this article written for students.
This article looks at the importance in mathematics of representing places and spaces mathematics. Many famous mathematicians have spent time working on problems that involve moving and mapping things.
This article, written for students, looks at how some measuring units and devices were developed.
Astronomy grew out of problems that the early civilisations had. They needed to solve problems relating to time and distance - both mathematical topics.
Leonardo who?! Well, Leonardo is better known as Fibonacci and this article will tell you some of fascinating things about his famous sequence.
This article for pupils gives some examples of how circles have featured in people's lives for centuries.
Who first used fractions? Were they always written in the same way? How did fractions reach us here? These are the sorts of questions which this article will answer for you.
Read about David Hilbert who proved that any polygon could be cut up into a certain number of pieces that could be put back together to form any other polygon of equal area.
Calendars were one of the earliest calculating devices developed by civilizations. Find out about the Mayan calendar in this article.
Read all about the number pi and the mathematicians who have tried to find out its value as accurately as possible.
Mathematics has always been a powerful tool for studying, measuring and calculating the movements of the planets, and this article gives several examples.
What would you do if your teacher asked you add all the numbers from 1 to 100? Find out how Carl Gauss responded when he was asked to do just that.
Find out about Magic Squares in this article written for students. Why are they magic?!
What could these drawings, found in a cave in Spain, represent?
Second of two articles about Fibonacci, written for students.
As I was going to St Ives, I met a man with seven wives. Every wife had seven sacks, every sack had seven cats, every cat had seven kittens. Kittens, cats, sacks and wives, how many were going to St Ives?
This article for teachers recounts the history of measurement, encouraging it to be used as a spring board for cross-curricular activity.
This article tells you all about some early ways of measuring as well as methods of measuring tall objects we can still use today. You can even have a go at some yourself!
This short article gives an outline of the origins of Morse code and its inventor and how the frequency of letters is reflected in the code they were given.
When you think of spies and secret agents, you probably wouldn’t think of mathematics. Some of the most famous code breakers in history have been mathematicians.
When in 1821 Charles Babbage invented the `Difference Engine' it was intended to take over the work of making mathematical tables by the techniques described in this article.
An article which gives an account of some properties of magic squares.
