The History of Algebra or "Why Is There A Camel On My Worksheet?"

Today I started my new job as a fourth grade teacher in a public school. I don't OFICIALLY start until Monday but I spent the day getting to know the kids, my co-workers, and the curriculum.

The schools in this district use Everyday Mathematics. ( The NEW Everyday Mathematics. The third edition is MUCH better than its predecessors.) So tonight students are bring home:

UNIT 3: FAMILY LETTER

Multiplication and Division: Number Sentences and Algebra

Now the only visuals on one sided worksheet are two multiplication/division "Fact Triangles" which you'd expect and a picture of a camel. So I asked one of the fourth graders, "Why the camel?" He gave me th typical proto-adolescent response of "IDUNNO...." So I read the caption next to the camel which reads:

Please keep this Family Letter for reference as your child works through Unit 3. OK. No Clues there. I ACTIVELY read the entire letter although I already have my own theory about the mysterious camel. Hidden in the middle of the letter is the brief but vague explanation:

"In Unit 3, the class will continue a World Tour.....Their First flight will take them to Cairo, Egypt."

I can't believe this! Are we so immersed in a culture of fear that we can't even recognize the contributions of the Arab world to modern civilization?? I just so happened to know the following:

TAKEN FROM "Highlights In The History of Algebra"
at http://www.ucs.louisiana.edu/~sxw8045/history.htm
is the following:






"Arabic Algebra

In the 7th and 8th centuries the Arabs, united by Mohammed, conquered the land from India, across northern Africa, to Spain. In the following centuries (through the 14th) they pursued the arts and sciences and were responsible for most of the scientific advances made in the west. Although the language was Arabic many of the scholars were Greeks, Christians, Persians, or Jews. Their most valuable contribution was the preservation of Greek learning through the middle ages, and it is through their translations that much of what we know today about the Greeks became available. In addition they made original contributions of their own.

They took over and improved the Hindu number symbols and the idea of positional notation. These numerals (the Hindu-Arabic system of numeration) and the algorithms for operating with them were transmitted to Europe around 1200 and are in use throughout the world today.

Like the Hindus, the Arabs worked freely with irrationals. However they took a backward step in rejecting negative numbers in spite of having learned of them from the Hindus.

In algebra the Arabs contributed first of all the name. The word "algebra" come from the title of a text book in the subject, Hisab al-jabr w'al muqabala, written about 830 by the astronomer/mathematician Mohammed ibn-Musa al-Khowarizmi. This title is sometimes translated as "Restoring and Simplification" or as "Transposition and Cancellation." Our word "algorithm" in a corruption of al-Khowarizmi's name.

The algebra of the Arabs was entirely rhetorical.

They could solve quadratic equations, recognizing two solutions, possibly irrational, but usually rejected negative solutions. The poet/mathematician Omar Khayyam (1050 - 1130) made significant contributions to the solution of cubic equations by geometric methods involving the intersection of conics.

Like Diophantus and the Hindus, the Arabs also worked with indeterminate equations."