#1 – CRYPTOGRAPHY
- Julius Caesar and the so-called Caesar cipher
- World War II: The Enigma machine
- The cipher of Ernesto Ché Guevara and Fidel Castro
- RSA and public-key cryptography
- Quantum cryptography
#2 – THE TABLET PLIMPTON 322
- What is Plimpton 322?
- When was it made?
- When was it discovered?
- Who is Eleanor Robson?
- What is a Pythagorean triplet?
#3 – FERMAT’S LAST THEOREM
- xn + yn = zn
- 1637: Fermat and the margin of the book
- 1995: Andrew Wiles and the proof
- The Fields medal and Wiles
#4 – ZERO
- Probably the most important discovery in the mathematical history
- Indian mathematicians
#5 – NUMERICAL SYSTEMS
- Positional systems (place-value notation) vs non-positional systems
- Babylonian numerical system
- Hindu-Arabic numerical system
- Other civilizations: Egyptians, Chinese, Greeks, Romans, Mayas…
- Computers and binary digital systems: bits
#6 – PYTHAGORAS’ THEOREM
- a2 + b2 = c2
- Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans
- Hippasus of Metapontum and the discover of irrational numbers
- The theorem in other cultures: Babylonians, Indians, Chinese
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