A Discuss the following questions in small groups

1. What counting systems do you know?

2. Analyse the advantages of the 12 system (used in UK and US) over the decimal system and vice versa.

3. What problems must the Romans have had with their system?

4. What are the specialized uses of Roman numerals today?

5. Could we manage just cardinal numbers, rather than having both cardinal and ordinal?

B. Prepare a short talk for your classmates. Choose the topic from the given: "Maya numerals", "Babylonian numerals", "Quipus".

36. A. Look at the portraits of famous mathematicians, name them and tell about their contribution to science.

a)		b)		c)
d)		e)		f)

B. You want to create an Internet site about the greatest mathematicians of all times. First, you need to write a list of the greatest mathematicians (not less than 15). Continue the list: Isaac Newton, Archimedes, Carl Gauss,........,.......,.........,

C. You are Pythagoras of Samos. Prove the Pythagorean theorem.

The Pythagorean theorem: The sum of the areas of the two squares on the legs (a and b) equals the area of the square on the hypotenuse (c).

D. In pairs ask and answer questions based on the text "Who Created the Quadratic Formula?" (Further Reading, UNIT 7).

37. You are a mathematician at Oxford University. It is your first lecture. The theme of your lecture is: "Introduction in Mathematics". Think about the points that you would like to cover at this lecture. You may also use the information from the text "Mathematics − the language of science".