Volume VII. Number 2. October 2017

This number of “Mathematical Thinking” Journal, presents some articles about different aspects related to Mathematics, not only from a formal o theorical point view but Maths applied to different areas such as engineering or physics.

Title: Créditos editoriales, Índice de artículos y Editorial del Número 2 (Vol. VII)
Author: Equipo Editorial
Investigation The four legs on which port sustainability is based make it very difficult to find a methodology that makes its practical application easy. For this reason, by knowing variables associated with port sustainability we have obtained the relationship between them through the construction of a Bayesian network. Utility theory linked to Bayesian networks provides a framework for decision making by means of influence diagrams or decision networks, which have been used in the present work to know the positive and negative influences that occur between these variables.
Title: Evaluación gráfica de la sostenibilidad portuaria: redes de decicisión
Authors: Beatriz Molina Serrano, Nicoleta González-Cancelas, Francisco Soler-Flores, Alberto Camarero Orive y Alfonso Camarero Orive

In this paper we search for solutions in Gaussian integers to some known Diophantine equations.
Title: Ecuaciones diofánticas en enteros gaussianos
Authors: Javier Rodrigo Hitos y Mariló López González
Teaching Experiences This research is the result of observing the situation detected in Math courses delivered at the Facultad de Ingeniería y Tecnologías (FIT) at Universidad Católica del Uruguay (UCU). Based on the experience of students that have showed repeated academic failure, it has been observed that repeating courses until students pass them does not provide students with the opportunity of overcoming their difficulties. Among these difficulties we find: lack of skill development to implement algorithms or routine calculations, limited strategies to find a solution for exercises, lack of metacognitive resources to address non-routine tasks. This situation has generated a repeating student population that accumulates a significant delay in the development of their programmes. To address this situation, some measures have been taken: from curriculum organization to teaching strategies in the classroom and in personalised tutorials. Some of these measures are presented as well as the impact that can be observed based on the first observations since their implementation.
Title: Buscando Medidas de Apoyo para Superar el Fracaso Académico
Authors: Victoria Artigue, José Job Flores Godoy, Eduardo Lacués y Clara Messano

In this article we carry out a didactic proposal with the students of the Master which name is “Teacher training in E.S.O and Bachillerato” at Complutense University in Madrid, in the Maths speciality. This proposal consists in the Scratch programming of Euclides Algorithm for the Greatest Common Divisor. This methodology which mixes Maths and programming, let the students work with the main elements of Advanced Mathematical Thinking such as abstraction, formalization and generalization.
Title: Pensamiento Matemático Avanzado y Scratch: El Caso del Máximo Común Divisor
Authors: Miguel Ángel Baeza Alba, Francisco Javier Claros Mellado, Mª Teresa Sánchez Compaña y Mónica Arnal Palacián
Mathematical Stories In this paper we study the infinitesimal methods to calculate tangents developed by Fermat and Barrow in the XVII century. Several examples to ilustrate the methods are given. Moreover, we show the Fermat´s method to obtain maxima and minima. Discussions about the theoretical basis of the methods, given by some authors, are commentated.
Title: Los métodos infinitesimales para el cálculo de tangentes
Author: José María Ayerbe Toledano

In the XIVth century ther was a great interest about the study of the motion, mainly in Oxford and Paris. We analyze the works of Thomas Bradwardine in Oxford and Nicole Oresme in Paris, who published two essential books on these questions using the theory of ratios. Furthermore Bradwardine formulated a Law of Motion that had a great successand was used until the XVIth century.
Title: Matemáticas y Movimiento en el Siglo XIV
Author: Juan Tarrés Freixenet
Games and Mathematical Oddities As an alternative to the usual proofs, such as Cantor diagonal method, for proving the uncountability of the real line, we present here an approach involving two children playing a simple game.
Title: La no numerabilidad es un juego de niños
Author: Dionisio Pérez Esteban
Mathematical Tales This issue continues with the publication of the awarded tales in the First Mathematical Short Tales Contest “π-ensa” organized by the Mathematics Museum Workshop Classroom “π-ensa” during the 2015-2016 course. This tale has been awarded an honourable mention in the secondary student category. All the information of the contest is available on the website of the Classroom: http://innovacioneducativa.upm.es/museomatematicas.
Title: El legado absoluto
Author: Laura Lozano Conde
Critics and Reviews This paper presents a report about the movie “Hidden figures”, directed by Theodore Melfi on 2016. The film relates the true story of three Afro-American women that worked in a project whose aim was to perform the first complete spatial orbit around the Earth planet. The leader of the project was an astronaut named John Glenn but the calculations of the women were the key of the success of the mission.
Title: Informe sobre la película “Figuras ocultas”
Author: Belén García Jiménez
Interview Francesco Mugelli is a mathematician at the University of Florence, expert in the Mathematical Olympiads. His interest in problems and challenges of elementary Mathematics is coming from childhood and must be sought in the books that were kept in the cellar of his house. Here he will show us some fun secrets of his work in the youth world of the Mathematical Olympiads, and their functioning in Italy.
Title: Francesco Mugelli y las Olimpiadas Matemáticas
Author: Rosa María Herrera

 

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