Mathematical Museum
 

Mathematics teaching and learning Before computer times began, before electronic devices allowed us to solve enormous calculations effortlesly, before... only fifty years ago! how these calculations were possible? How people obtained accurate graphs of complicated functions? How...? During centuries a lot of mechanical artifacts, true mathematical engines, fulfilled these requirements. All of them contain a large quantity of mathematical ingenuity and, although nowadays obsolete, they still can be very useful for the Mathematics teaching and learning. Some of these devices, although appearing too much complex, have their basis over simple triangle similarities...
We ask:	Is it possible to create lesson plans having some of these devices as its basis?
About what could we think?	Slide rules, pantagraphs, planimeters, pascalines, ...
What about tools?	Cabri Géomètre, The Geometer Sketchpad, Applets...
How could we do it?	The following pages are a proposal of a lesson plan about one of these artifacts: the 'Constructeur Universel d'Equations', already described in the famous Encyclopédie from Diderot and D'Alembert.
Where are materials about all this stuff?	A nice website about slide rules is here. Its use is described here. But the main reference is 'Theatrum Machinarum', a creation of various italian universities.