A History of Mathematics Blog by Tim

Gematria - EDCP 442, Assignment 3, Ben and Tim The topic we chose for our Assignment 3 inquiry and art project was a traditional Jewish numerology called Gematria . It was, and still is, used by certain Jewish rabbis to exegete their scriptures. It is not found in every Jewish tradition but is most closely associated with a particular mystical branch of Judaism called Kabbalah . This hermeneutical technique begins with assigning each letter in the alphabet with a number. In the diversity of the Jewish tradition, this is done in many different ways however we focused on one of the more common methods knowns as מספר הכרחי ( Mispar Hekhreḥi , normative value or essential number). In this method, the numbers start at one, increase by one each time until 10, then increase by 10 each time until 100, and then increase by 100 each time until the final letter. This is shown in the chart below. The number of a word or phrase is determined by simply adding all the numbers of each letter together...

  This was article provided a fascinating look at the way the Marshallese people navigated their waters. For me, the most interesting part of the article was the way the Marshallese people developed oceanic models that could be generalized across all the islands they were familiar with. The paper notes that in an exchange, one of the Marshall Islanders maintained that, "the chart was not where [a particular island] lay, but where land was. They stoutly maintained that it could be some island in another part of the world, one they had never seen" (p. 352). This deep understanding of the nature of wave movement around land is a clear example of the complex mathematical thinking that took place even if it doesn't look similar to the form of mathematics that we are familiar with in the Western world.  I think embodied math is not just significant in the history of mathematics, but arguable essential. This paper gives an example of a group of people using a mathematical style ...

    (Sorry, this was originally posted to Duncan's blog page by accident!) Ben and I are planning to work together on creating some sort of representation around the Jewish mystical mathematical ideas around  gematria . We are initially thinking of using English gematria to investigate our BC School Act, or another important piece of policy that relates to education. This would be printed out along with the number relating to each word and links between ideas shown visually as well as noted throughout. Sources: Clawson, C. C., (1996).  Mathematical mysteries: The beauty and magic of numbers . Springer Science+Business Media Gematria  (2013). (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. Derovan, D., Scholem, G., Idel, M. (2018, June 11).  Gematria . Encyclopaedia Judaica. https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/gematria Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2013, October 18).  gematria . Encyclopedia Britannica. ...