20世纪初美国数学教科书中的几何应用——以建筑为例

Mathematical Application in Early American Geometry Textbooks——The Case of Architecture

20世纪初，在数学教科书中反映数学的应用价值，是当时数学课程改革的途径之一．就“建筑中的数学”这一主题而言，以杜雷尔、贝兹、史密斯、帕尔默为代表的美国早期数学教育家们筚路蓝缕、精心搜求，根据不同建筑物、建筑元素和装饰性图案，编制出丰富多彩的作图问题、证明问题和计算问题，揭示几何学与现实世界的密切联系，凸显几何学的广泛应用和巨大价值，展现几何学的迷人魅力，从而大大丰富了中学几何课程的内涵，为中学几何教学注入了鲜活的生命力．这些早期教科书提供了丰富的教学素材和思想养料．

Early in the 20th century, it was a way of reforming the mathematics curricula to reflect mathematical application in textbooks. The materials about architecture were mostly used in some mathematics textbooks, such as those compiled by F. Durell, W. Betz, H. E. Webb, G. A. Wentworth, D. E. Smith, J. C. Brown, C. I. Palmer and D. E Talyor. These early mathematics educators took pains in searching the materials from various buildings, architectural elements and ornamental designs and posed various interesting problems of construction, demonstration and calculation, which exposed the intimate connection between geometry and the real world, highlight the extensive application and great value of geometry and show the charming fascination of this subject. The mathematical application greatly enriched the geometry curriculum and instilled life into geometry teaching. The early mathematics textbooks in question supply us with abundant teaching materials and ideas.