Center for Technology and Teacher Education: Mathematics Activities

Exploring the Witch of Agnesi

Resources

There are multiple sites that provide a detailed biography of Maria Gaetana Agnesi. Explore some of the ones listed below:

"Biographies of Women Mathematicians" web site from Agnes Scott College
http://www.AgnesScott.edu/lriddle/women/agnesi.htm

"The Witch of Agnesi Java Sketchpad" web site allows students to manipulate a Geometer’s Sketchpad sketch on the web to produce the function. The site also has a brief history and description of the function.
http://www.keypress.com/sketchpad/java_gsp/witch.html
"4000 Years of Women in Science" web site has an animated GIF that illustrates the Witch of Agnesi function.
http://www.astr.ua.edu/4000WS/witch-of-agnesi.html
"Famous Curves Index" at St. Andrew’s Web site can be JAVA enabled to allow students to manipulate a sketch of the function on the web. The site also has a brief history and description of the function.
http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Curves/Witch.html
Perl, T. (1978). Math equals: Biographies of women mathematicians + Related activities. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Back to Project Activities | Back to Math Homepage

Send questions or comments here.
Last modified on August 13, 2001.