The Historical Background of a Famous Indeterminate Problem and Some Teaching Perspectives

Abstract

The well-known from the History of Mathematics “hundred fowls problem” is the topic of this paper. Our main aim is to analyze the historical background of the problem and to present some ways of solving it, which have different characteristics, and each one represents a particular strategy. The interaction of Eastern and Western mathematics and the combination of different fields like Algebra and Technology in order to solve the problem has been highlighted. The study of the specific topic revealed some teaching perspectives, which we note at the end together with some concluding remarks. This paper might have implications in future research in the field of indeterminate analysis but also in Mathematics Education.