> At a lower level, ie high school, how wrong is it to use historically
> inaccurate stories? E.T. Bell's Galois story may not be 100% true, but
> what is the harm if they help a student to become interested in the
> subject?
>
What I do is tell the stories to the students which are pre-college.
However, I also point out that our information about mathematics history is
always evolving and growing. Research has helped us to see that some "cute"
stories which may have been around for centuries are only cute stories. As
an example, in the USA, is has long been believed and written in history
books that the everyone at the time of Columbus believed the earth was flat.
Not so, we know. The story was originated by a US writer in the last century
and took hold. The notion is so ingrained that non-historians believe the
real truth is a fabrication. (I tell my students this too.)
History needs to be accurate. However, in my opinion, it doesn't hurt to say
there is a traditional story, long repeated, about Archimedes, for example,
which may have happened or something like the story happened. Such stories
which are part of tradition do make mathematicians interesting. But students
sometimes need to have a caveat.
Karen Dee Michalowicz