Stories of Mathematics. Maths in their historical context. (Site of Prof)

Last updated on 12 February 2025

What stories are behind the numbers? Stories of Mathematics is a teacher’s site that has been interested in contextualising the history of mathematics through past characters and periods. A titanic work freely offered to all in an open blog that will interest teachers, from college to university, from their students to the curious.

Histoires de Mathématiques is produced by Bernard Ycart, professor at the Université Grenoble-Alpes. He is indebted for a formidable resource that associates and puts people at the centre of all concepts in science and mathematics.

Listen to the stories of Mathematics

The site is entered via a page that brings together all the stories by theme. We will soon discover that behind each story is a 20-minute audio sequence or story. A kind of podcast to listen to in order to travel through the history of Mathematics. The author has a real storytelling talent and has found the right tone to take us into the past of numbers. The recordings are a real success. Each of them is accompanied by a sheet with the text and all the links needed to have a broader vision. That's great.

The stories have been divided into nine domains: Arithmetic, Geometry, Algebra, Analysis, Astronomy, Statistics, Computer Science, Logic, Savants. The stories, their characters and the ancient texts associated with them are then accessible from tabs.

Stories, characters, texts, three entries in the great history of Mathematics

Bernard Ycart offers a site with a sober graphic line and simple, but particularly effective ergonomics. We navigate from his stories told then through tabs that offer three possible entries: stories, characters and texts. Also available is a full search bar. The site still offers a tab where you will find all the programmes, from cycle 2 to the end and a final entry offering games for all with nine different types of activities. Here, as elsewhere on the site, it is not a question of assessing knowledge, but of making people want to go further in their discovery.

A site to discover. A real crush.

Mathematics is more interesting when it is alive, connected to the day-to-day lives of those who created it, placed back in the society from which it comes.  Bernard Ycart 's

This teacher makes a great demonstration with this site Stories of Mathematics.