Page 120 - Textos de Matemática Vol. 34

110 JAIME CARVALHO E SILVA
Mathematics Course - 1836
Year
Chair
First
1st
Geometry
Second
2nd
Algebra
Third
3rd
Solid Mechanics, Optics, Acoustics
Fourth
4th
Descriptive Geometry, Geodesy and Architecture
Fourth
5th
Practical Astronomy
Fifth
6th
Celestial Mechanics
Fifth
7th
Hydraulics
To graduate in Mathematics, students needed to have also two disciplines from the Natural Philosophy Faculty and a discipline about drawing (this chair belonged to the Mathematics Faculty but was considered an annex).
During the 19th century there were several changes to the content and structure of the mathematics course. In the middle of the century the course was the following (apart from the natural philosophy and drawing disciplines):
Mathematics Course - 1855
Year
Chair
First
1st
Arithmetic; Euclidian Geometry; Algebra
till the second degree equations; Plane Trigonometry
Second
2nd
Continuation of Algebra; Higher Algebra; Series - Elementary Principles of Differential and Integral Calculus
Third
3rd
Higher Calculus, Finite Differences; Descriptive Geometry
Third
4th
Rational Mechanics of Solids and Fluids; Optics
Fourth
5th
Practical Astronomy
Fourth
6th
Applied Mechanics, Geodesy
Fifth
7th
Celestial Mechanics
During the 19th century there are other changes that go in the sense of a big- ger space for the study of pure mathematics; one of the professors writes that it was intended that “theoretical transcendental studies” would have the maximum development. But the government was normally pushing for more applied courses, imposing namely the study of more disciplines from the Natural Philosophy Faculty.
In 1857 the Faculty of Mathematics obtained a new course on Descriptive Ge- ometry; at the same time the government decided that the more elementary topics should be studied in secondary school (it included most of the topics studied in the first year) and so the syllabus of most of the disciplines had to be completely modified, creating some space for a new discipline on Mathematical Physics.