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A collection of inter-connected topics in areas of mathematics which particularly interest the author, ranging over the two millennia from the work of Archimedes to the "Werke" of Gauss. The book is intended for those who love mathematics, including undergraduate students of mathematics, more experienced students and the vast unseen host of amateur mathematicians. It is equally a useful source of material for those who teach mathematics.
A comprehensive look at four of the most famous problems in mathematics Tales of Impossibility recounts the intriguing story of the renowned problems of antiquity, four of the most famous and studied questions in the history of mathematics. First posed by the ancient Greeks, these compass and straightedge problems—squaring the circle, trisecting an angle, doubling the cube, and inscribing regular polygons in a circle—have served as ever-present muses for mathematicians for more than two millennia. David Richeson follows the trail of these problems to show that ultimately their proofs—which demonstrated the impossibility of solving them using only a compass and straightedge—depended on and resulted in the growth of mathematics. Richeson investigates how celebrated luminaries, including Euclid, Archimedes, Viète, Descartes, Newton, and Gauss, labored to understand these problems and how many major mathematical discoveries were related to their explorations. Although the problems were based in geometry, their resolutions were not, and had to wait until the nineteenth century, when mathematicians had developed the theory of real and complex numbers, analytic geometry, algebra, and calculus. Pierre Wantzel, a little-known mathematician, and Ferdinand von Lindemann, through his work on pi, finally determined the problems were impossible to solve. Along the way, Richeson provides entertaining anecdotes connected to the problems, such as how the Indiana state legislature passed a bill setting an incorrect value for pi and how Leonardo da Vinci made elegant contributions in his own study of these problems. Taking readers from the classical period to the present, Tales of Impossibility chronicles how four unsolvable problems have captivated mathematical thinking for centuries.
Like preludes, prefaces are usually composed last. Putting them in the front of the book is a feeble reflection of what, in the style of mathe matics treatises and textbooks, I usually call thf didactical inversion: to be fit to print, the way to the result should be the inverse of the order in which it was found; in particular the key definitions, which were the finishing touch to the structure, are put at the front. For many years I have contrasted the didactical inversion with the thought-experiment. It is true that you should not communicate your mathematics to other people in the way it occurred to you, but rather as it could have occurred to you if you had known then what you know now, and as it would occur to the student if his learning process is being guided. This in fact is the gist of the lesson Socrates taught Meno's slave. The thought-experi ment tries to find out how a student could re-invent what he is expected to learn. I said about the preface that it is a feeble reflection of the didactical inversion. Indeed, it is not a constituent part of the book. It can even be torn out. Yet it is useful. Firstly, to the reviewer who then need not read the whole work, and secondly to the author himself, who like the composer gets an opportunity to review the Leitmotivs of the book.
The seventeen thought-provoking and engaging essays in this collection present readers with a wide range of diverse perspectives on the ontology of mathematics. The essays address such questions as: What kind of things are mathematical objects? What kinds of assertions do mathematical statements make? How do people think and speak about mathematics? How does society use mathematics? How have our answers to these questions changed over the last two millennia, and how might they change again in the future? The authors include mathematicians, philosophers, computer scientists, cognitive psychologists, sociologists, educators and mathematical historians; each brings their own expertise and insights to the discussion. Contributors to this volume: Jeremy Avigad Jody Azzouni David H. Bailey David Berlinski Jonathan M. Borwein Ernest Davis Philip J. Davis Donald Gillies Jeremy Gray Jesper Lützen Ursula Martin Kay O’Halloran Alison Pease Steven Piantadosi Lance Rips Micah T. Ross Nathalie Sinclair John Stillwell Hellen Verran
"Spherical trigonometry was at the heart of astronomy and ocean-going navigation for two millennia. The discipline was a mainstay of mathematics education for centuries, and it was a standard subject in high schools until the 1950s. Today, however, it is rarely taught. Heavenly Mathematics traces the rich history of this forgotten art, revealing how the cultures of classical Greece, medieval Islam, and the modern West used spherical trigonometry to chart the heavens and the Earth."--Jacket.
Delve into the development of modern mathematics and match wits with Euclid, Newton, Descartes, and others. Each chapter explores an individual type of challenge, with commentary and practice problems. Solutions.
Mathematics as a Cultural System discusses the relationship between mathematics and culture. The book is comprised of eight chapters discussing topics that support the concept of mathematics as a cultural system. Chapter I deals with the nature of culture and cultural systems, while Chapter 2 provides examples of cultural patterns observable in the evolution of mechanics. Chapter III treats historical episodes as a laboratory for the illustration of patterns and forces that have been operative in cultural change. Chapter IV covers hereditary stress, and Chapter V discusses consolidation as a force and process. Chapter VI talks about the singularities in the evolution of mechanics, while Chapter 7 deals with the laws governing the evolution of mathematics. Chapter VIII tackles the role and future of mathematics. The book will be of great interest to readers who are curious about how mathematics relates to culture.
Hey, Doc! Does Speling Count? is a humorous satire about the many failings of state universities in America. This book is for people who, like Professor Ward, enjoy laughing-those willing to poke fun at human behavior and traditional institutions. In particular, it is for those whose lives intersect American education. They wonder what's going on and why. "Hey, Doc!---" is for teachers, professors, education administrators, college graduates, business leaders, legislators, working professionals, serious college students, and self-sacrificing parents, whose monthly checks wind up paying for three-day weekend college football bashes. And, it is for Professor Ward's barber who wonders why his college-educated patrons have nothing more important on their minds than last weekend's football scores. As a university professor of thirty-one years, Dr. Ward has observed just about everything happening on campus-some of it is truly shocking. An idealistic reformer, he wanted to write a factual expose about university mismanagement. But, fearing massive retaliation "tell-all" authors attract, he shied away. Instead, he resorted to crafting his 5000 protest letters about university mismanagement with humor, satire, irony, and sarcasm. These letters became the genesis of this book. "Hey, Doc!---" provides a fresh look at the college scene, ridiculing students, professors, administrators, and union leaders, while lampooning much of what happens on the "State U." campus. When you are not laughing out loud with Professor Ward's special brand of humor, you will be shocked and dismayed to read his revelations of widespread university mismanagement. About the Author: A world expert in the biochemistry of GREEN FLUORESCENT PROTEIN, Dr. Ward has 120 professional publications to his credit and has taught hundreds of sections of college courses, freshman level to graduate level. His continuing professional education courses in biotechnology have attracted more than 1200 industrial scientists from all around the world. He has presented 50 platform talks at national and international meetings, addressing up to 500 attendees and he has run three international symposia on GFP. Dr. Ward has given keynote addresses to audiences in Cambridge, England, Pembrokshire, Wales, Asilomar, CA, Blacksburg, VA, and Greensboro NC. He has been filmed by ABC for a NYC news broadcast and has been interviewed on radio. Over the past 20 years, Dr. Ward has appeared as a tenor in a dozen community theater productions including four Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. Partnering with his multi-talented illustrator, Lori Baratta, he is working on four other satires, "Turn Right To Go Left," about New Jersey driving, "Snake Oil, Revisited," exposing over-the-counter quackery, "Why Do They Jog When They've Nothing That Jiggles," about the silly things people do, and "GW Bush, America's 44th Best President," a scathing expose of #43.
As discrete fields of inquiry, rhetoric and mathematics have long been considered antithetical to each other. That is, if mathematics explains or describes the phenomena it studies with certainty, persuasion is not needed. This volume calls into question the view that mathematics is free of rhetoric. Through nine studies of the intersections between these two disciplines, Arguing with Numbers shows that mathematics is in fact deeply rhetorical. Using rhetoric as a lens to analyze mathematically based arguments in public policy, political and economic theory, and even literature, the essays in this volume reveal how mathematics influences the values and beliefs with which we assess the world and make decisions and how our worldviews influence the kinds of mathematical instruments we construct and accept. In addition, contributors examine how concepts of rhetoric—such as analogy and visuality—have been employed in mathematical and scientific reasoning, including in the theorems of mathematical physicists and the geometrical diagramming of natural scientists. Challenging academic orthodoxy, these scholars reject a math-equals-truth reduction in favor of a more constructivist theory of mathematics as dynamic, evolving, and powerfully persuasive. By bringing these disparate lines of inquiry into conversation with one another, Arguing with Numbers provides inspiration to students, established scholars, and anyone inside or outside rhetorical studies who might be interested in exploring the intersections between the two disciplines. In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume are Catherine Chaput, Crystal Broch Colombini, Nathan Crick, Michael Dreher, Jeanne Fahnestock, Andrew C. Jones, Joseph Little, and Edward Schiappa.