A History of Mathematics: From Mesopotamia to ModernityA History of Mathematics: From Mesopotamia to Modernity covers the evolution of mathematics through time and across the major Eastern and Western civilizations. It begins in Babylon, then describes the trials and tribulations of the Greek mathematicians. The important, and often neglected, influence of both Chinese and Islamic mathematics is covered in detail, placing the description of early Western mathematics in a global context. The book concludes with modern mathematics, covering recent developments such as the advent of the computer, chaos theory, topology, mathematical physics, and the solution of Fermat's Last Theorem. Containing more than 100 illustrations and figures, this text, aimed at advanced undergraduates and postgraduates, addresses the methods and challenges associated with studying the history of mathematics. The reader is introduced to the leading figures in the history of mathematics (including Archimedes, Ptolemy, Qin Jiushao, al-Kashi, al-Khwarizmi, Galileo, Newton, Leibniz, Helmholtz, Hilbert, Alan Turing, and Andrew Wiles) and their fields. An extensive bibliography with cross-references to key texts will provide invaluable resource to students and exercises (with solutions) will stretch the more advanced reader. |
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Page xii
... method of finding the qibla Chapter 6. Understanding the ' scientific revolution ' 131 133 1. Arithmetic book from Holbein's The Ambassadors 142 2. Graph of a cubic curve 151 3. Kepler's diagram from Astronomia Nova 153 4. Descartes ...
... method of finding the qibla Chapter 6. Understanding the ' scientific revolution ' 131 133 1. Arithmetic book from Holbein's The Ambassadors 142 2. Graph of a cubic curve 151 3. Kepler's diagram from Astronomia Nova 153 4. Descartes ...
Page 1
... method of teaching science , I can only tell you about an experiment I made this year with my class . My pupils , like most other pupils , regarded the various sciences as compilations of cut - and - dried knowledge , arranged Introduction.
... method of teaching science , I can only tell you about an experiment I made this year with my class . My pupils , like most other pupils , regarded the various sciences as compilations of cut - and - dried knowledge , arranged Introduction.
Page 2
... methods by which they were created ... I explained to them that the sciences were not ready - made knowledge set forth in textbooks for the use of the ignorant , but knowledge acquired in the course of the ages by men who employed methods ...
... methods by which they were created ... I explained to them that the sciences were not ready - made knowledge set forth in textbooks for the use of the ignorant , but knowledge acquired in the course of the ages by men who employed methods ...
Page 6
... methods are allowed , and solutions are found ; 2. an ' interpreted ' Greek tradition in which the question is framed as a ruler - and - compass problem , and there is a fruitless search for a solution in these restricted terms ; 3. an ...
... methods are allowed , and solutions are found ; 2. an ' interpreted ' Greek tradition in which the question is framed as a ruler - and - compass problem , and there is a fruitless search for a solution in these restricted terms ; 3. an ...
Page 19
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Contents
1 | |
14 | |
Greeks and origins | 33 |
Greeks practical and theoretical | 57 |
Chinese mathematics | 78 |
Islam neglect and discovery | 101 |
Understanding the scientific revolution | 133 |
The calculus | 161 |
Geometries and space | 189 |
Modernity and its anxieties | 213 |
A chaotic end? | 235 |
Conclusion | 260 |
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al-Kashi al-Khwarizmi al-Samaw'al al-Uqlidisi algebra ancient answer Appendix Arabic Archimedes argument axioms Babylonian Babylonian mathematics calculation called century Chinese mathematics circle classical consider construction counting rods cube curve decimal defined Descartes diagram discovery equal equation Euclid Euclidean Euclidean geometry example Exercise fact Fauvel and Gray follows formula fractions give given Greek mathematics Hilbert historians history of mathematics idea important infinitely small Islamic mathematics language later Leibniz machine mathematicians means method modern multiply Newton Nine Chapters non-Euclidean geometry notation particular period postulate practical problem proof proposition Ptolemy Qin Jiushao quadratic question radius ratio reader real numbers rectangle Reidemeister moves result revolution right angles rules scientific seems sexagesimals side solution solve square root straight line subtract suppose tangent textbook texts theorem theory tradition translation triangle writing مال مرتبة
Popular passages
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Page 36 - twas the 47 El. libri I. He read the Proposition. By G — , sayd he (he would now and then sweare an emphaticall Oath by way of emphasis) this is impossible! So he reads the Demonstration of it, which referred him back to such a Proposition; which proposition he read. That referred him back to another, which he also read. El sic deinceps [and so on] that at last he was demonstratively convinced of that trueth. This made him in love with Geometry.
Page 49 - Magnitudes are said to be in the same ratio, the first to the second and the third to the fourth, when, if any equimultiples whatever be taken of the first and third, and any equimultiples whatever of the second and fourth, the former equimultiples alike exceed, are alike equal to, or alike fall short of, the latter equimultiples respectively taken in corresponding order.
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