The Language of Mathematics

The Stories behind the Symbols

Raúl Rojas

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Hardback

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English

Princeton University Press
01 May 2025

Philosophy of mathematics; Mathematical logic; History of mathematics; History of science

A marvelous compendium of mathematical symbols and their fascinating histories.

Galileo famously wrote that the book of nature is written in mathematical language. The Language of Mathematics is a wide-ranging and beautifully illustrated collection of short, colourful histories of the most commonly used symbols in mathematics, providing readers with an engaging introduction to the origins, evolution, and conceptual meaning of each one.

In dozens of lively and informative entries, Ral Rojas shows how today's mathematics stands on the shoulders of giants, mathematicians from around the world who developed mathematical notation through centuries of collective effort. He tells the stories of such figures as al-Khwrizm, Rene Descartes, Joseph-Louis Lagrange, Carl Friedrich Gauss, Augustin-Louis Cauchy, Karl Weierstrass, Sofia Kovalevskaya, David Hilbert, and Kenneth Iverson. Topics range from numbers and variables to sets and functions, constants, and combinatorics. Rojas describes the mathematical problems associated with different symbols and reveals how mathematical notation has sometimes been an accidental process. The entries are self-contained and can be read in any order, each one examining one or two symbols, their history, and the variants they may have had over time.

An essential companion for math enthusiasts, The Language of Mathematics shows how mathematics is a living and evolving entity, forever searching for the best symbolism to express relationships between abstract concepts and to convey meaning.

By: Raúl Rojas
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 140mm,
ISBN: 9780691201887
ISBN 10: 0691201889
Pages: 280
Publication Date: 01 May 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Ral Rojas is professor of mathematics and statistics at the University of Nevada, Reno, and professor emeritus of computer science and mathematics at the Free University of Berlin. A world-renowned expert in artificial intelligence, he is the author of the seminal book Neural Networks and the editor (with Ulf Hashagen) of The First Computers.

Reviews for The Language of Mathematics: The Stories behind the Symbols

""Stimulating. . . . Rojas provides plenty of fascinating background on mathematical history."" * Publishers Weekly * ""The etymology of [mathematical] symbols is, of course, often punctuated by inevitably fuzzy interpretation. In The Language of Mathematics, Raúl Rojas gives us a survey, from the Greek cross (for the arithmetic operation of addition) to the earliest use of the concept of zero. . . . Some especially charismatic symbols do make an appearance.""---Siobhan Roberts, Wall Street Journal ""I loved it.""---Jeff O'Neal, Book Riot: The Podcast