Absorbing and entertaining, these thirty-two articles by distinguished educators offer a reader-friendly introduction to the history of mathematics. The newly corrected and updated essays cover eight centuries of discoveries, ranging from the medieval practice of finger calculus to the pioneering work of Leonhard Euler.
Fascinating topics include the geometry behind the windows of Gothic churches, the development of complex numbers, the evolution of algebraic symbolism, and mathematical considerations on the trajectory of a cannon ball. Profiles of historic figures include Leonardo Fibonacci, Johannes Kepler, Isaac Newton, Galileo, the Bernoulli family, and other well- and less-known personalities, including mathematicians of the French Revolution and women in mathematics. Suitable for readers with no background in mathematics, this volume offers an excellent guide for high school students and college undergraduates as well as anyone with an interest in the history of mathematics.
By:
Swetz Swetz
Imprint: Dover Publications Inc.
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 254mm,
Width: 12mm,
Spine: 178mm
Weight: 420g
ISBN: 9780486498058
ISBN 10: 0486498050
Series: Dover Books on Mathema 1.4tics
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 17 April 2013
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Unspecified
Preface Perspective: The European Mathematical Awakening Historical Exhibit 1: The Growth of Mathematical Knowledge 1. Counters: Computing if You Can Count to Five Historical Exhibit 2: Bede's Finger Mathematics 2. Gerbert's Letter to Adelbold Historical Exhibit 3: The Geometry of Gothic Church Windows 3. The Arithmetic of Medieval Universities 4. The Craft of Nimbryng Historical Exhibit 4: Algorist versus the Abacist 5. Leonardo Fibonacci 6. Leonardo of Pisa and his Liber quadratorum 7. Some Uses of Graphing before Decartes 8. Adam Riese 9. Tangible Arithmetic: Finger Reckoning and Other Devices 10. The Cardano-Tartaglia Dispute Historical Exhibit 5: Cardano's Technique for the Solution of a Reduced Cube Equation 11. Complex Numbers: An Example of Recurring Themes in the Development of Mathematiocs. 12. Robert Recorde's Whetstone of Witte, 1557 13. The Teaching of Arithmetic in England from 1550 until1880 as Influenced by Social Change 14. Tangible Arithmetic: Napier's and Genaille's Rods 15. The Life and Times of Johann Kepler Historical Exhibit 6: Multiplication Algorithm of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries 16. Simon Steven and Decimal Fractions Historical Exhibit 7: Mathematical Considerations on the Trajectory of a Cannon Ball 17. Viete's Use of Decimal Fractions 18. John Napier and His Logarithims Historical Exhibit 8: The Evolution of Algebraic Symbolism 19. Projective Geometry 20. Pisa, Galileo, Rome Historical Exhibit 9: Torricelli's Wine Glass 21. Analytic Geometry: The Discovery of Fermat and Descartes 22. The Young Pascal Historical Exhibit 10: Roberval's Quadrature of the Cycloid 23. Isaac Newton: Man, Myth, Mathematics Historical Exhibit 11: Newton's Method of Fluxions 24. The Newton-Leibniz Controversy Concerning the Discovery of Calculus Historical Exhibit 12: Mengoli's Proof for the Divergence of the Harmonic Series 25. The Bernoulli Family 26. The Bernoullis and the Harmonic Series 27. The First Calculus Textbooks 28. The Origin of L'Hopital's Rule 29. Euler, the Master Calculator 30. Gaspard Monge and the Descriptive Geometry 31. Mathematicians of the French Revolution 32. The Ladies Diary...Circa 1700 Historical Exhibit 13: Women in Mathematics Epilogue: The Process Continues Suggested Readings Index
Professor Emeritus at Penn State University, Frank J. Swetz is co-founding editor of Convergence, an e-journal devoted to the history of mathematics. He is also the author of 20 books and more than 300 articles.
