50 Visions of Mathematics
50 Visions of Mathematics

Author: Dara O' Briain

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2014-05-01

Total Pages: 417

ISBN-13: 0191005347

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Relax: no one understands technical mathematics without lengthy training but we all have an intuitive grasp of the ideas behind the symbols. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), this book is designed to showcase the beauty of mathematics - including images inspired by mathematical problems - together with its unreasonable effectiveness and applicability, without frying your brain. The book is a collection of 50 original essays contributed by a wide variety of authors. It contains articles by some of the best expositors of the subject (du Sautoy, Singh and Stewart for example) together with entertaining biographical pieces and articles of relevance to our everyday lives (such as Spiegelhalter on risk and Elwes on medical imaging). The topics covered are deliberately diverse and involve concepts from simple numerology to the very cutting edge of mathematics research. Each article is designed to be read in one sitting and to be accessible to a general audience. There is also other content. There are 50 pictorial 'visions of mathematics' which were supplied in response to an open call for contributions from IMA members, Plus readers and the worldwide mathematics community. You'll also find a series of "proofs " of Phythagoras's Theorem - mathematical, literary and comedy - after this, you'll never think of Pythagoras the same way again.

The Great Mathematical Problems
The Great Mathematical Problems

Author: Ian Stewart

Publisher: Profile Books

Published: 2013-03-07

Total Pages: 468

ISBN-13: 1847653510

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There are some mathematical problems whose significance goes beyond the ordinary - like Fermat's Last Theorem or Goldbach's Conjecture - they are the enigmas which define mathematics. The Great Mathematical Problems explains why these problems exist, why they matter, what drives mathematicians to incredible lengths to solve them and where they stand in the context of mathematics and science as a whole. It contains solved problems - like the Poincaré Conjecture, cracked by the eccentric genius Grigori Perelman, who refused academic honours and a million-dollar prize for his work, and ones which, like the Riemann Hypothesis, remain baffling after centuries. Stewart is the guide to this mysterious and exciting world, showing how modern mathematicians constantly rise to the challenges set by their predecessors, as the great mathematical problems of the past succumb to the new techniques and ideas of the present.

50 Visions of Mathematics
50 Visions of Mathematics

Author: Sam Parc

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2014-05

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 0198701810

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"To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), this book is designed to showcase the beauty of mathematics - including images inspired by mathematical problems - together with its unreasonable effectiveness and applicability, without frying your brain"--Provided by publisher.

X and the City
X and the City

Author: John Adam

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2012-05-27

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 1400841690

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What mathematical modeling uncovers about life in the city X and the City, a book of diverse and accessible math-based topics, uses basic modeling to explore a wide range of entertaining questions about urban life. How do you estimate the number of dental or doctor's offices, gas stations, restaurants, or movie theaters in a city of a given size? How can mathematics be used to maximize traffic flow through tunnels? Can you predict whether a traffic light will stay green long enough for you to cross the intersection? And what is the likelihood that your city will be hit by an asteroid? Every math problem and equation in this book tells a story and examples are explained throughout in an informal and witty style. The level of mathematics ranges from precalculus through calculus to some differential equations, and any reader with knowledge of elementary calculus will be able to follow the materials with ease. There are also some more challenging problems sprinkled in for the more advanced reader. Filled with interesting and unusual observations about how cities work, X and the City shows how mathematics undergirds and plays an important part in the metropolitan landscape.

Circles Disturbed
Circles Disturbed

Author: Apostolos Doxiadis

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2012-03-18

Total Pages: 593

ISBN-13: 1400842689

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Why narrative is essential to mathematics Circles Disturbed brings together important thinkers in mathematics, history, and philosophy to explore the relationship between mathematics and narrative. The book's title recalls the last words of the great Greek mathematician Archimedes before he was slain by a Roman soldier—"Don't disturb my circles"—words that seem to refer to two radically different concerns: that of the practical person living in the concrete world of reality, and that of the theoretician lost in a world of abstraction. Stories and theorems are, in a sense, the natural languages of these two worlds—stories representing the way we act and interact, and theorems giving us pure thought, distilled from the hustle and bustle of reality. Yet, though the voices of stories and theorems seem totally different, they share profound connections and similarities. A book unlike any other, Circles Disturbed delves into topics such as the way in which historical and biographical narratives shape our understanding of mathematics and mathematicians, the development of "myths of origins" in mathematics, the structure and importance of mathematical dreams, the role of storytelling in the formation of mathematical intuitions, the ways mathematics helps us organize the way we think about narrative structure, and much more. In addition to the editors, the contributors are Amir Alexander, David Corfield, Peter Galison, Timothy Gowers, Michael Harris, David Herman, Federica La Nave, G.E.R. Lloyd, Uri Margolin, Colin McLarty, Jan Christoph Meister, Arkady Plotnitsky, and Bernard Teissier.

Lumen Naturae
Lumen Naturae

Author: Matilde Marcolli

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2020-05-26

Total Pages: 390

ISBN-13: 0262043904

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Exploring common themes in modern art, mathematics, and science, including the concept of space, the notion of randomness, and the shape of the cosmos. This is a book about art—and a book about mathematics and physics. In Lumen Naturae (the title refers to a purely immanent, non-supernatural form of enlightenment), mathematical physicist Matilde Marcolli explores common themes in modern art and modern science—the concept of space, the notion of randomness, the shape of the cosmos, and other puzzles of the universe—while mapping convergences with the work of such artists as Paul Cezanne, Mark Rothko, Sol LeWitt, and Lee Krasner. Her account, focusing on questions she has investigated in her own scientific work, is illustrated by more than two hundred color images of artworks by modern and contemporary artists. Thus Marcolli finds in still life paintings broad and deep philosophical reflections on space and time, and connects notions of space in mathematics to works by Paul Klee, Salvador Dalí, and others. She considers the relation of entropy and art and how notions of entropy have been expressed by such artists as Hans Arp and Fernand Léger; and traces the evolution of randomness as a mode of artistic expression. She analyzes the relation between graphical illustration and scientific text, and offers her own watercolor-decorated mathematical notebooks. Throughout, she balances discussions of science with explorations of art, using one to inform the other. (She employs some formal notation, which can easily be skipped by general readers.) Marcolli is not simply explaining art to scientists and science to artists; she charts unexpected interdependencies that illuminate the universe.

Naming Infinity
Naming Infinity

Author: Loren Graham

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-03-31

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 0674032934

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In 1913, Russian imperial marines stormed an Orthodox monastery at Mt. Athos, Greece, to haul off monks engaged in a dangerously heretical practice known as Name Worshipping. Exiled to remote Russian outposts, the monks and their mystical movement went underground. Ultimately, they came across Russian intellectuals who embraced Name Worshipping—and who would achieve one of the biggest mathematical breakthroughs of the twentieth century, going beyond recent French achievements. Loren Graham and Jean-Michel Kantor take us on an exciting mathematical mystery tour as they unravel a bizarre tale of political struggles, psychological crises, sexual complexities, and ethical dilemmas. At the core of this book is the contest between French and Russian mathematicians who sought new answers to one of the oldest puzzles in math: the nature of infinity. The French school chased rationalist solutions. The Russian mathematicians, notably Dmitri Egorov and Nikolai Luzin—who founded the famous Moscow School of Mathematics—were inspired by mystical insights attained during Name Worshipping. Their religious practice appears to have opened to them visions into the infinite—and led to the founding of descriptive set theory. The men and women of the leading French and Russian mathematical schools are central characters in this absorbing tale that could not be told until now. Naming Infinity is a poignant human interest story that raises provocative questions about science and religion, intuition and creativity.

International Reflections on the Netherlands Didactics of Mathematics
International Reflections on the Netherlands Didactics of Mathematics

Author: Marja van den Heuvel-Panhuizen

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2019-08-13

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 3030202232

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This open access book, inspired by the ICME 13 Thematic Afternoon on “European Didactic Traditions”, takes readers on a journey with mathematics education researchers, developers and educators in eighteen countries, who reflect on their experiences with Realistic Mathematics Education (RME), the domain-specific instruction theory for mathematics education developed in the Netherlands since the late 1960s. Authors from outside the Netherlands discuss what aspects of RME appeal to them, their criticisms of RME and their past and current RME-based projects. It is clear that a particular approach to mathematics education cannot simply be transplanted to another country. As such, in eighteen chapters the authors describe how they have adapted RME to their individual circumstances and view on mathematics education, and tell their personal stories about how RME has influenced their thinking on mathematics education.

Visions of the Multiverse
Visions of the Multiverse

Author: Steven Manly

Publisher: Red Wheel/Weiser

Published: 2011-02-20

Total Pages: 317

ISBN-13: 1601637209

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The idea of a multiple universe reality is no longer considered speculative or implausible by many physicists; rather, it is deemed inescapable. Distinct concepts of the multiverse spring from quantum mechanics, cosmology, string theory-based cosmology, and ideas about a mathematics based reality that borders on the religious.In this accessible and entertaining book, Dr. Manly guides you on a tour of the many multiverse concepts and provides the non-technical background to understand them.Visions of the Multiverse explores questions such as:•Just what is a multiverse?•What are the different concepts of the multiverse and how are they related?•Is it possible to determine if we live in a multiverse...or even in multiple types of multiverses?•How do religious concepts of the afterlife and popular ideas based on the Law of Attraction relate to the scientific visions of the multiverse?Dr. Manly discusses a wide variety of fascinating concepts from relativity and the fundamental particles and forces of nature to dark matter, dark energy, and quantum mechanics in an unintimidating and conversational tone.Is humanity is in the midst of a new Copernican revolution? You decide.

Visions of the Universe
Visions of the Universe

Author: Alex Bellos

Publisher: The Experiment

Published: 2016-11-29

Total Pages: 147

ISBN-13: 1615193677

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Peek “behind the scenes” of the universe—and see math in brilliant color! For curious minds throughout history, math was truly an art. In Visions of the Universe, you can pick up right where Isaac Newton, Blaise Pascal, and other luminaries left off—by coloring 58 exquisite patterns inspired by great discoveries in math: Intricate geometric designs like those that grace the mosques of Mecca Felix Klein’s astounding diagram—drawn in 1897—of light reflecting between five mirrored spheres A mind-bending puzzle so beautiful it once hung outside a Japanese temple, and more! Plus, in the Creating chapter, you’ll help complete 10 additional images by following simple steps that give spectacular results. No math knowledge is required: Anyone can be an artist in Numberland!