Rediscovering Mathematics is aimed at a general audience and addresses the question of how best to teach and study mathematics. The book attempts to bring the exciting and dynamic world of mathematics to a non-technical audience. With so much focus today on how best to educate the new generation and make mathematics less rote and more interactive, this book is an eye-opening experience for many people who suffered with dull math teachers and curricula. Rediscovering Mathematics is an eclectic collection of mathematical topics and puzzles aimed at talented youngsters and inquisitive adults who want to expand their view of mathematics. By focusing on problem solving, and discouraging rote memorization, the book shows how to learn and teach mathematics through investigation, experimentation, and discovery. Rediscovering Mathematics is also an excellent text for training math teachers at all levels. Topics range in difficulty and cover a wide range of historical periods, with some examples demonstrating how to uncover mathematics in everyday life, including: number theory and its application to secure communication over the Internet, the algebraic and combinatorial work of a medieval mathematician Rabbi, and applications of probability to sports, casinos, and gambling. Rediscovering Mathematics provides a fresh view of mathematics for those who already like the subject, and offers a second chance for those who think they don't.
A compelling firsthand account of Keith Devlin's ten-year quest to tell Fibonacci's story In 2000, Keith Devlin set out to research the life and legacy of the medieval mathematician Leonardo of Pisa, popularly known as Fibonacci, whose book Liber abbaci has quite literally affected the lives of everyone alive today. Although he is most famous for the Fibonacci numbers—which, it so happens, he didn't invent—Fibonacci's greatest contribution was as an expositor of mathematical ideas at a level ordinary people could understand. In 1202, Liber abbaci—the "Book of Calculation"—introduced modern arithmetic to the Western world. Yet Fibonacci was long forgotten after his death, and it was not until the 1960s that his true achievements were finally recognized. Finding Fibonacci is Devlin's compelling firsthand account of his ten-year quest to tell Fibonacci's story. Devlin, a math expositor himself, kept a diary of the undertaking, which he draws on here to describe the project's highs and lows, its false starts and disappointments, the tragedies and unexpected turns, some hilarious episodes, and the occasional lucky breaks. You will also meet the unique individuals Devlin encountered along the way, people who, each for their own reasons, became fascinated by Fibonacci, from the Yale professor who traced modern finance back to Fibonacci to the Italian historian who made the crucial archival discovery that brought together all the threads of Fibonacci's astonishing story. Fibonacci helped to revive the West as the cradle of science, technology, and commerce, yet he vanished from the pages of history. This is Devlin's search to find him.
Mathematics for the Imagination provides an accessible and entertaining investigation into mathematical problems in the world around us. From world navigation, family trees, and calendars to patterns, tessellations, and number tricks, this informative and fun new book helps you to understand the maths behind real-life questions and rediscover your arithmetical mind. This is a follow-up to the popular Mathematics for the Curious, Peter Higgins's first investigation into real-life mathematical problems. A highly involving book which encourages the reader to enter into the spirit of mathematical exploration.
Calculus: A Complete Introduction is the most comprehensive yet easy-to-use introduction to using calculus. Written by a leading expert, this book will help you if you are studying for an important exam or essay, or if you simply want to improve your knowledge. The book covers all areas of calculus, including functions, gradients, rates of change, differentiation, exponential and logarithmic functions and integration. Everything you will need to know is here in one book. Each chapter includes not only an explanation of the knowledge and skills you need, but also worked examples and test questions.
Homage to Pythagoras collects essential documents by people at the leading edge of the sacred sciences today. These articles--both scholarly and sympathetic to the Pythagorean perspective--are proof of the contemporary interest in Pythagoras' philosophy as a living reality and provide a major addition to the field of Pythagorean studies and traditional mathematics. Contents: Introduction by Christopher Bamford "Ancient Temple Architecture" by Robert Lawlor "The Platonic Tradition on the Nature of Proportion" by Keith Critchlow "What is Sacred Architecture? by Keith Critchlow "Twelve Criteria for Sacred Architecture" by Keith Critchlow "Pythagorean Number as Form, Color, and Light" by Robert Lawlor "The Two Lights" by Arthur Zajonc "Apollo: The Pythagorean Definition of God" by Anne Macaulay "Blake, Yeats, and Pythagoras" by Kathleen Raine About the Authors ROBERT LAWLOR is the author of Sacred Geometry; Earth Honoring; and Voices of the First Day. After training as a painter and a sculptor, he became a yoga student of Sri Aurobindo and lived for many years in Pondicherry, India, where he was a founding member of Auroville. In India, he discovered the works of the French Egyptologist and esotericist, R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz, which led him to explore the principles and practices of ancient sacred science. KEITH CRITCHLOW is the author of Order in Space; and Time Stands Still. A painter, Critchlow discovered geometry intuitively. A period of intensive geometric practice and work with Buckminster Fuller led him to recognize that the universal principles of geometry are revealed and confirmed both by the area of design where art and mathematics meet and in the study of nature and ancient and medieval sacred cosmological architecture of temples, cathedrals, and mosques. He has been a senior lecturer at the Architectural Association in London and taught Islamic Art at the Royal College of Art. He has also participated as geometer in various sacred architectural projects, and is a cofounder of Temenos, a journal devoted to the arts and imagination, and Kairos, a society that investigates, studies, and promotes traditional values of art and science. ARTHUR ZAJONC is Professor of Physics at Amherst College, where his research has concerned the nature of light and the experimental foundations of quantum mechanics. He has also taught and written extensively on interdisciplinary aspects of science, the history of science, culture, and spirituality, especially the works of Goethe and Rudolf Steiner. He is the author Catching the Light and The New Physics and Cosmology, featuring dialogues with the Dalai Lama. He has been a visiting scientist at many laboratories and was a Fulbright professor. ANNE MACAULAY lives in Scotland where she has, for many years, studied the origins of the alphabet, the history of the guitar, the figure of Apollo, and other mysteries surrounding Pythagorean thought. She has lectured at Research into Lost Knowledge Organization (RILKO) and was a trustee of the Salisbury Center in Edinburgh. KATHLEEN RAINE was a British poet with an international reputation as a scholar of the imagination. A renowned student of William Blake, a penetrating critic, and a profound autobiographer, she wrote numerous books and articles. Kathleen Raine was a cofounder and the editor of Temenos.
The acclaimed author of A Tour of the Calculus and The Infinite Ascent offers an enlightening and enthralling tour of the basics of mathematics, and reveals a world of fascination in fundamental mathematical ideas. One, Two, Three is David Berlinski’s captivating exploration of the foundation of mathematics, its fundamental ideas, and why they matter. By unraveling the complex answers to these most elementary questions—What is a number? How do addition, subtraction, and other functions actually work? What are geometry and logic?—Berlinski reveals the intricacy behind their seemingly simple exteriors. Peppered with enlightening historical anecdotes and asides on some of history’s most fascinating mathematicians, One, Two, Three, revels in the beauty of numbers as Berlinski shows us how and why these often slippery concepts are as essential to the field of mathematics as to who we are.
First published in 1202, Fibonacci’s Liber Abaci was one of the most important books on mathematics in the Middle Ages, introducing Arabic numerals and methods throughout Europe. This is the first translation into a modern European language, of interest not only to historians of science but also to all mathematicians and mathematics teachers interested in the origins of their methods.
Rediscovering Grounded Theory is a bold re-evaluation of the origins of grounded theory, a philosophical clarification of its key ideas and a presentation of the most effective way to use its techniques in your research. It answers questions such as ′What should grounded theory look like?′, ′How do I recognise grounded theory?′ and ′How do I produce good grounded theory?′ by returning to the original ideas as they were presented by Glaser and Strauss. Sharp, clear and thought-provoking, the book includes: - Detailed analysis of the current literature - Exemplar sections filled with detailed, real world examples and applications - A detailed glossary It will provide you with a grasp of what a grounded theory should look like, take you through the process of building a grounded theory and then explain best practice for critically evaluating the quality of grounded theory research.
Originally published in England and cowritten with her father, "In Code" is "a wonderfully moving story about the thrill of the mathematical chase" ("Nature") and "a paean to intellectual adventure" ("Times Educational Supplement"). A memoir in mathematics, it is all about how a girl next door became an award-winning mathematician. photo insert.
