How can we be sure that Pythagoras's theorem is really true? Why is the 'angle in a semicircle' always 90 degrees? And how can tangents help determine the speed of a bullet? David Acheson takes the reader on a highly illustrated tour through the history of geometry, from ancient Greece to the present day. He emphasizes throughout elegant deduction and practical applications, and argues that geometry can offer the quickest route to the whole spirit of mathematics at its best. Along the way, we encounter the quirky and the unexpected, meet the great personalities involved, and uncover some of the loveliest surprises in mathematics.
This excellent book, written by the established author David Acheson, makes mathematics accessible to everyone. Providing an entertaining and witty overview of the subject, the text includes several fascinating puzzles, and is accompanied by numerous illustrations and sketches by world famouscartoonists. This unusual book is one of the most readable explanations of mathematics available.
New York Times bestselling author Danica McKellar makes it a breeze to excel in high school geometry! Hollywood actress and math whiz Danica McKellar has completely shattered the “math nerd” stereotype. For years, she’s been showing girls how to feel confident and ace their math classes—with style! With Girls Get Curves, she applies her winning techniques to high school geometry, giving readers the tools they need to feel great and totally “get” everything from congruent triangles to theorems, and more. Inside you’ll find: • Time-saving tips and tricks for homework and tests • Illuminating practice problems (and proofs!) with detailed solutions • Totally relateable real-world examples • True stories from Danica’s own life as an actress and math student • A Troubleshooting Guide, for getting unstuck during even the trickiest proofs! With Danica as a coach, girls everywhere can stop hiding from their homework and watch their scores rise!
Introduction to vector algebra in the plane; circles and coaxial systems; mappings of the Euclidean plane; similitudes, isometries, Moebius transformations, much more. Includes over 500 exercises.
An exquisite visual celebration of the 2,500-year history of geometry If you've ever thought that mathematics and art don't mix, this stunning visual history of geometry will change your mind. As much a work of art as a book about mathematics, Beautiful Geometry presents more than sixty exquisite color plates illustrating a wide range of geometric patterns and theorems, accompanied by brief accounts of the fascinating history and people behind each. With artwork by Swiss artist Eugen Jost and text by math historian Eli Maor, this unique celebration of geometry covers numerous subjects, from straightedge-and-compass constructions to intriguing configurations involving infinity. The result is a delightful and informative illustrated tour through the 2,500-year-old history of one of the most important branches of mathematics.
Every night, before Sylvia goes to sleep, she whispers a magic spell to the rhyme-elves. In the morning her Wonder Book is filled with beautiful pictures and poems of her adventures and the extraordinary stories she has heard. There is nothing Sylvia loves more than stories; so every day she asks her mother, the old woodsman and even her fairy friend Sister-in-the-Bushes to tell them to her. They weave magical stories of clever princesses, far-away kingdoms, courageous knights, kind children and graceful fairies. During the day, Sylvia also has her own adventures: planting a fairy tree, meeting St Nicholas and venturing into the deep woods. But as she comes closer to her special seventh birthday, there is one extraordinary adventure left. This enchanting collection of tales, charmingly told by Isabel Wyatt, takes us through the highlights of the year as Sylvia and her friends celebrate festivals and birthdays.
An undergraduate textbook devoted exclusively to relationships between mathematics and art, Viewpoints is ideally suited for math-for-liberal-arts courses and mathematics courses for fine arts majors. The textbook contains a wide variety of classroom-tested activities and problems, a series of essays by contemporary artists written especially for the book, and a plethora of pedagogical and learning opportunities for instructors and students. Viewpoints focuses on two mathematical areas: perspective related to drawing man-made forms and fractal geometry related to drawing natural forms. Investigating facets of the three-dimensional world in order to understand mathematical concepts behind the art, the textbook explores art topics including comic, anamorphic, and classical art, as well as photography, while presenting such mathematical ideas as proportion, ratio, self-similarity, exponents, and logarithms. Straightforward problems and rewarding solutions empower students to make accurate, sophisticated drawings. Personal essays and short biographies by contemporary artists are interspersed between chapters and are accompanied by images of their work. These fine artists--who include mathematicians and scientists--examine how mathematics influences their art. Accessible to students of all levels, Viewpoints encourages experimentation and collaboration, and captures the essence of artistic and mathematical creation and discovery. Classroom-tested activities and problem solving Accessible problems that move beyond regular art school curriculum Multiple solutions of varying difficulty and applicability Appropriate for students of all mathematics and art levels Original and exclusive essays by contemporary artists Forthcoming: Instructor's manual (available only to teachers)
This early work by David Hilbert was originally published in the early 20th century and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. David Hilbert was born on the 23rd January 1862, in a Province of Prussia. Hilbert is recognised as one of the most influential and universal mathematicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries. He discovered and developed a broad range of fundamental ideas in many areas, including invariant theory and the axiomatization of geometry. He also formulated the theory of Hilbert spaces, one of the foundations of functional analysis.
A sweeping cultural history of one of the most influential mathematical books ever written Euclid's Elements of Geometry is one of the fountainheads of mathematics—and of culture. Written around 300 BCE, it has traveled widely across the centuries, generating countless new ideas and inspiring such figures as Isaac Newton, Bertrand Russell, Abraham Lincoln, and Albert Einstein. Encounters with Euclid tells the story of this incomparable mathematical masterpiece, taking readers from its origins in the ancient world to its continuing influence today. In this lively and informative book, Benjamin Wardhaugh explains how Euclid’s text journeyed from antiquity to the Renaissance, introducing some of the many readers, copyists, and editors who left their mark on the Elements before handing it on. He shows how some read the book as a work of philosophy, while others viewed it as a practical guide to life. He examines the many different contexts in which Euclid's book and his geometry were put to use, from the Neoplatonic school at Athens and the artisans' studios of medieval Baghdad to the Jesuit mission in China and the workshops of Restoration London. Wardhaugh shows how the Elements inspired ideas in theology, art, and music, and how the book has acquired new relevance to the strange geometries of dark matter and curved space. Encounters with Euclid traces the life and afterlives of one of the most remarkable works of mathematics ever written, revealing its lasting role in the timeless search for order and reason in an unruly world.
Delve into the development of modern mathematics and match wits with Euclid, Newton, Descartes, and others. Each chapter explores an individual type of challenge, with commentary and practice problems. Solutions.
