That's Maths

That's Maths

Author: Peter Lynch

Publisher: Gill & Macmillan Ltd

Published: 2016-10-14

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 0717169561

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From atom bombs to rebounding slinkies, open your eyes to the mathematical magic in the everyday. Mathematics isn't just for academics and scientists, a fact meteorologist and blogger Peter Lynch has spent the past several years proving through his Irish Times newspaper column and blog, That's Maths.Here, he shows how maths is all around us, with chapters on the beautiful equations behind designing a good concert venue, predicting the stock market and modelling the atom bomb, as well as playful meditations on everything from coin-stacking to cartography. If you left school thinking maths was boring, think again!


Mathematics, Education and History

Mathematics, Education and History

Author: Kathleen M. Clark

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-03-30

Total Pages: 389

ISBN-13: 3319739247

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This book includes 18 peer-reviewed papers from nine countries, originally presented in a shorter form at TSG 25 The Role of History of Mathematics in Mathematics Education, as part of ICME-13 during. It also features an introductory chapter, by its co-editors, on the structure and main points of the book with an outline of recent developments in exploring the role of history and epistemology in mathematics education. It serves as a valuable contribution in this domain, by making reports on recent developments in this field available to the international educational community, with a special focus on relevant research results since 2000. The 18 chapters of the book are divided into five interrelated parts that underlie the central issues of research in this domain: 1. Theoretical and conceptual frameworks for integrating history and epistemology in mathematics in mathematics education; 2. Courses and didactical material: Design, implementation and evaluation; 3. Empirical investigations on implementing history and epistemology in mathematics education; 4. Original historical sources in teaching and learning of and about mathematics; 5. History and epistemology of mathematics: Interdisciplinary teaching and sociocultural aspects. This book covers all levels of education, from primary school to tertiary education, with a particular focus on teacher education. Additionally, each chapter refers to and/or is based on empirical research, in order to support, illuminate, clarify and evaluate key issues, main questions, and conjectured theses raised by the authors or in the literature on the basis of historical-epistemological or didactical-cognitive arguments.


Jacques Hadamard

Jacques Hadamard

Author: Vladimir Gilelevič Mazʹâ

Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 604

ISBN-13: 9780821819234

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This book presents a fascinating story of the long life and great accomplishments of Jacques Hadamard (1865-1963), who was once called 'the living legend of mathematics'. As one of the last universal mathematicians, Hadamard's contributions to mathematics are landmarks in various fields. His life is linked with world history of the 20th century in a dramatic way. This work provides an inspiring view of the development of various branches of mathematics during the 19th and 20th centuries.Part I of the book portrays Hadamard's family, childhood and student years, scientific triumphs, and his personal life and trials during the first two world wars. The story is told of his involvement in the Dreyfus affair and his subsequent fight for justice and human rights. Also recounted are Hadamard's worldwide travels, his famous seminar, his passion for botany, his home orchestra, where he played the violin with Einstein, and his interest in the psychology of mathematical creativity. Hadamard's life is described in a readable and inviting way.The authors humorously weave throughout the text his jokes and the myths about him. They also movingly recount the tragic side of his life. Stories about his relatives and friends, and old letters and documents create an authentic and colorful picture. The book contains over 300 photographs and illustrations. Part II of the book includes a lucid overview of Hadamard's enormous work, spanning over six decades. The authors do an excellent job of connecting his results to current concerns.While the book is accessible to beginners, it also provides rich information of interest to experts. Vladimir Mazya and Tatyana Shaposhnikova were the 2003 laureates of the Insitut de France's Prix Alfred Verdaguer. One or more prizes are awarded each year, based on suggestions from the Academie francaise, the Academie de sciences, and the Academie de beaux-arts, for the most remarkable work in the arts, literature, and the sciences. In 2003, the award for excellence was granted in recognition of Mazya and Shaposhnikova's book, ""Jacques Hadamard, A Universal Mathematician"", which is both an historical book about a great citizen and a scientific book about a great mathematician.


Enlightening Symbols

Enlightening Symbols

Author: Joseph Mazur

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2014-03-23

Total Pages: 311

ISBN-13: 1400850118

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An entertaining look at the origins of mathematical symbols While all of us regularly use basic math symbols such as those for plus, minus, and equals, few of us know that many of these symbols weren't available before the sixteenth century. What did mathematicians rely on for their work before then? And how did mathematical notations evolve into what we know today? In Enlightening Symbols, popular math writer Joseph Mazur explains the fascinating history behind the development of our mathematical notation system. He shows how symbols were used initially, how one symbol replaced another over time, and how written math was conveyed before and after symbols became widely adopted. Traversing mathematical history and the foundations of numerals in different cultures, Mazur looks at how historians have disagreed over the origins of the numerical system for the past two centuries. He follows the transfigurations of algebra from a rhetorical style to a symbolic one, demonstrating that most algebra before the sixteenth century was written in prose or in verse employing the written names of numerals. Mazur also investigates the subconscious and psychological effects that mathematical symbols have had on mathematical thought, moods, meaning, communication, and comprehension. He considers how these symbols influence us (through similarity, association, identity, resemblance, and repeated imagery), how they lead to new ideas by subconscious associations, how they make connections between experience and the unknown, and how they contribute to the communication of basic mathematics. From words to abbreviations to symbols, this book shows how math evolved to the familiar forms we use today.


A Programmer's Introduction to Mathematics

A Programmer's Introduction to Mathematics

Author: Jeremy Kun

Publisher:

Published: 2020-05-17

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13:

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A Programmer's Introduction to Mathematics uses your familiarity with ideas from programming and software to teach mathematics. You'll learn about the central objects and theorems of mathematics, including graphs, calculus, linear algebra, eigenvalues, optimization, and more. You'll also be immersed in the often unspoken cultural attitudes of mathematics, learning both how to read and write proofs while understanding why mathematics is the way it is. Between each technical chapter is an essay describing a different aspect of mathematical culture, and discussions of the insights and meta-insights that constitute mathematical intuition. As you learn, we'll use new mathematical ideas to create wondrous programs, from cryptographic schemes to neural networks to hyperbolic tessellations. Each chapter also contains a set of exercises that have you actively explore mathematical topics on your own. In short, this book will teach you to engage with mathematics. A Programmer's Introduction to Mathematics is written by Jeremy Kun, who has been writing about math and programming for 10 years on his blog "Math Intersect Programming." As of 2020, he works in datacenter optimization at Google.The second edition includes revisions to most chapters, some reorganized content and rewritten proofs, and the addition of three appendices.


Mathematics and Its History

Mathematics and Its History

Author: John Stillwell

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-11-07

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 3030551938

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This textbook provides a unified and concise exploration of undergraduate mathematics by approaching the subject through its history. Readers will discover the rich tapestry of ideas behind familiar topics from the undergraduate curriculum, such as calculus, algebra, topology, and more. Featuring historical episodes ranging from the Ancient Greeks to Fermat and Descartes, this volume offers a glimpse into the broader context in which these ideas developed, revealing unexpected connections that make this ideal for a senior capstone course. The presentation of previous versions has been refined by omitting the less mainstream topics and inserting new connecting material, allowing instructors to cover the book in a one-semester course. This condensed edition prioritizes succinctness and cohesiveness, and there is a greater emphasis on visual clarity, featuring full color images and high quality 3D models. As in previous editions, a wide array of mathematical topics are covered, from geometry to computation; however, biographical sketches have been omitted. Mathematics and Its History: A Concise Edition is an essential resource for courses or reading programs on the history of mathematics. Knowledge of basic calculus, algebra, geometry, topology, and set theory is assumed. From reviews of previous editions: “Mathematics and Its History is a joy to read. The writing is clear, concise and inviting. The style is very different from a traditional text. I found myself picking it up to read at the expense of my usual late evening thriller or detective novel.... The author has done a wonderful job of tying together the dominant themes of undergraduate mathematics.” Richard J. Wilders, MAA, on the Third Edition "The book...is presented in a lively style without unnecessary detail. It is very stimulating and will be appreciated not only by students. Much attention is paid to problems and to the development of mathematics before the end of the nineteenth century.... This book brings to the non-specialist interested in mathematics many interesting results. It can be recommended for seminars and will be enjoyed by the broad mathematical community." European Mathematical Society, on the Second Edition


Mathematics and Art

Mathematics and Art

Author: Lynn Gamwell

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 576

ISBN-13: 0691165289

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This is a cultural history of mathematics and art, from antiquity to the present. Mathematicians and artists have long been on a quest to understand the physical world they see before them and the abstract objects they know by thought alone. Taking readers on a tour of the practice of mathematics and the philosophical ideas that drive the discipline, Lynn Gamwell points out the important ways mathematical concepts have been expressed by artists. Sumptuous illustrations of artworks and cogent math diagrams are featured in Gamwell's comprehensive exploration. Gamwell begins by describing mathematics from antiquity to the Enlightenment, including Greek, Islamic, and Asian mathematics. Then focusing on modern culture, Gamwell traces mathematicians' search for the foundations of their science, such as David Hilbert's conception of mathematics as an arrangement of meaning-free signs, as well as artists' search for the essence of their craft, such as Aleksandr Rodchenko's monochrome paintings. She shows that self-reflection is inherent to the practice of both modern mathematics and art, and that this introspection points to a deep resonance between the two fields: Kurt Gödel posed questions about the nature of mathematics in the language of mathematics and Jasper Johns asked "What is art?" in the vocabulary of art. Throughout, Gamwell describes the personalities and cultural environments of a multitude of mathematicians and artists, from Gottlob Frege and Benoît Mandelbrot to Max Bill and Xu Bing. Mathematics and Art demonstrates how mathematical ideas are embodied in the visual arts and will enlighten all who are interested in the complex intellectual pursuits, personalities, and cultural settings that connect these vast disciplines.


Using History to Teach Mathematics

Using History to Teach Mathematics

Author: Victor J. Katz

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2000-09-21

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 9780883851630

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This volume examines how the history of mathematics can find application in the teaching of mathematics itself.


Equations from God

Equations from God

Author: Daniel J. Cohen

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2007-04-08

Total Pages: 374

ISBN-13: 0801891868

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This illuminating history explores the complex relationship between mathematics, religious belief, and Victorian culture. Throughout history, application rather than abstraction has been the prominent driving force in mathematics. From the compass and sextant to partial differential equations, mathematical advances were spurred by the desire for better navigation tools, weaponry, and construction methods. But the religious upheaval in Victorian England and the fledgling United States opened the way for the rediscovery of pure mathematics, a tradition rooted in Ancient Greece. In Equations from God, Daniel J. Cohen captures the origins of the rebirth of abstract mathematics in the intellectual quest to rise above common existence and touch the mind of the deity. Using an array of published and private sources, Cohen shows how philosophers and mathematicians seized upon the beautiful simplicity inherent in mathematical laws to reconnect with the divine and traces the route by which the divinely inspired mathematics of the Victorian era begot later secular philosophies.