History of Mathematics eBooks
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A History of Mathematics by
A History of Mathematics covers the evolution of mathematics through time and across the major Eastern and Western civilizations. It begins in Babylon, then describes the trials and tribulations of the Greek mathematicians. The important, and often neglected, influence of both Chinese and Islamic mathematics is covered in detail, placing the description of early Western mathematics in a global context. The book concludes with modern mathematics, covering recent developments such as the advent of the computer, chaos theory, topology,
A History of Mathematics by
Distills thousands of years of mathematics into a single, approachable volume
Covers mathematical discoveries, concepts, and thinkers, from Ancient Egypt to the present
Mathematics in Historical Context by
Mathematics in Historical Context describes the world around the important mathematicians of the past, and explores the complex interaction between mathematics, mathematicians, and society. It takes the reader on a grand tour of history from the ancient Egyptians to the twentieth century to show how mathematicians and mathematics were affected by the outside world, and at the same time how the outside world was affected by mathematics and mathematicians. Part biography, part mathematics, and part history, this book provides the interested layperson the background to understand mathematics and the history of mathematics, and is suitable for supplemental reading in any history of mathematics course.
Sherlock Holmes in Babylon and Other Tales of Mathematical History by
Sherlock Holmes in Babylon is a collection of 44 articles on the history of mathematics, published in MAA journals over the past 100 years. Covering a span of almost 4000 years, from the ancient Babylonians to the eighteenth century, it chronicles the enormous changes in mathematical thinking over this time, as viewed by distinguished historians of mathematics from the past (Florian Cajori, Max Dehn, David Eugene Smith, Julian Lowell Coolidge, and Carl Boyer etc.) and the present. Each of the four sections of the book (Ancient Mathematics, Medieval and Renaissance Mathematics, The Seventeenth Century, The Eighteenth Century) is preceded by a Foreword, in which the articles are put into historical context, and followed by an Afterword, in which they are reviewed in the light of current historical scholarship. In more than one case, two articles on the same topic are included, to show how knowledge and views about the topic changed over the years. This book will be enjoyed by anyone interested in mathematics and its history — and in particular by mathematics teachers at secondary, college, and university levels.
Who Gave You the Epsilon? by
This book is a collection of articles on the history of mathematics from the MAA journals, in many cases written by distinguished mathematicians (such as G H Hardy and B.van der Waerden), with commentary by the editors. Whereas the former book covered the history of mathematics from earliest times up to the eighteenth century and was organized chronologically, the 40 articles in this book are organized thematically and continue the story into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The topics covered in the book are analysis and applied mathematics, Geometry, topology and foundations, Algebra and number theory, and Surveys. Each section is preceded by a Foreword, giving the historical background and setting and the scene, and is followed by an Afterword, reporting on advances in our historical knowledge and understanding since the articles first appeared.
Episodes from the Early History of Mathematics by
Among other things, Aaboe shows us how the Babylonians did calculations, how Euclid proved that there are infinitely many primes, how Ptolemy constructed a trigonometric table in his Almagest, and how Archimedes trisected the angle. Some of the topics may be familiar to the reader, while others will seem surprising or be new.
From Foundations to Philosophy of Mathematics: An Historical Account of Their Development in the XX Century and Beyond by
From Foundations to Philosophy of Mathematics provides an historical introduction to the most exciting period in the foundations of mathematics, starting with the discovery of the paradoxes of logic and set theory at the beginning of the twentieth century and continuing with the great foundational debate that took place in the 1920s. As a result of the efforts of several mathematicians and philosophers during this period to ground mathematics and to clarify its nature from a certain philosophical standpoint, the four main schools in the philosophy of mathematics that have largely dominated the twentieth century arose, namely, logicism, intuitionism, formalism and predicativism. It was due precisely to the insufficiencies of the first three foundational programs and the objections raised against them, that interest in Platonism was renewed in the 1940s, mainly by Gödel.Not only does this book pay special attention to the foundational programs of these philosophies of mathematics, but also to some technical accomplishments that were developed in close connection with them and have largely shaped our understanding of the nature of mathematics, such as Russell's type theory, Zermelo's set theory and Gödel's incompleteness theorems. Finally, it also examines some current research programs that have been pursued in the last decades and have tried, at least to some extent, to show the feasibility of the foundational programs developed in the schools mentioned above. This is the case of neologicism, constructivism, and predicativist and finitist reductionism, this last one developed closely with the research program of reverse mathematics.
Amazing Traces of a Babylonian Origin in Greek Mathematics by
A sequel to Unexpected Links Between Egyptian and Babylonian Mathematics (World Scientific, 2005), this book is based on the author's intensive and ground breaking studies of the long history of Mesopotamian mathematics, from the late 4th to the late 1st millennium BC. It is argued in the book that several of the most famous Greek mathematicians appear to have been familiar with various aspects of Babylonian “metric algebra,” a convenient name for an elaborate combination of geometry, metrology, and quadratic equations that is known from both Babylonian and pre-Babylonian mathematical clay tablets.The book's use of “metric algebra diagrams” in the Babylonian style, where the side lengths and areas of geometric figures are explicitly indicated, instead of wholly abstract “lettered diagrams” in the Greek style, is essential for an improved understanding of many interesting propositions and constructions in Greek mathematical works. The author's comparisons with Babylonian mathematics also lead to new answers to some important open questions in the history of Greek mathematics.Contents:Elements II and Babylonian Metric AlgebraEl.I.47 and the Old Babylonian Diagonal RuleLemma El. X.28/29 la, Plimpton 322, and Babylonian igi-igi.bi ProblemsLemma El. X.32/33 and an Old Babylonian Geometric ProgressionElements X and Babylonian Metric AlgebraElements IV and Old Babylonian Figures Within FiguresEl. VI.30, XIII.1–12, and Regular Polygons in Babylonian MathematicsEl. XIII.13–18 and Regular Polyhedrons in Babylonian MathematicsElements XII and Pyramids and Cones in Babylonian MathematicsEl. I.43–44, El. VI.24–29, Data 57–59, 84–86, and Metric AlgebraEuclid's Lost Book On Divisions and Babylonian Striped FiguresHippocrates'Lunes and Babylonian Figures with Curved BoundariesTraces of Babylonian Metric Algebra in the Arithmetica of DiophantusHeron's, Ptolemy's, and Brahmagupta's Area and Diagonal RulesTheon of Smyrna's Side and Diagonal Numbers and Ascending Infinite Chains of BirectanglesGreek and Babylonian Square Side ApproximationsTheodorus of Cyrene's Irrationality Proof and Descending Infinite Chains of BirectanglesThe Pseudo-Heronic GeometricaA Chain of Trapezoids with Fixed DiagonalsA Catalog of Babylonian Geometric FiguresReadership: Mathematicians, historians of science, Greek scholars and assyriologists.
The Cult of Pythagoras: Math and Myths by
In this follow-up to his popular Science Secrets, Alberto A. Martínez discusses various popular myths from the history of mathematics: that Pythagoras proved the hypotenuse theorem, that Archimedes figured out how to test the purity of a gold crown while he was in a bathtub, that the Golden Ratio is in nature and ancient architecture, that the young Galois created group theory the night before the pistol duel that killed him, and more. Some stories are partly true, others are entirely false, but all show the power of invention in history. Pythagoras emerges as a symbol of the urge to conjecture and “fill in the gaps” of history. He has been credited with fundamental discoveries in mathematics and the sciences, yet there is nearly no evidence that he really contributed anything to such fields at all. This book asks: how does history change when we subtract the many small exaggerations and interpolations that writers have added for over two thousand years? The Cult of Pythagoras is also about invention in a positive sense. Most people view mathematical breakthroughs as “discoveries” rather than invention or creativity, believing that mathematics describes a realm of eternal ideas. But mathematicians have disagreed about what is possible and impossible, about what counts as a proof, and even about the results of certain operations. Was there ever invention in the history of concepts such as zero, negative numbers, imaginary numbers, quaternions, infinity, and infinitesimals? Martínez inspects a wealth of primary sources, in several languages, over a span of many centuries. By exploring disagreements and ambiguities in the history of the elements of mathematics, The Cult of Pythagoras dispels myths that obscure the actual origins of mathematical concepts. Martínez argues that an accurate history that analyzes myths reveals neglected aspects of mathematics that can encourage creativity in students and mathematicians.
Galileo's Muse: Renaissance Mathematics and the Arts by
Mark Peterson makes an extraordinary claim in this fascinating book focused around the life and thought of Galileo: it was the mathematics of Renaissance arts, not Renaissance sciences, that became modern science. Painters, poets, musicians, and architects brought about a scientific revolution that eluded the philosopher-scientists of the day.
Crossroads in the History of Mathematics and Mathematics Education by
The interaction of the history of mathematics and mathematics education has long been construed as an esoteric area of inquiry. Much of the research done in this realm has been under the auspices of the history and pedagogy of mathematics group. However there is little systematization or consolidation of the existing literature aimed at undergraduate mathematics education, particularly in the teaching and learning of the history of mathematics and other undergraduate topics. In this monograph, the chapters cover topics such as the development of Calculus through the actuarial sciences and map making, logarithms, the people and practices behind real world mathematics, and fruitful ways in which the history of mathematics informs mathematics education. The book is meant to serve as a source of enrichment for undergraduate mathematics majors and for mathematics education courses aimed at teachers.
From Calculus to Computers : Using the Last 200 Years of Mathematics History in the Classroom by 
Hands on History: A Resource for Teaching Mathematics by
This volume is a compilation of articles from researchers and educators who use the history of mathematics to facilitate active learning in the classroom. The contributions range from simple devices such as the rectangular protractor that can be made in a geometry classroom, to elaborate models of descriptive geometry that can be used as a major project in a college mathematics course. Other chapters contain detailed descriptions on how to build and use historical models in the high school or collegiate mathematics classroom. Some of the items included in this volume are: sundials, planimeters, Napier's Bones, linkages, cycloid clock, a labyrinth, and an apparatus that demonstrates the brachistocrone in the classroom. Whether replicas of historical devices or models are used to represent a topic from the history of mathematics, using models of a historical nature allows students to combine three important areas of their education: mathematics and mathematical reasoning; mechanical and spatial reasoning and manipulation; and evaluation of historical versus contemporary mathematical techniques.
100 Great Problems of Elementary Mathematics by
Problems that beset Archimedes, Newton, Euler, Cauchy, Gauss, Monge and other greats, ready to challenge today's would-be problem solvers. Among them: How is a sundial constructed? How can you calculate the logarithm of a given number without the use of logarithm table? No advanced math is required. Includes 100 problems with proofs. --from publisher description.