The History of Mathematics: A Very Short Introduction

ISBN-13: 9780199599684 / Angielski / Miękka / 2012 / 144 str.

Oxf The Queen's College Jacqueline (Senior Research Fellow

Opis

This Very Short Introduction explores the rich historical and cultural diversity of mathematical practice, ranging from the distant past to the present. Historian Jacqueline Stedall shows that mathematical ideas are far from being fixed, but are adapted and changed by their passage across periods and cultures. The book illuminates some of the varied contexts in which people have learned, used, and handed on mathematics, drawing on fascinating case studies from a range of times and places, including early imperial China, the medieval Islamic world, and nineteenth-century Britain. By drawing out some common threads, Stedall provides an introduction not only to the mathematics of the past but to the history of mathematics as a modern academic discipline.

Recenzje

Stimulating and accessible.

O autorze

Jacqueline Stedall researched and taught history of mathematics at the University of Oxford. She wrote a number of books on Early Modern European mathematics and co-edited, with Eleanor Robson, The Oxford Handbook of the history of mathematics. She was a longstanding member of the British Society for the History of Mathematics and Editor of its Bulletin.