Yesterday and Long Ago

ISBN-13: 9783642066863 / Angielski / Miękka / 2010 / 230 str.

Vladimir I. Arnold

Opis

This is a charming collection of essays on life and science, by one of the leading mathematicians of our day. Vladimir Igorevich Arnold is renowned for his achievements in mathematics, and nearly as famous for his informal teaching style, and for the clarity and accessibility of his writing. The chapter headings convey Arnold's humor and restless imagination. A few examples: My first recollections; The combinatorics of Plutarch; The topology of surfaces according to Alexander of Macedon; Catching a pike in Cambridge. Yesterday and Long Ago offers a rare opportunity to appreciate the life and work of one of the world's outstanding living mathematicians.

Spis treści

Preface.- My first recollections.- The North-West direction.- Vera Stepanovna Arnold (née Zhitkova).- First scientific reminiscences.- The Arnold family.-A household library.- The axiomatic method.- The color of a meridian.- School years.- It is not easy to keep a secret.- The temple of science.- Who is the winner?- State examination on Marxism.- Goodwill.- The thermal conductivity equation.- Lavoisier and French mathematics during the Revolution.- Queen Eleanor, Rosamund, and labyrinth theory.- Place de Vogueses.- 'Champel Sea'.- Neutrinos, neutrons, and Bruno Pontecorvo.- From Pareto to Arzamas.- How to distinguish good and bad mathematical works.- The combinatorics of Plutarch.- Galilei.- The topology of surfaces according to Alexander of Macedon.- Snake-hunting.- Suputinskii nature reserve.- Pheasants of the Vincent forest.- The guillotine and Marie-Antoinette.- Damiens’s sufferings.- Queen Marguerite and the kingdom of law.- Jeanne d’Arc as a witch and as a saint.- Ravailliac, French cuisine, and traffic jams.- Anne Yaroslavna, Princess of Russia.- Gennady of Novgorod and education in Russia under Ivan III.- Catherine I and the Prut river campaign.- Catherine II and I.I.Betskoi.- An order of Catherine II.- Radishchev.- The Crimean war.- Princess Dashkova and parachutes.- The desecrated host and abstract algebra.- France – Guinea – India.- Julius Caesar and Gallians: protecting Rome from Germans.- A planning department.- Mountain lions over Stanford.- The Pocha river and the dog Shnura.- Hong Kong.- The Pongoma river and the Solovetskie islands.- Brazilian tours.- Leibnitz as Bourbaki’s predecessor.- The 'Mistral' in the 'Crown'.- How academicians were elected and eliminated.- From the history of French economy.- The origins of mathematics: from Greece to Egypt.- Motivation for mathematical education in Israel.- Struggles against foreigners and their languages.- 'Our Manchuria'.- Religion and science, Martin Luther and anti-semitism.- Ramanujan andHardy.- Catching a pike in Cambridge.- Locust swarming and relocation of deer.- Tamil Tigers at the Swiss consulate in Paris.- Picking cranberries.- The Yamal peninsula and digging caves in the snow.- Brain tomography, geometry, and algebra.- Inedible hares.- A question about the bitch of Rabinovitch.- The cemetery at Aksin’ino

Blurb

This charming book by one of the leading mathematicians of our day, Vladimir Igorevich Arnold, is a rambling collection of his memories from early childhood up to recent days. Some marvellous historical and geographical stories occupy a large part of the book. Their characteristic lively style draws the reader into the past as though it were happening today.

The book will be of value to historians of twentieth-century mathematics as source material, and mathematicians will read it for the pure pleasure of learning more about one of their most eminent colleagues. It has both humor and pathos, and even a non-mathematical reader will find it very difficult to put it away.