Indiscrete Thoughts gives a glimpse into a world that has seldom been described that of science and technology as seen through the eyes of a mathematician. The era covered by this book, 1950 to 1990, was surely one of the golden ages of science as well as the American university.
Cherished myths are debunked along the way as Gian-Carlo Rota takes pleasure in portraying, warts and all, some of the great scientific personalities of the period Stanislav Ulam (who, together with Edward Teller, signed the patent application for the hydrogen bomb), Solomon Lefschetz (Chairman in...
Indiscrete Thoughts gives a glimpse into a world that has seldom been described that of science and technology as seen through the eyes of...
Ten years have passed since the publication of the first English edition. "Ten years is a long time, even when you are not in jail. " If we recall that the article on Riemann appeared in (Nature) in 1976, this Russian vaudeville joke is more than - propriate. Only the author's youth can account for the insane enterprise of presenting the scientific achievements and the biography of Riemann in 60 pages and the c- nection between physics and topology in the same space. Judging from the fact that the book sold out and got favorable reviews, there is a demand for publications of this type. It...
Ten years have passed since the publication of the first English edition. "Ten years is a long time, even when you are not in jail. " If we recall tha...
The name of Bernard Riemann is well known to mathematicians and physicists around the world. His name is indelibly stamped on the literature of mathematics and physics. This remarkable work, rich in insight and scholarship, is addressed to mathematicians, physicists, and philosophers interested in mathematics. It seeks to draw those readers closer to the underlying ideas of Riemann's work and to the development of them in their historical context. This illuminating English-language version of the original German edition will be an important contribution to the literature of the history of...
The name of Bernard Riemann is well known to mathematicians and physicists around the world. His name is indelibly stamped on the literature of mat...
as anywhere today, it is becoming more d- ficult to tell the truth. To be sure, our store of accurate facts is more plentiful now than it has ever been, and the minutest details of history are being thoroughly recorded. Scientists, - men and scholars vie with each other in publishing excruciatingly definitive accounts of all that happens on the natural, political and historical scenes. Unfortunately, telling the truth is not quite the same thing as reciting a rosary of facts. Jos6 Ortega y Gasset, in an adm- able lesson summarized by Antonio Machado's three-line poem, prophetically warned us...
as anywhere today, it is becoming more d- ficult to tell the truth. To be sure, our store of accurate facts is more plentiful now than it has ever bee...
This book is a study of how a particular vision of the unity of mathematics, often called geometric function theory, was created in the 19th century. The central focus is on the convergence of three mathematical topics: the hypergeometric and related linear differential equations, group theory, and on-Euclidean geometry. The text for this second edition has been greatly expanded and revised, and the existing appendices enriched. The exercises have been retained, making it possible to use the book as a companion to mathematics courses at the graduate level.
This book is a study of how a particular vision of the unity of mathematics, often called geometric function theory, was created in the 19th centur...
This volume offers insights into the development of mathematical logic over the last century. Arising from a special session of the history of logic at an American Mathematical Society meeting, the chapters explore technical innovations, the philosophical consequences of work during the period, and the historical and social context in which the logicians worked. The discussions herein will appeal to mathematical logicians and historians of mathematics, as well as philosophers and historians of science.
This volume offers insights into the development of mathematical logic over the last century. Arising from a special session of the history of logi...
This volume contains the Notes of a seminar on Intersection Ho- logy which met weekly during the Spring 1983 at the University of Bern, Switzerland. Its main purpose was to give an introduction to the pie- wise linear and sheaf theoretic aspects of the theory Goresky and R. MacPherson, Topology 19(1980) 135-162, Inv. Math. 72(1983) 17-130) and to some of its applications, for an audience assumed to have some familiarity with algebraic topology and sheaf theory. These Notes can be divided roughly into three parts. The first one to is chiefly devoted to the piecewise linear version of the...
This volume contains the Notes of a seminar on Intersection Ho- logy which met weekly during the Spring 1983 at the University of Bern, Switzerland. I...
"This book revives and vastly expands the classical theory of resultants and discriminants. Most of the main new results of the book have been published earlier in more than a dozen joint papers of the authors. The book nicely complements these original papers with many examples illustrating both old and new results of the theory." Mathematical Reviews"
"This book revives and vastly expands the classical theory of resultants and discriminants. Most of the main new results of the book have been publ...
This volume surveys the development of combinatorics since 1930 by presenting in chronological order the fundamental results of the subject proved in over five decades of original papers by: T. van Aardenne-Ehrenfest.- R.L. Brooks.- N.G. de Bruijn.- G.F. Clements.- H.H. Crapo.- R.P. Dilworth.- J. Edmonds.- P. Erdos.- L.R. Ford, Jr.- D.R. Fulkerson.- D. Gale.- L. Geissinger.- I.J. Good.- R.L. Graham.- A.W. Hales.- P. Hall.- P.R. Halmos.- R.I. Jewett.- I. Kaplansky.- P.W. Kasteleyn.- G. Katona.- D.J. Kleitman.- K. Leeb.- B. Lindstrom.- L. Lovasz.- D. Lubell.- C. St. J.A. Nash-Williams.- G....
This volume surveys the development of combinatorics since 1930 by presenting in chronological order the fundamental results of the subject proved ...
"An elegantly written, introductory overview of the field, with a near perfect choice of what to include and what not, enlivened in places by historical tidbits and made eminently readable throughout by crisp language. It has succeeded in doing the near-impossible it has made a subject which is generally inhospitable to nonspecialists because of its family jargon appear nonintimidating even to a beginning graduate student."
The Journal of the Indian Institute of Science
"The book under review gives a comprehensive...
"An elegantly written, introductory overview of the field, with a near perfect choice of what to include and what not, enlivened in places by h...
