Like Douglas Hofstadter s Godel, Escher, Bach, and David Berlinski s A Tour of the Calculus, Euclid in the Rainforest combines the literary with the mathematical to explore logic the one indispensable tool in man s quest to understand the world. Underpinning both math and science, it is the foundation of every major advancement in knowledge since the time of the ancient Greeks. Through adventure stories and historical narratives populated with a rich and quirky cast of characters, Mazur artfully reveals the less-than-airtight nature of logic and the muddled...
Like Douglas Hofstadter s Godel, Escher, Bach, and David Berlinski s A Tour of the Calculus, Euclid in the Rainforest combines th...
"Beyond doubt the most interesting book on the evolution of mathematics which has ever fallen into my hands."--Albert Einstein Number is an eloquent, accessible tour de force that reveals how the concept of number evolved from prehistoric times through the twentieth century. Tobias Dantzig shows that the development of math--from the invention of counting to the discovery of infinity--is a profoundly human story that progressed by "trying and erring, by groping and stumbling." He shows how commerce, war, and religion led to advances in math, and he recounts the stories of...
"Beyond doubt the most interesting book on the evolution of mathematics which has ever fallen into my hands."--Albert Einstein Number
The fascinating story of an ancient riddle?and what it reveals about the nature of time and space Three millennia ago, the Greek philosopher Zeno constructed a series of logical paradoxes to prove that motion is impossible. Today, these paradoxes remain on the cutting edge of our investigations into the fabric of space and time. Zeno's Paradox uses the motion paradox as a jumping-off point for an exploration of the twenty-five-hundred-year quest to uncover the true nature of the universe. From Galileo to Einstein to Stephen Hawking, some of the greatest minds in history...
The fascinating story of an ancient riddle?and what it reveals about the nature of time and space Three millennia ago, the Greek philosoph...
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...
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 avail...
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...
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 avail...
A mathematical guide to understanding why life can seem to be one big coincidence-and why the odds of just about everything are better than we would think. What are the chances? This is the question we ask ourselves when we encounter the strangest and most seemingly impossible coincidences, like the woman who won the lottery four times or the fact that Lincoln's dreams foreshadowed his own assassination. But, when we look at coincidences mathematically, the odds are a lot better than any of us would have thought. In Fluke, mathematician Joseph Mazur takes a second look at...
A mathematical guide to understanding why life can seem to be one big coincidence-and why the odds of just about everything are better than we woul...
