A Brief History Of Mathematical Thought

Emblazoned on many advertisements for the wildly popular game of Sudoku are the reassuring words, -no mathematical knowledge required.- Anxiety about math plagues many of us, and school memories can still summon intense loathing. In A Brief History of Mathematical Thought, Luke Heaton shows that much of what many think-and fear-about mathematics is misplaced, and to overcome our insecurities we need to understand its history. To help, he offers a lively guide into and through the world of mathematics and mathematicians, one in which patterns and arguments are traced through logic in a language grounded in concrete experience. Heaton reveals how Greek and Roman mathematicians like Pythagoras, Euclid, and Archimedes helped shaped the early logic of mathematics; how the Fibonacci sequence, the rise of algebra, and the invention of calculus are connected; how clocks, coordinates, and logical padlocks work mathematically; and how, in the twentieth century, Alan Turing's revolutionary work on the concept of computation laid the groundwork for the modern world. A Brief History of Mathematical Thought situates mathematics as part of, and essential to, lived experience. Understanding it requires not abstract thought or numbing memorization but an historical imagination and a view to its origins. --

Important study focuses on the revival and assimilation of ancient Greek mathematics in the 13th-16th centuries, via Arabic science, and the 16th-century development of symbolic algebra. 1968 edition. Bibliography.

A brilliant tour of mathematical thought and a guide to becoming a better thinker, How Not to Be Wrong shows that math is not just a long list of rules to be learned and carried out by rote. Math touches everything we do; It's what makes the world make sense. Using the mathematician's methods and hard-won insights-minus the jargon-professor and popular columnist Jordan Ellenberg guides general readers through his ideas with rigor and lively irreverence, infusing everything from election results to baseball to the existence of God and the psychology of slime molds with a heightened sense of clarity and wonder. Armed with the tools of mathematics, we can see the hidden structures beneath the messy and chaotic surface of our daily lives. How Not to Be Wrong shows us how--Publisher's description.

Covering both the history of mathematics and of philosophy, Descartes's Mathematical Thought reconstructs the intellectual career of Descartes most comprehensively and originally in a global perspective including the history of early modern China and Japan. Especially, it shows what the concept of "mathesis universalis" meant before and during the period of Descartes and how it influenced the young Descartes. In fact, it was the most fundamental mathematical discipline during the seventeenth century, and for Descartes a key notion which may have led to his novel mathematics of algebraic analysis.

The field of mathematics today represents an ongoing global effort, spanning both countries and centuries. Through this in-depth narrative, students will learn how major mathematical concepts were first derived, as well as how they evolved with the advent of later thinkers shedding new light on various applications. Everything from Euclidean geometry to the philosophy of mathematics is illuminated as readers are transported to the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and beyond to discover the history of mathematical thought

Traces the development of mathematics from its beginnings in Babylonia and ancient Egypt to the work of Riemann and Godel in modern times.

"José Ferreirós has written a magisterial account of the history of set theory which is panoramic, balanced, and engaging. Not only does this book synthesize much previous work and provide fresh insights and points of view, but it also features a major innovation, a full-fledged treatment of the emergence of the set-theoretic approach in mathematics from the early nineteenth century. This takes up Part One of the book. Part Two analyzes the crucial developments in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, above all the work of Cantor, but also Dedekind and the interaction between the two. Lastly, Part Three details the development of set theory up to 1950, taking account of foundational questions and the emergence of the modern axiomatization." (Bulletin of Symbolic Logic)

Where did math come from? Who thought up all those algebra symbols, and why? What is the story behind π π? … negative numbers? … the metric system? … quadratic equations? … sine and cosine? … logs? The 30 independent historical sketches in Math through the Ages answer these questions and many others in an informal, easygoing style that is accessible to teachers, students, and anyone who is curious about the history of mathematical ideas. Each sketch includes Questions and Projects to help you learn more about its topic and to see how the main ideas fit into the bigger picture of history. The 30 short stories are preceded by a 58-page bird's-eye overview of the entire panorama of mathematical history, a whirlwind tour of the most important people, events, and trends that shaped the mathematics we know today. “What to Read Next” and reading suggestions after each sketch provide starting points for readers who want to learn more. This book is ideal for a broad spectrum of audiences, including students in history of mathematics courses at the late high school or early college level, pre-service and in-service teachers, and anyone who just wants to know a little more about the origins of mathematics.