"The object of the following chapters is not to teach mathematics, but to enable students from the very beginning of their course to know what the science is about, and why it is necessarily the foundation of exact thought as applied to natural phenomena." Thus begins this volume by the prominent English philosopher and mathematician Alfred North Whitehead, a concise statement on the nature and meaning of mathematics for the general student. Expertly...

Biologists have long dismissed mathematics as being unable to meaningfully contribute to our understanding of living beings. Within the past ten years, however, mathematicians have proven that they hold the key to unlocking the mysteries of our world -- and ourselves. In The Mathematics of Life, Ian Stewart provides a fascinating overview of the vital but little-recognized role mathematics has played in pulling back the curtain on the hidden complexities...

Volume 1 of an authoritative two-volume set that covers the essentials of mathematics and includes every landmark innovation and every important figure. This volume features Euclid, Apollonius, others.

More than a history of mathematics, this lively book traces mathematical ideas and processes to their sources, stressing the methods used by the masters of the ancient world. Author Tobias Dantzig portrays the human story behind mathematics, showing how flashes of insight in the minds of certain gifted individuals helped mathematics take enormous forward strides. Dantzig demonstrates how the Greeks organized their precursors' melange of geometric...

Volume 2 of 3-volume set containing complete English text of all 13 books of the Elements plus critical analysis of each definition, postulate, and proposition. Covers textual and linguistic matters; mathematical analyses of Euclid's ideas; classical, medieval, Renaissance and modern commentators; refutations, supports, extrapolations, reinterpretations and historical notes. Vol. 2 includes Books III-IX: Circles, relationships, rectilineal figures....

Jacques Hadamard (1865-1963), an internationally known mathematician, was born in Versailles and lectured at universities throughout the world, including Hravard, Princeton, Stanford, and Columbia Universities, and at the Institute for Advanced Study. Fifty years ago when Jacques Hadamard set out to explore how mathematicians invent new ideas, he considered the creative experiences of some of the greatest thinkers of his generation, such as George...

The complete works of antiquity's great geometer appear here in a highly accessible English translation by a distinguished scholar. Remarkable for his range of thought and his mastery of treatment, Archimedes addressed such topics as the famous problems of the ratio of the areas of a cylinder and an inscribed sphere; the measurement of a circle; the properties of conoids, spheroids, and spirals; and the quadrature of the parabola. This edition offers...

Absorbing and entertaining, these thirty-two articles by distinguished educators offer a reader-friendly introduction to the history of mathematics. The newly corrected and updated essays cover eight centuries of discoveries, ranging from the medieval practice of finger calculus to the pioneering work of Leonhard Euler. Fascinating topics include the geometry behind the windows of Gothic churches, the development of complex numbers, the evolution...

This reader-friendly volume groups the patterns of mathematics into five archetypes: numbers, space, logic, infinity, and information. Rudy Rucker presents an accessible introduction to each of these important areas, reflecting intelligence gathered from the frontiers of mathematical thought. More than 100 drawings illuminate explorations of digital versus analog processes, logic as a computing tool, communication as information transmission, and...

The writings of Newton, Leibniz, Pascal, Riemann, Bernoulli, and others in a comprehensive selection of 125 treatises dating from the Renaissance to the late 19th century - most unavailable elsewhere. Grouped in five sections: Number; Algebra; Geometry; Probability; and Calculus, Functions, and Quaternions. Includes a biographical-historical introduction for each article.