Download or read book How Mathematicians Think written by William Byers and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2010-05-02 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To many outsiders, mathematicians appear to think like computers, grimly grinding away with a strict formal logic and moving methodically--even algorithmically--from one black-and-white deduction to another. Yet mathematicians often describe their most important breakthroughs as creative, intuitive responses to ambiguity, contradiction, and paradox. A unique examination of this less-familiar aspect of mathematics, How Mathematicians Think reveals that mathematics is a profoundly creative activity and not just a body of formalized rules and results. Nonlogical qualities, William Byers shows, play an essential role in mathematics. Ambiguities, contradictions, and paradoxes can arise when ideas developed in different contexts come into contact. Uncertainties and conflicts do not impede but rather spur the development of mathematics. Creativity often means bringing apparently incompatible perspectives together as complementary aspects of a new, more subtle theory. The secret of mathematics is not to be found only in its logical structure. The creative dimensions of mathematical work have great implications for our notions of mathematical and scientific truth, and How Mathematicians Think provides a novel approach to many fundamental questions. Is mathematics objectively true? Is it discovered or invented? And is there such a thing as a "final" scientific theory? Ultimately, How Mathematicians Think shows that the nature of mathematical thinking can teach us a great deal about the human condition itself.
Download or read book A History of Abstract Algebra written by Israel Kleiner and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-09-20 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book does nothing less than provide an account of the intellectual lineage of abstract algebra. The development of abstract algebra was propelled by the need for new tools to address certain classical problems that appeared insoluble by classical means. A major theme of the book is to show how abstract algebra has arisen in attempting to solve some of these classical problems, providing a context from which the reader may gain a deeper appreciation of the mathematics involved. Mathematics instructors, algebraists, and historians of science will find the work a valuable reference.
Download or read book Godel written by John L. Casti and published by . This book was released on 2009-04-21 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kurt Gödel was an intellectual giant. His Incompleteness Theorem turned not only mathematics but also the whole world of science and philosophy on its head. Shattering hopes that logic would, in the end, allow us a complete understanding of the universe, Gödel's theorem also raised many provocative questions: What are the limits of rational thought? Can we ever fully understand the machines we build? Or the inner workings of our own minds? How should mathematicians proceed in the absence of complete certainty about their results? Equally legendary were Gödel's eccentricities, his close friendship with Albert Einstein, and his paranoid fear of germs that eventually led to his death from self-starvation. Now, in the first book for a general audience on this strange and brilliant thinker, John Casti and Werner DePauli bring the legend to life.
Download or read book An Introduction to Symplectic Geometry written by Rolf Berndt and published by American Mathematical Soc.. This book was released on 2001 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Symplectic geometry is a central topic of current research in mathematics. Indeed, symplectic methods are key ingredients in the study of dynamical systems, differential equations, algebraic geometry, topology, mathematical physics and representations of Lie groups. This book is a true introduction to symplectic geometry, assuming only a general background in analysis and familiarity with linear algebra. It starts with the basics of the geometry of symplectic vector spaces. Then, symplectic manifolds are defined and explored. In addition to the essential classic results, such as Darboux's theorem, more recent results and ideas are also included here, such as symplectic capacity and pseudoholomorphic curves. These ideas have revolutionized the subject. The main examples of symplectic manifolds are given, including the cotangent bundle, Kähler manifolds, and coadjoint orbits. Further principal ideas are carefully examined, such as Hamiltonian vector fields, the Poisson bracket, and connections with contact manifolds. Berndt describes some of the close connections between symplectic geometry and mathematical physics in the last two chapters of the book. In particular, the moment map is defined and explored, both mathematically and in its relation to physics. He also introduces symplectic reduction, which is an important tool for reducing the number of variables in a physical system and for constructing new symplectic manifolds from old. The final chapter is on quantization, which uses symplectic methods to take classical mechanics to quantum mechanics. This section includes a discussion of the Heisenberg group and the Weil (or metaplectic) representation of the symplectic group. Several appendices provide background material on vector bundles, on cohomology, and on Lie groups and Lie algebras and their representations. Berndt's presentation of symplectic geometry is a clear and concise introduction to the major methods and applications of the subject, and requires only a minimum of prerequisites. This book would be an excellent text for a graduate course or as a source for anyone who wishes to learn about symplectic geometry.
Download or read book The Neutron protron Interaction written by Richard S. Christian and published by . This book was released on 1949 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book What Is Integrability written by Vladimir E. Zakharov and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The idea of devoting a complete book to this topic was born at one of the Workshops on Nonlinear and Turbulent Processes in Physics taking place reg ularly in Kiev. With the exception of E. D. Siggia and N. Ercolani, all authors of this volume were participants at the third of these workshops. All of them were acquainted with each other and with each other's work. Yet it seemed to be somewhat of a discovery that all of them were and are trying to understand the same problem - the problem of integrability of dynamical systems, primarily Hamiltonian ones with an infinite number of degrees of freedom. No doubt that they (or to be more exact, we) were led to this by the logical process of scientific evolution which often leads to independent, almost simultaneous discoveries. Integrable, or, more accurately, exactly solvable equations are essential to theoretical and mathematical physics. One could say that they constitute the "mathematical nucleus" of theoretical physics whose goal is to describe real clas sical or quantum systems. For example, the kinetic gas theory may be considered to be a theory of a system which is trivially integrable: the system of classical noninteracting particles. One of the main tasks of quantum electrodynamics is the development of a theory of an integrable perturbed quantum system, namely, noninteracting electromagnetic and electron-positron fields.
Download or read book Mathematics Elsewhere written by Marcia Ascher and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-05 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mathematics Elsewhere is a fascinating and important contribution to a global view of mathematics. Presenting mathematical ideas of peoples from a variety of small-scale and traditional cultures, it humanizes our view of mathematics and expands our conception of what is mathematical. Through engaging examples of how particular societies structure time, reach decisions about the future, make models and maps, systematize relationships, and create intriguing figures, Marcia Ascher demonstrates that traditional cultures have mathematical ideas that are far more substantial and sophisticated than is generally acknowledged. Malagasy divination rituals, for example, rely on complex algebraic algorithms. And some cultures use calendars far more abstract and elegant than our own. Ascher also shows that certain concepts assumed to be universal--that time is a single progression, for instance, or that equality is a static relationship--are not. The Basque notion of equivalence, for example, is a dynamic and temporal one not adequately captured by the familiar equal sign. Other ideas taken to be the exclusive province of professionally trained Western mathematicians are, in fact, shared by people in many societies. The ideas discussed come from geographically varied cultures, including the Borana and Malagasy of Africa, the Tongans and Marshall Islanders of Oceania, the Tamil of South India, the Basques of Western Europe, and the Balinese and Kodi of Indonesia. This book belongs on the shelves of mathematicians, math students, and math educators, and in the hands of anyone interested in traditional societies or how people think. Illustrating how mathematical ideas play a vital role in diverse human endeavors from navigation to social interaction to religion, it offers--through the vehicle of mathematics--unique cultural encounters to any reader.
Download or read book Three Dimensional Elasticity written by and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 1988-04-01 with total page 495 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is a thorough introduction to contemporary research in elasticity, and may be used as a working textbook at the graduate level for courses in pure or applied mathematics or in continuum mechanics. It provides a thorough description (with emphasis on the nonlinear aspects) of the two competing mathematical models of three-dimensional elasticity, together with a mathematical analysis of these models. The book is as self-contained as possible.
Download or read book Mathematical Publishing written by Steven George Krantz and published by American Mathematical Soc.. This book was released on 2005 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mathematicians are expected to publish their work: in journals, conference proceedings, and books. It is vital to advancing their careers. Later, some are asked to become editors. However, most mathematicians are trained to do mathematics, not to publish it. But here, finally, for graduate students and researchers interested in publishing their work, Steven G. Krantz, the respected author of several "how-to" guides in mathematics, shares his experience as an author, editor, editorial board member, and independent publisher. This new volume is an informative, comprehensive guidebook to publishing mathematics. Krantz describes both the general setting of mathematical publishing and the specifics about all the various publishing situations mathematicians may encounter. As with his other books, Krantz's style is engaging and frank. He gives advice on how to get your book published, how to get organized as an editor, what to do when things go wrong, and much more. He describes the people, the language (including a glossary), and the process of publishing both books and journals. Steven G. Krantz is an accomplished mathematician and an award-winning author. He has published more than 130 research articles and 45 books. He has worked as an editor of several book series, research journals, and for the Notices of the AMS. He is also the founder of the Journal of Geometric Analysis. Other titles available from the AMS by Steven G. Krantz are How to Teach Mathematics, A Primer of Mathematical Writing, A Mathematician's Survival Guide, and Techniques of Problem Solving.
Download or read book Linear Algebra and Differential Equations written by Alexander Givental and published by American Mathematical Soc.. This book was released on 2001 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The material presented in this book corresponds to a semester-long course, ``Linear Algebra and Differential Equations'', taught to sophomore students at UC Berkeley. In contrast with typical undergraduate texts, the book offers a unifying point of view on the subject, namely that linear algebra solves several clearly-posed classification problems about such geometric objects as quadratic forms and linear transformations. This attractive viewpoint on the classical theory agrees well with modern tendencies in advanced mathematics and is shared by many research mathematicians. However, the idea of classification seldom finds its way to basic programs in mathematics, and is usually unfamiliar to undergraduates. To meet the challenge, the book first guides the reader through the entire agenda of linear algebra in the elementary environment of two-dimensional geometry, and prior to spelling out the general idea and employing it in higher dimensions, shows how it works in applications such as linear ODE systems or stability of equilibria. Appropriate as a text for regular junior and honors sophomore level college classes, the book is accessible to high school students familiar with basic calculus, and can also be useful to engineering graduate students.
Download or read book Elliptic Partial Differential Equations written by Qing Han and published by American Mathematical Soc.. This book was released on 2011 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is based on PDE courses given by the authors at the Courant Institute and at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. Presented are basic methods for obtaining various a priori estimates for second-order equations of elliptic type with particular emphasis on maximal principles, Harnack inequalities, and their applications. The equations considered in the book are linear; however, the presented methods also apply to nonlinear problems.
Download or read book Nonplussed written by Julian Havil and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2010-08-02 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Math—the application of reasonable logic to reasonable assumptions—usually produces reasonable results. But sometimes math generates astonishing paradoxes—conclusions that seem completely unreasonable or just plain impossible but that are nevertheless demonstrably true. Did you know that a losing sports team can become a winning one by adding worse players than its opponents? Or that the thirteenth of the month is more likely to be a Friday than any other day? Or that cones can roll unaided uphill? In Nonplussed!—a delightfully eclectic collection of paradoxes from many different areas of math—popular-math writer Julian Havil reveals the math that shows the truth of these and many other unbelievable ideas. Nonplussed! pays special attention to problems from probability and statistics, areas where intuition can easily be wrong. These problems include the vagaries of tennis scoring, what can be deduced from tossing a needle, and disadvantageous games that form winning combinations. Other chapters address everything from the historically important Torricelli's Trumpet to the mind-warping implications of objects that live on high dimensions. Readers learn about the colorful history and people associated with many of these problems in addition to their mathematical proofs. Nonplussed! will appeal to anyone with a calculus background who enjoys popular math books or puzzles.
Download or read book Fuchsian Reduction written by Satyanad Kichenassamy and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-09-18 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This four-part text beautifully interweaves theory and applications in Fuchsian Reduction. Background results in weighted Sobolev and Holder spaces as well as Nash-Moser implicit function theorem are provided. Most chapters contain a problem section and notes with references to the literature. This volume can be used as a text in graduate courses in PDEs and/or Algebra, or as a resource for researchers working with applications to Fuchsian Reduction. The comprehensive approach features the inclusion of problems and bibliographic notes.
Download or read book The Mathematics of Soap Films Explorations with Maple written by John Oprea and published by American Mathematical Soc.. This book was released on 2000 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nature tries to minimize the surface area of a soap film through the action of surface tension. The process can be understood mathematically by using differential geometry, complex analysis, and the calculus of variations. This book employs ingredients from each of these subjects to tell the mathematical story of soap films. The text is fully self-contained, bringing together a mixture of types of mathematics along with a bit of the physics that underlies the subject. The development is primarily from first principles, requiring no advanced background material from either mathematics or physics. Through the Maple applications, the reader is given tools for creating the shapes that are being studied. Thus, you can "see" a fluid rising up an inclined plane, create minimal surfaces from complex variables data, and investigate the "true" shape of a balloon. Oprea also includes descriptions of experiments and photographs that let you see real soap films on wire frames. The theory of minimal surfaces is a beautiful subject, which naturally introduces the reader to fascinating, yet accessible, topics in mathematics. Oprea's presentation is rich with examples, explanations, and applications. It would make an excellent text for a senior seminar or for independent study by upper-division mathematics or science majors.
Download or read book Integral Bases for Affine Lie Algebras and Their Universal Enveloping Algebras written by David Mitzman and published by American Mathematical Soc.. This book was released on 1985 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A revised version of the author's PhD thesis written under the supervision of J Lepowsky at Rutgers University in 1983.
Download or read book Theory and Applications of Special Functions written by Mourad E. H. Ismail and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-03-30 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of articles on various aspects of q-series and special functions dedicated to Mizan Rahman. It also includes an article by Askey, Ismail, and Koelink on Rahman’s mathematical contributions and how they influenced the recent upsurge in the subject.
Download or read book Translations of Mathematical Monographs written by and published by . This book was released on 1962 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
