Download or read book Maverick Mathematician written by Ann Moyal and published by ANU E Press. This book was released on 2006-08-01 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "J.E. Moyal has been pronounced 'one of Australia's most remarkable thinkers'. Yet, he was, essentially, a scientific maverick. Educated in a modest high school in Tel Aviv, he took himself to France to train as an engineer, statistician and mathematician and escaped to England as France fell. It was from outside academia that he entered into communication with the 'high priest' of British theoretical physics, P.A.M. Dirac, challenging him with the idea of a statistical basis of quantum mechanics. Their correspondence forms the core of this book and opens up an important and hitherto unknown chapter for physicists, mathematicians and historians of science. Moyal's classic paper, 'A statistical basis for quantum mechanics', also reproduced here in full, has come to underlie an explosion of research and to underpin an array of major technological developments."--Publisher's description.

Download or read book Memoirs of a Maverick Mathematician written by Zoltan Paul Dienes and published by Upfront Publishing. This book was released on 2003 with total page 580 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dr Zoltan Dienes is a world-famous theorist and tireless practitioner of the 'new mathematics' - an approach to mathematics learning which uses games, songs and dance to make it more appealing to children. Holder of numerous honorary degrees, Dr Dienes has had a long and fruitful career, breaking new ground and gaining many followers with his revolutionary ideas of learning often complex mathematical concepts in such fun ways that children are often unaware that they are learning anything.This is an honest account of an academic radical, covering his sometimes unconventional childhood in Hungary, France, Germany and Britain, his peripatetic academic career, his successes and failures and his personal affairs. Occasionally sad or moving, frequently amusing and always fascinating, this autobiography shares some of the intelligence, spirit and humanity that have made Dr Dienes such a landmark figure in mathematics education. A 'must-read' for anyone with a professional interest in the field, this is also an absorbing and frank book for anyone interested in the life of a man of ideas who was not afraid to take on the might of the traditionalist educational establishment.

Download or read book The Fractalist written by Benoit Mandelbrot and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2014-01-14 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here is the remarkable life story of Benoit Mandelbrot, the creator of fractal geometry, and his unparalleled contributions to science mathematics, the financial world, and the arts. Mandelbrot recounts his early years in Warsaw and in Paris, where he was mentored by an eminent mathematician uncle, through his days evading the Nazis in occupied France, to his education at Caltech, Princeton, and MIT, and his illustrious career at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center. An outside to mainstream scientific research, he managed to do what others had thought impossible: develop a new geometry that combines revelatory beauty with a radical way of unfolding formerly hidden scientific laws. In the process he was able to use geometry to solve fresh, real-world problems. With exuberance and an eloquent fluency, Benoit Mandelbrot recounts the high points of his fascinating life, offering us a glimpse into the evolution of his extraordinary mind. With full-color inserts and black-and-white photographs throughout.

Download or read book Make Maverick Scientist written by Forrest M. Mims and published by Maker Media, Inc.. This book was released on 2024-02-14 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Maverick Scientist is the memoir of Forrest Mims, who forged a distinguished scientific career despite having no academic training in science. Named one of the "50 Best Brains in Science" by Discover magazine, Forrest shares what sparked his childhood curiosity and relates a lifetime of improbable, dramatic, and occasionally outright dangerous experiences in the world of science. At thirteen he invented a new method of rocket control. At seventeen he designed and built an analog computer that could translate Russian into English and that the Smithsonian collected as an example of an early hobby computer. While majoring in government at Texas A&M University, Forrest created a hand-held, radar-like device to help guide the blind. And during his military service, he had to be given special clearance to do top secret laser research at the Air Force Weapons Lab. Why? Because while he lacked the required engineering degree, they wanted his outside-the-box thinking on the project. He went on to co-found MITS, Inc., producer of the first commercially successful personal computer, wrote a series of electronics books for Radio Shack that sold more than seven million copies, and designed the music synthesizer circuit that became known as the infamous Atari Punk Console. All this came before he started consulting for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and NOAA's famous Mauna Loa Observatory, and earning the prestigious Rolex Award. This intimate portrait of a self-made scientist shares a revelatory look inside the scientific community, and tells the story of a lifelong learner who stood by his convictions even when pressured by the establishment to get in line with conventional wisdom. With dozens of personal photos and illustrations, Maverick Scientist serves as proof that to be a scientist, you simply need to do science.

Download or read book Cultures of Mathematics and Logic written by Shier Ju and published by Birkhäuser. This book was released on 2016-08-10 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book gathers the proceedings of the conference "Cultures of Mathematics and Logic," held in Guangzhou, China. The event was the third in a series of interdisciplinary, international conferences emphasizing the cultural components of philosophy of mathematics and logic. It brought together researchers from many disciplines whose work sheds new light on the diversity of mathematical and logical cultures and practices. In this context, the cultural diversity can be diachronical (different cultures in different historical periods), geographical (different cultures in different regions), or sociological in nature.

Download or read book PAUL HALMOS Celebrating 50 Years of Mathematics written by John Ewing and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paul Halmos will celebrate his 75th birthday on the 3rd of March 1991. This volume, from colleagues, is an expression of affection for the man and respect for his contributions as scholar, writer, and teacher. It contains articles about Paul, about the times in which he worked and the places he has been, and about mathematics. Paul has furthered his profession in many ways and this collection reflects that diversity. Articles about Paul are not biographical, but rather tell about his ideas, his philosophy, and his style. Articles about the times and places in which Paul has worked describe people, events, and ways in which Paul has influenced students and colleagues over the past 50 years. Articles about mathematics are about all kinds of mathematics, including operator theory and Paul's research in the subject. This volume represents a slice of mathematical life and it shows how many parts of mathematics Paul has touched. It is fitting that this volume has been produced with the support and cooperation of Springer-Verlag. For over 35 years, Paul has contributed to mathematics publishing as founder and editor of many outstanding series.

Download or read book A Concise Treatise On Quantum Mechanics In Phase Space written by Thomas L Curtright and published by World Scientific Publishing Company. This book was released on 2013-11-11 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a text on quantum mechanics formulated simultaneously in terms of position and momentum, i.e. in phase space. It is written at an introductory level, drawing on the remarkable history of the subject for inspiration and motivation. Wigner functions — density matrices in a special Weyl representation — and star products are the cornerstones of the formalism.The resulting framework is a rich source of physical intuition. It has been used to describe transport in quantum optics, structure and dynamics in nuclear physics, chaos, and decoherence in quantum computing. It is also of importance in signal processing and the mathematics of algebraic deformation. A remarkable aspect of its internal logic, pioneered by Groenewold and Moyal, has only emerged in the last quarter-century: it furnishes a third, alternative way to formulate and understand quantum mechanics, independent of the conventional Hilbert space or path integral approaches to the subject.In this logically complete and self-standing formulation, one need not choose sides between coordinate or momentum space variables. It works in full phase space, accommodating the uncertainty principle; and it offers unique insights into the classical limit of quantum theory. The observables in this formulation are c-number functions in phase space instead of operators, with the same interpretation as their classical counterparts, only composed together in novel algebraic ways using star products.This treatise provides an introductory overview and supplementary material suitable for an advanced undergraduate or a beginning graduate course in quantum mechanics.

Download or read book The Making of Mathematics written by Carlo Cellucci and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-03-07 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers an alternative to current philosophy of mathematics: heuristic philosophy of mathematics. In accordance with the heuristic approach, the philosophy of mathematics must concern itself with the making of mathematics and in particular with mathematical discovery. In the past century, mainstream philosophy of mathematics has claimed that the philosophy of mathematics cannot concern itself with the making of mathematics but only with finished mathematics, namely mathematics as presented in published works. On this basis, mainstream philosophy of mathematics has maintained that mathematics is theorem proving by the axiomatic method. This view has turned out to be untenable because of Gödel’s incompleteness theorems, which have shown that the view that mathematics is theorem proving by the axiomatic method does not account for a large number of basic features of mathematics. By using the heuristic approach, this book argues that mathematics is not theorem proving by the axiomatic method, but is rather problem solving by the analytic method. The author argues that this view can account for the main items of the mathematical process, those being: mathematical objects, demonstrations, definitions, diagrams, notations, explanations, applicability, beauty, and the role of mathematical knowledge.

Download or read book The Art of Modeling Dynamic Systems written by Foster Morrison and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2012-03-07 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text illustrates the roles of statistical methods, coordinate transformations, and mathematical analysis in mapping complex, unpredictable dynamical systems. It describes the benefits and limitations of the available modeling tools, showing engineers and scientists how any system can be rendered simpler and more predictable. Written by a well-known authority in the field, this volume employs practical examples and analogies to make models more meaningful. The more universal methods appear in considerable detail, and advanced dynamic principles feature easy-to-understand examples. The text draws careful distinctions between mathematical abstractions and observable realities. Additional topics include the role of pure mathematics, the limitations of numerical methods, forecasting in the presence of chaos and randomness, and dynamics without calculus. Specialized techniques and case histories are coordinated with a carefully selected and annotated bibliography. The original edition was a Library of Science Main Selection in May, 1991. This new Dover edition features corrections by the author and a new Preface.

Download or read book Humanizing Mathematics and its Philosophy written by Bharath Sriraman and published by Birkhäuser. This book was released on 2017-11-07 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Festschrift contains numerous colorful and eclectic essays from well-known mathematicians, philosophers, logicians, and linguists celebrating the 90th birthday of Reuben Hersh. The essays offer, in part, attempts to answer the following questions set forth by Reuben himself as a focus for this volume: Can practicing mathematicians, as such, contribute anything to the philosophy of math? Can or should philosophers of math, as such, say anything to practicing mathematicians? Twenty or fifty years from now, what will be similar, and what will, or could, or should be altogether different: About the philosophy of math? About math education? About math research institutions? About data processing and scientific computing? The essays also offer glimpses into Reuben’s fertile mind and his lasting influence on the mathematical community, as well as revealing the diverse roots, obstacles and philosophical dispositions that characterize the working lives of mathematicians. With contributions from a veritable “who’s who” list of 20th century luminaries from mathematics and philosophy, as well as from Reuben himself, this volume will appeal to a wide variety of readers from curious undergraduates to prominent mathematicians.

Download or read book Advanced Topics in Quantum Mechanics written by Marcos Mariño and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-12-09 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Quantum mechanics is one of the most successful theories in science, and is relevant to nearly all modern topics of scientific research. This textbook moves beyond the introductory and intermediate principles of quantum mechanics frequently covered in undergraduate and graduate courses, presenting in-depth coverage of many more exciting and advanced topics. The author provides a clearly structured text for advanced students, graduates and researchers looking to deepen their knowledge of theoretical quantum mechanics. The book opens with a brief introduction covering key concepts and mathematical tools, followed by a detailed description of the Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin (WKB) method. Two alternative formulations of quantum mechanics are then presented: Wigner's phase space formulation and Feynman's path integral formulation. The text concludes with a chapter examining metastable states and resonances. Step-by-step derivations, worked examples and physical applications are included throughout.

Download or read book The Philosophy of Mathematical Practice written by Paolo Mancosu and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2008-06-19 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contemporary philosophy of mathematics offers us an embarrassment of riches. Among the major areas of work one could list developments of the classical foundational programs, analytic approaches to epistemology and ontology of mathematics, and developments at the intersection of history and philosophy of mathematics. But anyone familiar with contemporary philosophy of mathematics will be aware of the need for new approaches that pay closer attention to mathematical practice. This book is the first attempt to give a coherent and unified presentation of this new wave of work in philosophy of mathematics. The new approach is innovative at least in two ways. First, it holds that there are important novel characteristics of contemporary mathematics that are just as worthy of philosophical attention as the distinction between constructive and non-constructive mathematics at the time of the foundational debates. Secondly, it holds that many topics which escape purely formal logical treatment - such as visualization, explanation, and understanding - can nonetheless be subjected to philosophical analysis. The Philosophy of Mathematical Practice comprises an introduction by the editor and eight chapters written by some of the leading scholars in the field. Each chapter consists of short introduction to the general topic of the chapter followed by a longer research article in the area. The eight topics selected represent a broad spectrum of contemporary philosophical reflection on different aspects of mathematical practice: diagrammatic reasoning and representation systems; visualization; mathematical explanation; purity of methods; mathematical concepts; the philosophical relevance of category theory; philosophical aspects of computer science in mathematics; the philosophical impact of recent developments in mathematical physics.

Download or read book Black Bodies and Quantum Cats written by Jennifer Ouellette and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2005-12-01 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Physics, once known as "natural philosophy," is the most basic science, explaining the world we live in, from the largest scale down to the very, very, very smallest, and our understanding of it has changed over many centuries. In Black Bodies and Quantum Cats, science writer Jennifer Ouellette traces key developments in the field, setting descriptions of the fundamentals of physics in their historical context as well as against a broad cultural backdrop. Newton’s laws are illustrated via the film Addams Family Values, while Back to the Future demonstrates the finer points of special relativity. Poe’s "The Purloined Letter" serves to illuminate the mysterious nature of neutrinos, and Jeanette Winterson’s novel Gut Symmetries provides an elegant metaphorical framework for string theory. An enchanting and edifying read, Black Bodies and Quantum Cats shows that physics is not an arcane field of study but a profoundly human endeavor—and a fundamental part of our everyday world.

Download or read book Maverick Genius written by Phillip F. Schewe and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2013-02-26 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Freeman Dyson has been influential in many fields over his long and legendary career, including quantum physics, national defense, space, and religion. In this definitive biography, Schewe examines the life of one of the most innovative thinkers.

Download or read book Branches of Asanteism written by Abdul Karim Bangura and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-10-03 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Branches of Asanteism explores the epistemologies and research methodologies that have sprung from Mwalimu Molefi Kete Asante’s treatises on Afrocentricity. The book identifies and analyzes thirteen such epistemologies and methodologies while defining and explicating the various “branches” of Asante’s idea of Afrocentricity.

Download or read book From Combinatorics to Philosophy written by Ernesto Damiani and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-07-24 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Combinatorics to Philosophy: The Legacy of G. -C. Rota provides an assessment of G. -C. Rota's legacy to current international research issues in mathematics, philosophy and computer science. This volume includes chapters by leading researchers, as well as a number of invited research papers. Rota’s legacy connects European and Italian research communities to the USA by providing inspiration to several generations of researchers in combinatorics, philosophy and computer science. From Combinatorics to Philosophy: The Legacy of G. -C. Rota is of valuable interest to research institutions and university libraries worldwide. This book is also designed for advanced-level students in mathematics, computer science, and philosophy.

Download or read book International Biographical Dictionary of Computer Pioneers written by John A. N. Lee and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 1995 with total page 1250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First Published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.