Download or read book Taming the Unknown written by Victor J. Katz and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-07-21 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is algebra? For some, it is an abstract language of x's and y’s. For mathematics majors and professional mathematicians, it is a world of axiomatically defined constructs like groups, rings, and fields. Taming the Unknown considers how these two seemingly different types of algebra evolved and how they relate. Victor Katz and Karen Parshall explore the history of algebra, from its roots in the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, China, and India, through its development in the medieval Islamic world and medieval and early modern Europe, to its modern form in the early twentieth century. Defining algebra originally as a collection of techniques for determining unknowns, the authors trace the development of these techniques from geometric beginnings in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia and classical Greece. They show how similar problems were tackled in Alexandrian Greece, in China, and in India, then look at how medieval Islamic scholars shifted to an algorithmic stage, which was further developed by medieval and early modern European mathematicians. With the introduction of a flexible and operative symbolism in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, algebra entered into a dynamic period characterized by the analytic geometry that could evaluate curves represented by equations in two variables, thereby solving problems in the physics of motion. This new symbolism freed mathematicians to study equations of degrees higher than two and three, ultimately leading to the present abstract era. Taming the Unknown follows algebra’s remarkable growth through different epochs around the globe.
Download or read book Unknown Quantity written by John Derbyshire and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2006-06-02 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prime Obsession taught us not to be afraid to put the math in a math book. Unknown Quantity heeds the lesson well. So grab your graphing calculators, slip out the slide rules, and buckle up! John Derbyshire is introducing us to algebra through the ages-and it promises to be just what his die-hard fans have been waiting for. "Here is the story of algebra." With this deceptively simple introduction, we begin our journey. Flanked by formulae, shadowed by roots and radicals, escorted by an expert who navigates unerringly on our behalf, we are guaranteed safe passage through even the most treacherous mathematical terrain. Our first encounter with algebraic arithmetic takes us back 38 centuries to the time of Abraham and Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, Ur and Haran, Sodom and Gomorrah. Moving deftly from Abel's proof to the higher levels of abstraction developed by Galois, we are eventually introduced to what algebraists have been focusing on during the last century. As we travel through the ages, it becomes apparent that the invention of algebra was more than the start of a specific discipline of mathematics-it was also the birth of a new way of thinking that clarified both basic numeric concepts as well as our perception of the world around us. Algebraists broke new ground when they discarded the simple search for solutions to equations and concentrated instead on abstract groups. This dramatic shift in thinking revolutionized mathematics. Written for those among us who are unencumbered by a fear of formulae, Unknown Quantity delivers on its promise to present a history of algebra. Astonishing in its bold presentation of the math and graced with narrative authority, our journey through the world of algebra is at once intellectually satisfying and pleasantly challenging.
Download or read book Alas for the Pelicans written by Anne Chittleborough and published by Wakefield Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1802 a Frenchman and an Englishman famously encountered each other off the shores of South Australia. The voyages of discovery of Nicolas Baudin and Matthew Flinders opened the way for the increasingly rapid colonisation of 'Terra Australis'.
Download or read book Language and the Rise of the Algorithm written by Jeffrey M. Binder and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2022-12-06 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A wide-ranging history of the algorithm. Bringing together the histories of mathematics, computer science, and linguistic thought, Language and the Rise of the Algorithm reveals how recent developments in artificial intelligence are reopening an issue that troubled mathematicians well before the computer age: How do you draw the line between computational rules and the complexities of making systems comprehensible to people? By attending to this question, we come to see that the modern idea of the algorithm is implicated in a long history of attempts to maintain a disciplinary boundary separating technical knowledge from the languages people speak day to day. Here Jeffrey M. Binder offers a compelling tour of four visions of universal computation that addressed this issue in very different ways: G. W. Leibniz’s calculus ratiocinator; a universal algebra scheme Nicolas de Condorcet designed during the French Revolution; George Boole’s nineteenth-century logic system; and the early programming language ALGOL, short for algorithmic language. These episodes show that symbolic computation has repeatedly become entangled in debates about the nature of communication. Machine learning, in its increasing dependence on words, erodes the line between technical and everyday language, revealing the urgent stakes underlying this boundary. The idea of the algorithm is a levee holding back the social complexity of language, and it is about to break. This book is about the flood that inspired its construction.
Download or read book Taming Your Gremlin Revised Edition written by Rick Carson and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-06 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The completely updated edition of this classic includes powerful methods for freeing oneself from self-defeating behaviors and beliefs Your gremlin interprets your every experience. He has nothing good to say about you or anything you do. Just when you feel you’ve out-argued him, he changes his strategy. Grapple with him and you become more enmeshed. What he hates is simply being noticed. That’s the first step to his taming. This and many other powerful techniques await you. This is a low-key but tremendously effective approach to banishing the tenacious nemesis within. Readers will learn: How simply noticing their gremlin is the first step in gremlin taming. How to experiment playfully with new actions and attitudes. Simple exercises for tuning in to their true self and tuning out their gremlin…and much more.
Download or read book A Cold War Exodus written by Shaul Kelner and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2024-04-23 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reveals the mass mobilization tactics that helped free Soviet Jews and reshaped the Jewish American experience from the Johnson era through the Reagan–Bush years What do these things have in common? Ingrid Bergman, Passover matzoh, Banana Republic®, the fitness craze, the Philadelphia Flyers, B-grade spy movies, and ten thousand Bar and Bat Mitzvah sermons? Nothing, except that social movement activists enlisted them all into the most effective human rights campaign of the Cold War. The plight of Jews in the USSR was marked by systemic antisemitism, a problem largely ignored by Western policymakers trying to improve relations with the Soviets. In the face of governmental apathy, activists in the United States hatched a bold plan: unite Jewish Americans to demand that Washington exert pressure on Moscow for change. A Cold War Exodus delves into the gripping narrative of how these men and women, through ingenuity and determination, devised mass mobilization tactics during a three-decade-long campaign to liberate Soviet Jews—an endeavor that would ultimately lead to one of the most significant mass emigrations in Jewish history. Drawing from a wealth of archival sources including the travelogues of thousands of American tourists who smuggled aid to Russian Jews, Shaul Kelner offers a compelling tale of activism and its profound impact, revealing how a seemingly disparate array of elements could be woven together to forge a movement and achieve the seemingly impossible. It is a testament to the power of unity, creativity, and the unwavering dedication of those who believe in the cause of human rights.
Download or read book As If Silent and Absent written by Ehud R. Toledano and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2007-07-12 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This groundbreaking book reconceptualizes slavery through the voices of enslaved persons themselves, voices that have remained silent in the narratives of conventional history. Focusing in particular on the Islamic Middle East from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century, Ehud R. Toledano examines how bonded persons experienced enslavement in Ottoman societies. He draws on court records and a variety of other unexamined primary sources to uncover important new information about the Africans and Circassians who were forcibly removed from their own societies and transplanted to Middle East cultures that were alien to them. Toledano also considers the experiences of these enslaved people within the context of the global history of slavery. The book looks at the bonds of slavery from an original perspective, moving away from the traditional master/slave domination paradigm toward the point of view of the enslaved and their responses to their plight. With keen and original insights, Toledano suggests new ways of thinking about enslavement.
Download or read book The New Era in American Mathematics 1920 1950 written by Karen Hunger Parshall and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-02-22 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The 1920s witnessed the birth of a serious mathematical research community in America. Prior to this, mathematical research was dominated by scholars based in Europe-but World War I had made the importance of scientific and technological development clear to the American research community, resulting in the establishment of new scientific initiatives and infrastructure. Physics and chemistry were the beneficiaries of this renewed scientific focus, but the mathematical community also benefitted, and over time, began to flourish. Over the course of the next two decades, despite significant obstacles, this constellation of mathematical researchers, programs, and government infrastructure would become one of the strongest in the world. In this meticulously-researched book, Karen Parshall documents the uncertain, but ultimately successful, rise of American mathematics during this time. Drawing on research carried out in archives around the country and around the world, as well as on the secondary literature, she reveals how geopolitical circumstances shifted the course of international mathematics. She provides surveys of the mathematical research landscape in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, introduces the key players and institutions in mathematics at that time, and documents the effect of the Great Depression and the second world war on the international mathematical community. The result is a comprehensive account of the shift of mathematics' "center of gravity" to the American stage"--
Download or read book Taming Lust written by Doron S. Ben-Atar and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2014-02-14 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1796, as revolutionary fervor waned and the Age of Reason took hold, an eighty-five-year-old Massachusetts doctor was convicted of bestiality and sentenced to hang. Three years later and seventy miles away, an eighty-three-year-old Connecticut farmer was convicted of the same crime and sentenced to the same punishment. Prior to these criminal trials, neither Massachusetts nor Connecticut had executed anyone for bestiality in over a century. Though there are no overt connections between the two episodes, the similarities of their particulars are strange and striking. Historians Doron S. Ben-Atar and Richard D. Brown delve into the specifics to determine what larger social, political, or religious forces could have compelled New England courts to condemn two octogenarians for sexual misbehavior typically associated with much younger men. The stories of John Farrell and Gideon Washburn are less about the two old men than New England officials who, riding the rough waves of modernity, returned to the severity of their ancestors. The political upheaval of the Revolution and the new republic created new kinds of cultural experience—both exciting and frightening—at a moment when New England farmers and village elites were contesting long-standing assumptions about divine creation and the social order. Ben-Atar and Brown offer a rare and vivid perspective on anxieties about sexual and social deviance in the early republic.
Download or read book The Complete Concordance to Shakespeare written by Mary Cowden Clarke and published by . This book was released on 1878 with total page 880 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Navigating by the Southern Cross written by Kenneth Morgan and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-01-28 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this comprehensive study, Kenneth Morgan provides an authoritative account of European exploration and discovery in Australia. The book presents a detailed chronological overview of European interests in the Australian continent, from initial speculations about the 'Great Southern Land' to the major hydrographic expeditions of the 19th century. In particular, he analyses the early crossings of the Dutch in the 17th century, the exploits of English 'buccaneer adventurer' William Dampier, the famous voyages of James Cook and Matthew Flinders, and the little-known French annexation of Australia in 1772. Introducing new findings and drawing on the latest in historiographical research, this book situates developments in navigation, nautical astronomy and cartography within the broader contexts of imperial, colonial, and maritime history.
Download or read book Taming Uncertainty written by Ralph Hertwig and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2019-08-13 with total page 489 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An examination of the cognitive tools that the mind uses to grapple with uncertainty in the real world. How do humans navigate uncertainty, continuously making near-effortless decisions and predictions even under conditions of imperfect knowledge, high complexity, and extreme time pressure? Taming Uncertainty argues that the human mind has developed tools to grapple with uncertainty. Unlike much previous scholarship in psychology and economics, this approach is rooted in what is known about what real minds can do. Rather than reducing the human response to uncertainty to an act of juggling probabilities, the authors propose that the human cognitive system has specific tools for dealing with different forms of uncertainty. They identify three types of tools: simple heuristics, tools for information search, and tools for harnessing the wisdom of others. This set of strategies for making predictions, inferences, and decisions constitute the mind's adaptive toolbox. The authors show how these three dimensions of human decision making are integrated and they argue that the toolbox, its cognitive foundation, and the environment are in constant flux and subject to developmental change. They demonstrate that each cognitive tool can be analyzed through the concept of ecological rationality—that is, the fit between specific tools and specific environments. Chapters deal with such specific instances of decision making as food choice architecture, intertemporal choice, financial uncertainty, pedestrian navigation, and adolescent behavior.
Download or read book Modern Algebra and the Rise of Mathematical Structures written by Leo Corry and published by Birkhäuser. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 463 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book describes two stages in the historical development of the notion of mathematical structures: first, it traces its rise in the context of algebra from the mid-1800s to 1930, and then considers attempts to formulate elaborate theories after 1930 aimed at elucidating, from a purely mathematical perspective, the precise meaning of this idea.
Download or read book The Taming of the Queen written by Philippa Gregory and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-03-29 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the #1 New York Times bestselling author, a novel of passion and power at the court of a medieval killer, a riveting new Tudor tale featuring King Henry VIII’s sixth wife Kateryn Parr. Kateryn Parr, a thirty-year-old widow in a secret affair with a new lover, has no choice when a man old enough to be her father who has buried four wives—King Henry VIII—commands her to marry him. Kateryn has no doubt about the danger she faces: the previous queen lasted sixteen months, the one before barely half a year. But Henry adores his new bride and Kateryn’s trust in him grows as she unites the royal family, creates a radical study circle at the heart of the court, and rules the kingdom as Regent. But is this enough to keep her safe? A leader of religious reform and the first woman to publish in English, Kateryn stands out as an independent woman with a mind of her own. But she cannot save the Protestants, under threat for their faith, and Henry’s dangerous gaze turns on her. The traditional churchmen and rivals for power accuse her of heresy—the punishment is death by fire and the king’s name is on the warrant... From the bestselling author who has illuminated all of Henry’s queens comes a deeply intimate portrayal of the last: a woman who longed for passion, power, and education at the court of a medieval killer.
Download or read book Taming Gaming written by Andy Robertson and published by Unbound Publishing. This book was released on 2021-01-21 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Video games can instil amazing qualities in children – curiosity, resilience, patience and problem-solving to name a few – but with the World Health Organisation naming gaming disorder as a clinically diagnosable condition, parents and carers can worry about what video games are doing to their children. Andy Robertson has dealt with all of the above, not just over years of covering this topic fo newspapers, radio and television but as a father of three. In this guide, he offers parents and carers practical advice and insights – combining his own experiences with the latest research and guidance from psychologists, industry experts, schools and children's charities – alongside a treasure trove of 'gaming recipes' to test out in your family. Worrying about video game screen time, violence, expense and addiction is an understandable response to scary newspaper headlines. But with first-hand understanding of the video games your children love to play, you can anchor them as a healthy part of family life. Supported by the www.taminggaming.com Family Video Game Database, Taming Gaming leads you into doing this so that video games can stop being a point of argument, worry and stress and start providing fulfilling, connecting and ambitious experiences together as a family.
Download or read book Taming the Electoral College written by Robert William Bennett and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the history and weaknesses of the electoral college and proposes reforms that could be made to our electoral process without a constitutional amendment.
Download or read book The Taming of Fibromyalgia written by Tina Hammett and published by Autharium. This book was released on 2014-05-19 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With Fibromyalgia affecting the lives of an estimated 4% of the world’s population and with little medical treatments available this approach uses a combination of holistic practices to form a strategy for sufferers to reclaim some semblance of a life back. Hailed ‘an inspiration’ by preview readers it offers practical, everyday lifestyle choices Hypnotherapist Tina Hammett was left suffering Fibromyalgia after a series of medical operations. After losing her career, her partner and her home to this disease she became practically bed bound and in searing pain. Medical Science offered very little hope or treatments and she tired of being told she that her condition was merely a result of her ‘checking out of life’. Determined to fight to regain her life, she set about using her holistic health knowledge and began further research to develop this protocol and strategy. Now back to full health thanks to her intensive research and efforts, she happily shares what she has learned with others who are still suffering chronic pain, exhaustion and a severe interruption to their daily lives, in the hope it offers them a beacon to follow to regain their power and their lives. She is joined in this endeavour by Nutritionist Debbie Best and EFT practitioner Lesley Parker and together they share a multitude of holistic techniques and therapies, including rebuilding a shattered self-esteem resulting from the isolation this disease inflicts. Plus what to eat and what to avoid for minimising joint pain, handling stress and importantly numerous natural pain relieving techniques. Written with often searing honesty and from the perspective of someone who literally lived with this disease, this book offers practical and easy to follow strategies that can be incorporated into life with very little effort but with potentially life enhancing results.
