Download or read book The Mathematical Experience Study Edition written by Philip Davis and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-10-27 with total page 522 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 1983 National Book Award! "...a perfectly marvelous book about the Queen of Sciences, from which one will get a real feeling for what mathematicians do and who they are. The exposition is clear and full of wit and humor..." - The New Yorker (1983 National Book Award edition) Mathematics has been a human activity for thousands of years. Yet only a few people from the vast population of users are professional mathematicians, who create, teach, foster, and apply it in a variety of situations. The authors of this book believe that it should be possible for these professional mathematicians to explain to non-professionals what they do, what they say they are doing, and why the world should support them at it. They also believe that mathematics should be taught to non-mathematics majors in such a way as to instill an appreciation of the power and beauty of mathematics. Many people from around the world have told the authors that they have done precisely that with the first edition and they have encouraged publication of this revised edition complete with exercises for helping students to demonstrate their understanding. This edition of the book should find a new generation of general readers and students who would like to know what mathematics is all about. It will prove invaluable as a course text for a general mathematics appreciation course, one in which the student can combine an appreciation for the esthetics with some satisfying and revealing applications. The text is ideal for 1) a GE course for Liberal Arts students 2) a Capstone course for perspective teachers 3) a writing course for mathematics teachers. A wealth of customizable online course materials for the book can be obtained from Elena Anne Marchisotto ([email protected]) upon request.
Download or read book What Is Mathematics Really written by Reuben Hersh and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1997-08-21 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most philosophers of mathematics treat it as isolated, timeless, ahistorical, inhuman. Reuben Hersh argues the contrary, that mathematics must be understood as a human activity, a social phenomenon, part of human culture, historically evolved, and intelligible only in a social context. Hersh pulls the screen back to reveal mathematics as seen by professionals, debunking many mathematical myths, and demonstrating how the "humanist" idea of the nature of mathematics more closely resembles how mathematicians actually work. At the heart of his book is a fascinating historical account of the mainstream of philosophy--ranging from Pythagoras, Descartes, and Spinoza, to Bertrand Russell, David Hilbert, and Rudolph Carnap--followed by the mavericks who saw mathematics as a human artifact, including Aristotle, Locke, Hume, Mill, and Lakatos. What is Mathematics, Really? reflects an insider's view of mathematical life, and will be hotly debated by anyone with an interest in mathematics or the philosophy of science.
Download or read book Discipline and Experience written by Peter Dear and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1995-11-25 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although the Scientific Revolution has long been regarded as the beginning of modern science, there has been little consensus about its true character. While the application of mathematics to the study of the natural world has always been recognized as an important factor, the role of experiment has been less clearly understood. Peter Dear investigates the nature of the change that occurred during this period, focusing particular attention on evolving notions of experience and how these developed into the experimental work that is at the center of modern science. He examines seventeenth-century mathematical sciences—astronomy, optics, and mechanics—not as abstract ideas, but as vital enterprises that involved practices related to both experience and experiment. Dear illuminates how mathematicians and natural philosophers of the period—Mersenne, Descartes, Pascal, Barrow, Newton, Boyle, and the Jesuits—used experience in their argumentation, and how and why these approaches changed over the course of a century. Drawing on mathematical texts and works of natural philosophy from all over Europe, he describes a process of change that was gradual, halting, sometimes contradictory—far from the sharp break with intellectual tradition implied by the term "revolution."
Download or read book Mathematics for Human Flourishing written by Francis Su and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-07 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The ancient Greeks argued that the best life was filled with beauty, truth, justice, play and love. The mathematician Francis Su knows just where to find them."--Kevin Hartnett, Quanta Magazine" This is perhaps the most important mathematics book of our time. Francis Su shows mathematics is an experience of the mind and, most important, of the heart."--James Tanton, Global Math Project For mathematician Francis Su, a society without mathematical affection is like a city without concerts, parks, or museums. To miss out on mathematics is to live without experiencing some of humanity's most beautiful ideas. In this profound book, written for a wide audience but especially for those disenchanted by their past experiences, an award-winning mathematician and educator weaves parables, puzzles, and personal reflections to show how mathematics meets basic human desires--such as for play, beauty, freedom, justice, and love--and cultivates virtues essential for human flourishing. These desires and virtues, and the stories told here, reveal how mathematics is intimately tied to being human. Some lessons emerge from those who have struggled, including philosopher Simone Weil, whose own mathematical contributions were overshadowed by her brother's, and Christopher Jackson, who discovered mathematics as an inmate in a federal prison. Christopher's letters to the author appear throughout the book and show how this intellectual pursuit can--and must--be open to all.
Download or read book Loving and Hating Mathematics written by Reuben Hersh and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2010-12-13 with total page 429 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of the hidden human, emotional, and social dimensions of mathematics Mathematics is often thought of as the coldest expression of pure reason. But few subjects provoke hotter emotions—and inspire more love and hatred—than mathematics. And although math is frequently idealized as floating above the messiness of human life, its story is nothing if not human; often, it is all too human. Loving and Hating Mathematics is about the hidden human, emotional, and social forces that shape mathematics and affect the experiences of students and mathematicians. Written in a lively, accessible style, and filled with gripping stories and anecdotes, Loving and Hating Mathematics brings home the intense pleasures and pains of mathematical life. These stories challenge many myths, including the notions that mathematics is a solitary pursuit and a "young man's game," the belief that mathematicians are emotionally different from other people, and even the idea that to be a great mathematician it helps to be a little bit crazy. Reuben Hersh and Vera John-Steiner tell stories of lives in math from their very beginnings through old age, including accounts of teaching and mentoring, friendships and rivalries, love affairs and marriages, and the experiences of women and minorities in a field that has traditionally been unfriendly to both. Included here are also stories of people for whom mathematics has been an immense solace during times of crisis, war, and even imprisonment—as well as of those rare individuals driven to insanity and even murder by an obsession with math. This is a book for anyone who wants to understand why the most rational of human endeavors is at the same time one of the most emotional.
Download or read book Mathematical Circles written by Sergeĭ Aleksandrovich Genkin and published by American Mathematical Soc.. This book was released on 1996 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Suitable for both students and teachers who love mathematics and want to study its various branches beyond the limits of school curriculum. This book contains vast theoretical and problem material in main areas of what authors consider to be 'extracurricular mathematics'.
Download or read book Living Proof written by Allison K. Henrich and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wow! This is a powerful book that addresses a long-standing elephant in the mathematics room. Many people learning math ask ``Why is math so hard for me while everyone else understands it?'' and ``Am I good enough to succeed in math?'' In answering these questions the book shares personal stories from many now-accomplished mathematicians affirming that ``You are not alone; math is hard for everyone'' and ``Yes; you are good enough.'' Along the way the book addresses other issues such as biases and prejudices that mathematicians encounter, and it provides inspiration and emotional support for mathematicians ranging from the experienced professor to the struggling mathematics student. --Michael Dorff, MAA President This book is a remarkable collection of personal reflections on what it means to be, and to become, a mathematician. Each story reveals a unique and refreshing understanding of the barriers erected by our cultural focus on ``math is hard.'' Indeed, mathematics is hard, and so are many other things--as Stephen Kennedy points out in his cogent introduction. This collection of essays offers inspiration to students of mathematics and to mathematicians at every career stage. --Jill Pipher, AMS President This book is published in cooperation with the Mathematical Association of America.
Download or read book A Decade of the Berkeley Math Circle written by Zvezdelina Stankova and published by American Mathematical Soc.. This book was released on 2008-11-26 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many mathematicians have been drawn to mathematics through their experience with math circles: extracurricular programs exposing teenage students to advanced mathematical topics and a myriad of problem solving techniques and inspiring in them a lifelong love for mathematics. Founded in 1998, the Berkeley Math Circle (BMC) is a pioneering model of a U.S. math circle, aspiring to prepare our best young minds for their future roles as mathematics leaders. Over the last decade, 50 instructors--from university professors to high school teachers to business tycoons--have shared their passion for mathematics by delivering more than 320 BMC sessions full of mathematical challenges and wonders. Based on a dozen of these sessions, this book encompasses a wide variety of enticing mathematical topics: from inversion in the plane to circle geometry; from combinatorics to Rubik's cube and abstract algebra; from number theory to mass point theory; from complex numbers to game theory via invariants and monovariants. The treatments of these subjects encompass every significant method of proof and emphasize ways of thinking and reasoning via 100 problem solving techniques. Also featured are 300 problems, ranging from beginner to intermediate level, with occasional peaks of advanced problems and even some open questions. The book presents possible paths to studying mathematics and inevitably falling in love with it, via teaching two important skills: thinking creatively while still ``obeying the rules,'' and making connections between problems, ideas, and theories. The book encourages you to apply the newly acquired knowledge to problems and guides you along the way, but rarely gives you ready answers. ``Learning from our own mistakes'' often occurs through discussions of non-proofs and common problem solving pitfalls. The reader has to commit to mastering the new theories and techniques by ``getting your hands dirty'' with the problems, going back and reviewing necessary problem solving techniques and theory, and persistently moving forward in the book. The mathematical world is huge: you'll never know everything, but you'll learn where to find things, how to connect and use them. The rewards will be substantial. In the interest of fostering a greater awareness and appreciation of mathematics and its connections to other disciplines and everyday life, MSRI and the AMS are publishing books in the Mathematical Circles Library series as a service to young people, their parents and teachers, and the mathematics profession.
Download or read book Experiencing Mathematics written by Reuben Hersh and published by American Mathematical Soc.. This book was released on 2013-12-24 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part IV. About the author -- An amusing elementary example -- Annotated research bibliography -- Curriculum vitae -- List of articles -- Index -- Back Cover
Download or read book The Mathematical Experience Study Edition written by Philip Davis and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-10-28 with total page 522 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 1983 National Book Award! "...a perfectly marvelous book about the Queen of Sciences, from which one will get a real feeling for what mathematicians do and who they are. The exposition is clear and full of wit and humor..." - The New Yorker (1983 National Book Award edition) Mathematics has been a human activity for thousands of years. Yet only a few people from the vast population of users are professional mathematicians, who create, teach, foster, and apply it in a variety of situations. The authors of this book believe that it should be possible for these professional mathematicians to explain to non-professionals what they do, what they say they are doing, and why the world should support them at it. They also believe that mathematics should be taught to non-mathematics majors in such a way as to instill an appreciation of the power and beauty of mathematics. Many people from around the world have told the authors that they have done precisely that with the first edition and they have encouraged publication of this revised edition complete with exercises for helping students to demonstrate their understanding. This edition of the book should find a new generation of general readers and students who would like to know what mathematics is all about. It will prove invaluable as a course text for a general mathematics appreciation course, one in which the student can combine an appreciation for the esthetics with some satisfying and revealing applications. The text is ideal for 1) a GE course for Liberal Arts students 2) a Capstone course for perspective teachers 3) a writing course for mathematics teachers. A wealth of customizable online course materials for the book can be obtained from Elena Anne Marchisotto ([email protected]) upon request.
Download or read book Insights into Game Theory written by Ein-Ya Gura and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2008-11-13 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few branches of mathematics have been more influential in the social sciences than game theory. In recent years, it has become an essential tool for all social scientists studying the strategic behaviour of competing individuals, firms and countries. However, the mathematical complexity of game theory is often very intimidating for students who have only a basic understanding of mathematics. Insights into Game Theory addresses this problem by providing students with an understanding of the key concepts and ideas of game theory without using formal mathematical notation. The authors use four very different topics (college admission, social justice and majority voting, coalitions and co-operative games, and a bankruptcy problem from the Talmud) to investigate four areas of game theory. The result is a fascinating introduction to the world of game theory and its increasingly important role in the social sciences.
Download or read book Mathematical Apocrypha Stories and Anecdotes of Mathematicians and the Mathematical written by Steven G. Krantz and published by American Mathematical Soc.. This book was released on 2020-08-03 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Illustrating Mathematics written by Diana Davis and published by American Mathematical Soc.. This book was released on 2020-10-16 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is for anyone who wishes to illustrate their mathematical ideas, which in our experience means everyone. It is organized by material, rather than by subject area, and purposefully emphasizes the process of creating things, including discussions of failures that occurred along the way. As a result, the reader can learn from the experiences of those who came before, and will be inspired to create their own illustrations. Topics illustrated within include prime numbers, fractals, the Klein bottle, Borromean rings, tilings, space-filling curves, knot theory, billiards, complex dynamics, algebraic surfaces, groups and prime ideals, the Riemann zeta function, quadratic fields, hyperbolic space, and hyperbolic 3-manifolds. Everyone who opens this book should find a type of mathematics with which they identify. Each contributor explains the mathematics behind their illustration at an accessible level, so that all readers can appreciate the beauty of both the object itself and the mathematics behind it.
Download or read book The Knot Book written by Colin Conrad Adams and published by American Mathematical Soc.. This book was released on 2004 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Knots are familiar objects. Yet the mathematical theory of knots quickly leads to deep results in topology and geometry. This work offers an introduction to this theory, starting with our understanding of knots. It presents the applications of knot theory to modern chemistry, biology and physics.
Download or read book What s Happening in the Mathematical Sciences written by Barry Cipra and published by American Mathematical Soc.. This book was released on with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mathematicians like to point out that mathematics is universal. In spite of this, most people continue to view it as either mundane (balancing a checkbook) or mysterious (cryptography). This fifth volume of the What's Happening series contradicts that view by showing that mathematics is indeed found everywhere-in science, art, history, and our everyday lives. Here is some of what you'll find in this volume: Mathematics and Science Mathematical biology: Mathematics was key tocracking the genetic code. Now, new mathematics is needed to understand the three-dimensional structure of the proteins produced from that code. Celestial mechanics and cosmology: New methods have revealed a multitude of solutions to the three-body problem. And other new work may answer one of cosmology'smost fundamental questions: What is the size and shape of the universe? Mathematics and Everyday Life Traffic jams: New models are helping researchers understand where traffic jams come from-and maybe what to do about them! Small worlds: Researchers have found a short distance from theory to applications in the study of small world networks. Elegance in Mathematics Beyond Fermat's Last Theorem: Number theorists are reaching higher ground after Wiles' astounding 1994 proof: new developments inthe elegant world of elliptic curves and modular functions. The Millennium Prize Problems: The Clay Mathematics Institute has offered a million dollars for solutions to seven important and difficult unsolved problems. These are just some of the topics of current interest that are covered in thislatest volume of What's Happening in the Mathematical Sciences. The book has broad appeal for a wide spectrum of mathematicians and scientists, from high school students through advanced-level graduates and researchers.
Download or read book Descartes Dream written by Philip J. Davis and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2005-01-01 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These provocative essays take a modern look at the 17th-century thinker's dream, examining the influences of mathematics on society, particularly in light of technological advances. They survey the conditions that elicit the application of mathematic principles; the applications' effectiveness; and how applied mathematics transform perceptions of reality. 1987 edition.
Download or read book The Mathematical Legacy of Richard P Stanley written by Patricia Hersh and published by American Mathematical Soc.. This book was released on 2016-12-08 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Richard Stanley's work in combinatorics revolutionized and reshaped the subject. His lectures, papers, and books inspired a generation of researchers. In this volume, these researchers explain how Stanley's vision and insights influenced and guided their own perspectives on the subject. As a valuable bonus, this book contains a collection of Stanley's short comments on each of his papers. This book may serve as an introduction to several different threads of ongoing research in combinatorics as well as giving historical perspective.
