Download or read book Meaning in Mathematics written by John Polkinghorne and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2011-05-19 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is mathematics a highly sophisticated intellectual game in which the adepts display their skill by tackling invented problems, or are mathematicians engaged in acts of discovery as they explore an independent realm of mathematical reality? Why does this seemingly abstract discipline provide the key to unlocking the deep secrets of the physical universe? How one answers these questions will significantly influence metaphysical thinking about reality. This book is intended to fill a gap between popular 'wonders of mathematics' books and the technical writings of the philosophers of mathematics. The chapters are written by some of the world's finest mathematicians, mathematical physicists and philosophers of mathematics, each giving their perspective on this fascinating debate. Every chapter is followed by a short response from another member of the author team, reinforcing the main theme and raising further questions. Accessible to anyone interested in what mathematics really means, and useful for mathematicians and philosophers of science at all levels, Meaning in Mathematics offers deep new insights into a subject many people take for granted.
Download or read book Numbers written by Graham Flegg and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2013-05-13 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Readable, jargon-free book examines the earliest endeavors to count and record numbers, initial attempts to solve problems by using equations, and origins of infinite cardinal arithmetic. "Surprisingly exciting." — Choice.
Download or read book Meaning in Mathematics Education written by Jeremy Kilpatrick and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-03-30 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does it mean to know mathematics? How does meaning in mathematics education connect to common sense or to the meaning of mathematics itself? How are meanings constructed and communicated and what are the dilemmas related to these processes? There are many answers to these questions, some of which might appear to be contradictory. Thus understanding the complexity of meaning in mathematics education is a matter of huge importance. There are twin directions in which discussions have developed—theoretical and practical—and this book seeks to move the debate forward along both dimensions while seeking to relate them where appropriate. A discussion of meaning can start from a theoretical examination of mathematics and how mathematicians over time have made sense of their work. However, from a more practical perspective, anybody involved in teaching mathematics is faced with the need to orchestrate the myriad of meanings derived from multiple sources that students develop of mathematical knowledge. This book presents a wide variety of theoretical reflections and research results about meaning in mathematics and mathematics education based on long-term and collective reflection by the group of authors as a whole. It is the outcome of the work of the BACOMET (BAsic COmponents of Mathematics Education for Teachers) group who spent several years deliberating on this topic. The ten chapters in this book, both separately and together, provide a substantial contribution to clarifying the complex issue of meaning in mathematics education. This book is of interest to researchers in mathematics education, graduate students of mathematics education, under graduate students in mathematics, secondary mathematics teachers and primary teachers with an interest in mathematics.
Download or read book Perspectives on Practice and Meaning in Mathematics and Science Classrooms written by D. Clarke and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2001-03-31 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a variegated picture of science and mathematics classrooms that challenges a research tradition that converges on the truth. The reader is surrounded with different images of the classroom and will find his beliefs confirmed or challenged. The book is for educational researchers, research students, and practitioners with an interest in optimizing the effectiveness of classrooms as environments for learning.
Download or read book What is Mathematics written by Richard Courant and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 596 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The teaching and learning of mathematics has degenerated into the realm of rote memorization, the outcome of which leads to satisfactory formal ability but not real understanding or greater intellectual independence. The new edition of this classic work seeks to address this problem. Its goal is to put the meaning back into mathematics. "Lucid . . . easily understandable".--Albert Einstein. 301 linecuts.
Download or read book Mathematics Its Content Methods and Meaning written by Matematicheskiĭ institut im. V.A. Steklova and published by . This book was released on 1969 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Wonders of Numbers written by Clifford A. Pickover and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2003-01-16 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who were the five strangest mathematicians in history? What are the ten most interesting numbers? Jam-packed with thought-provoking mathematical mysteries, puzzles, and games, Wonders of Numbers will enchant even the most left-brained of readers. Hosted by the quirky Dr. Googol--who resides on a remote island and occasionally collaborates with Clifford Pickover--Wonders of Numbers focuses on creativity and the delight of discovery. Here is a potpourri of common and unusual number theory problems of varying difficulty--each presented in brief chapters that convey to readers the essence of the problem rather than its extraneous history. Peppered throughout with illustrations that clarify the problems, Wonders of Numbers also includes fascinating "math gossip." How would we use numbers to communicate with aliens? Check out Chapter 30. Did you know that there is a Numerical Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder? You'll find it in Chapter 45. From the beautiful formula of India's most famous mathematician to the Leviathan number so big it makes a trillion look small, Dr. Googol's witty and straightforward approach to numbers will entice students, educators, and scientists alike to pick up a pencil and work a problem.
Download or read book The Emergence of Mathematical Meaning written by Paul Cobb and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book grew out of a five-year collaboration between groups of American and German mathematics educators. The central issue addressed accounting for the messiness and complexity of mathematics learning and teaching as it occurs in classroom situations. The individual chapters are based on the view that psychological and sociological perspectives each tell half of a good story. To unify these concepts requires a combined approach that takes individual students' mathematical activity seriously while simultaneously seeing their activity as necessarily socially situated. Throughout their collaboration, the chapter authors shared a single set of video recordings and transcripts made in an American elementary classroom where instruction was generally compatible with recent reform recommendations. As a consequence, the book is much more than a compendium of loosely related papers. The combined approach taken by the authors draws on interactionism and ethnomethodology. Thus, it constitutes an alternative to Vygotskian and Soviet activity theory approaches. The specific topics discussed in individual chapters include small group collaboration and learning, the teacher's practice and growth, and language, discourse, and argumentation in the mathematics classroom. This collaborative effort is valuable to educators and psychologists interested in situated cognition and the relation between sociocultural processes and individual psychological processes.
Download or read book Teaching Math with Meaning written by Cathy Marks Krpan and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Windows on Mathematical Meanings written by Richard Noss and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book challenges some of the conventional wisdoms on the learning of mathematics. The authors use the computer as a window onto mathematical meaning-making. The pivot of their theory is the idea of webbing, which explains how someone struggling with a new mathematical idea can draw on supportive knowledge, and reconciles the individual's role in mathematical learning with the part played by epistemological, social and cultural forces.
Download or read book Metaphysics Mathematics and Meaning written by Nathan U. Salmon and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Metaphysics, Mathematics and Meaning' brings together Nathan Salmon's influential papers on topics in the metaphysics of existence, non-existence and fiction. He includes a previously unpublished essay and helpful new introduction to orient the reader.
Download or read book Numbers written by John Tabak and published by Infobase Publishing. This book was released on 2014-05-14 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents a survey of the history and evolution of the use of numbers and numerical quantities by different civilizations around the world.
Download or read book Mathematics Substance and Surmise written by Ernest Davis and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-11-17 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The seventeen thought-provoking and engaging essays in this collection present readers with a wide range of diverse perspectives on the ontology of mathematics. The essays address such questions as: What kind of things are mathematical objects? What kinds of assertions do mathematical statements make? How do people think and speak about mathematics? How does society use mathematics? How have our answers to these questions changed over the last two millennia, and how might they change again in the future? The authors include mathematicians, philosophers, computer scientists, cognitive psychologists, sociologists, educators and mathematical historians; each brings their own expertise and insights to the discussion. Contributors to this volume: Jeremy Avigad Jody Azzouni David H. Bailey David Berlinski Jonathan M. Borwein Ernest Davis Philip J. Davis Donald Gillies Jeremy Gray Jesper Lützen Ursula Martin Kay O’Halloran Alison Pease Steven Piantadosi Lance Rips Micah T. Ross Nathalie Sinclair John Stillwell Hellen Verran
Download or read book The Mathematics of Life written by Ian Stewart and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2011-06-07 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 of the natural world -- and how its contribution will be even more vital in the years ahead. In his characteristically clear and entertaining fashion, Stewart explains how mathematicians and biologists have come to work together on some of the most difficult scientific problems that the human race has ever tackled, including the nature and origin of life itself.
Download or read book What is Mathematics written by Richard Courant and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
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 Good Math written by Mark C. Chu-Carroll and published by Pragmatic Bookshelf. This book was released on 2013-07-18 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mathematics is beautiful--and it can be fun and exciting as well as practical. Good Math is your guide to some of the most intriguing topics from two thousand years of mathematics: from Egyptian fractions to Turing machines; from the real meaning of numbers to proof trees, group symmetry, and mechanical computation. If you've ever wondered what lay beyond the proofs you struggled to complete in high school geometry, or what limits the capabilities of computer on your desk, this is the book for you. Why do Roman numerals persist? How do we know that some infinities are larger than others? And how can we know for certain a program will ever finish? In this fast-paced tour of modern and not-so-modern math, computer scientist Mark Chu-Carroll explores some of the greatest breakthroughs and disappointments of more than two thousand years of mathematical thought. There is joy and beauty in mathematics, and in more than two dozen essays drawn from his popular "Good Math" blog, you'll find concepts, proofs, and examples that are often surprising, counterintuitive, or just plain weird. Mark begins his journey with the basics of numbers, with an entertaining trip through the integers and the natural, rational, irrational, and transcendental numbers. The voyage continues with a look at some of the oddest numbers in mathematics, including zero, the golden ratio, imaginary numbers, Roman numerals, and Egyptian and continuing fractions. After a deep dive into modern logic, including an introduction to linear logic and the logic-savvy Prolog language, the trip concludes with a tour of modern set theory and the advances and paradoxes of modern mechanical computing. If your high school or college math courses left you grasping for the inner meaning behind the numbers, Mark's book will both entertain and enlighten you.
