Download or read book Mathematical Encounters of the Second Kind written by Philip J. Davis and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A number of years ago, Harriet Sheridan, then Dean of Brown University, organized a series oflectures in which individual faculty members described how it came about that they entered their various fields. I was invited to participate in this series and found in the invitation an opportunity to recall events going back to my early teens. The lecture was well received and its reception encouraged me to work up an expanded version. My manuscript lay dormant all these years. In the meanwhile, sufficiently many other mathematical experiences and encounters accumulated to make this little book. My 1981 lecture is the basis of the first piece: "Napoleon's Theorem. " Although there is a connection between the first piece and the second, the four pieces here are essentially independent. The sec ond piece, "Carpenter and the Napoleon Ascription," has as its object a full description of a certain type of scholar-storyteller (of whom I have known and admired several). It is a pastiche, contain ing a salad bar selection blended together by my own imagination. This piece purports, as a secondary goal, to present a solution to a certain unsolved historical problem raised in the first piece. The third piece, "The Man Who Began His Lectures with 'Namely'," is a short reminiscence of Stefan Bergman, one of my teachers of graduate mathematics. Bergman, a remarkable person ality, was born in Poland and came to the United States in 1939.
Download or read book The Second Kind of Impossible written by Paul Steinhardt and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2020-01-07 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Shortlisted for the 2019 Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize* One of the most fascinating scientific detective stories of the last fifty years, an exciting quest for a new form of matter. “A riveting tale of derring-do” (Nature), this book reads like James Gleick’s Chaos combined with an Indiana Jones adventure. When leading Princeton physicist Paul Steinhardt began working in the 1980s, scientists thought they knew all the conceivable forms of matter. The Second Kind of Impossible is the story of Steinhardt’s thirty-five-year-long quest to challenge conventional wisdom. It begins with a curious geometric pattern that inspires two theoretical physicists to propose a radically new type of matter—one that raises the possibility of new materials with never before seen properties, but that violates laws set in stone for centuries. Steinhardt dubs this new form of matter “quasicrystal.” The rest of the scientific community calls it simply impossible. The Second Kind of Impossible captures Steinhardt’s scientific odyssey as it unfolds over decades, first to prove viability, and then to pursue his wildest conjecture—that nature made quasicrystals long before humans discovered them. Along the way, his team encounters clandestine collectors, corrupt scientists, secret diaries, international smugglers, and KGB agents. Their quest culminates in a daring expedition to a distant corner of the Earth, in pursuit of tiny fragments of a meteorite forged at the birth of the solar system. Steinhardt’s discoveries chart a new direction in science. They not only change our ideas about patterns and matter, but also reveal new truths about the processes that shaped our solar system. The underlying science is important, simple, and beautiful—and Steinhardt’s firsthand account is “packed with discovery, disappointment, exhilaration, and persistence...This book is a front-row seat to history as it is made” (Nature).
Download or read book Discrete Encounters written by Craig Bauer and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2020-05-14 with total page 740 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eschewing the often standard dry and static writing style of traditional textbooks, Discrete Encounters provides a refreshing approach to discrete mathematics. The author blends traditional course topics and applications with historical context, pop culture references, and open problems. This book focuses on the historical development of the subject and provides fascinating details of the people behind the mathematics, along with their motivations, deepening readers’ appreciation of mathematics. This unique book covers many of the same topics found in traditional textbooks, but does so in an alternative, entertaining style that better captures readers’ attention. In addition to standard discrete mathematics material, the author shows the interplay between the discrete and the continuous and includes high-interest topics such as fractals, chaos theory, cellular automata, money-saving financial mathematics, and much more. Not only will readers gain a greater understanding of mathematics and its culture, they will also be encouraged to further explore the subject. Long lists of references at the end of each chapter make this easy. Highlights: Features fascinating historical context to motivate readers Text includes numerous pop culture references throughout to provide a more engaging reading experience Its unique topic structure presents a fresh approach The text’s narrative style is that of a popular book, not a dry textbook Includes the work of many living mathematicians Its multidisciplinary approach makes it ideal for liberal arts mathematics classes, leisure reading, or as a reference for professors looking to supplement traditional courses Contains many open problems Profusely illustrated
Download or read book A Mathematical Nature Walk written by John Adam and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2011-09-12 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How heavy is that cloud? Why can you see farther in rain than in fog? Why are the droplets on that spider web spaced apart so evenly? If you have ever asked questions like these while outdoors, and wondered how you might figure out the answers, this is a book for you. An entertaining and informative collection of fascinating puzzles from the natural world around us, A Mathematical Nature Walk will delight anyone who loves nature or math or both. John Adam presents ninety-six questions about many common natural phenomena--and a few uncommon ones--and then shows how to answer them using mostly basic mathematics. Can you weigh a pumpkin just by carefully looking at it? Why can you see farther in rain than in fog? What causes the variations in the colors of butterfly wings, bird feathers, and oil slicks? And why are large haystacks prone to spontaneous combustion? These are just a few of the questions you'll find inside. Many of the problems are illustrated with photos and drawings, and the book also has answers, a glossary of terms, and a list of some of the patterns found in nature. About a quarter of the questions can be answered with arithmetic, and many of the rest require only precalculus. But regardless of math background, readers will learn from the informal descriptions of the problems and gain a new appreciation of the beauty of nature and the mathematics that lies behind it.
Download or read book Mathematical Encounters and Pedagogical Detours written by Boris Koichu and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-02-04 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the idea that mathematics educators and teachers are also problem solvers and learners, and as such they constantly experience mathematical and pedagogical disturbances. Accordingly, many original tasks and learning activities are results of personal mathematical and pedagogical disturbances of their designers, who then transpose these disturbances into learning opportunities for their students. This learning-transposition process is a cornerstone of mathematics teacher education as a lived, developing enterprise. Mathematical Encounters and Pedagogical Detours unfold the process and illustrate it by various examples. The book engages readers in original tasks, shares the results of task implementation and describes how these results inform the development of new tasks, which often intertwine mathematics and pedagogy. Most importantly, the book includes a dialogue between the authors based on the stories of their own learning, which triggers continuous exploration of learning opportunities for their students.
Download or read book Math written by Serge Lang and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-14 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Guide to Information Sources in Mathematics and Statistics written by Martha A. Tucker and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2004-09-30 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a reference for librarians, mathematicians, and statisticians involved in college and research level mathematics and statistics in the 21st century. We are in a time of transition in scholarly communications in mathematics, practices which have changed little for a hundred years are giving way to new modes of accessing information. Where journals, books, indexes and catalogs were once the physical representation of a good mathematics library, shelves have given way to computers, and users are often accessing information from remote places. Part I is a historical survey of the past 15 years tracking this huge transition in scholarly communications in mathematics. Part II of the book is the bibliography of resources recommended to support the disciplines of mathematics and statistics. These are grouped by type of material. Publication dates range from the 1800's onwards. Hundreds of electronic resources-some online, both dynamic and static, some in fixed media, are listed among the paper resources. Amazingly a majority of listed electronic resources are free.
Download or read book Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind written by Courtlandt Dixon Barnes Bryan and published by Penguin (Non-Classics). This book was released on 1996 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Reporter's Notebook on Alien Abduction, UFOS, and the Conference at MIT Alien abduction is hardly the usual topic for a scientific conference, yet in 1992 just such a conference was held at MIT. Respected journalist C D B Bryan had serious doubts about UFO encounters , but decided to attend with an open mind. This startling and thought-provoking book is the result. Fascinating - compelling, terrifying, haunting, yet entirely rational' - The Baltimore Sun'
Download or read book Unity and Disunity and Other Mathematical Essays written by Philip J. Davis and published by American Mathematical Soc.. This book was released on 2015 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a mathematical potpourri. Its material originated in classroom presentations, formal lectures, sections of earlier books, book reviews, or just things written by the author for his own pleasure. Written in a nontechnical fashion, this book expresses the unique vision and attitude of the author towards the role of mathematics in society. It contains observations or incidental remarks on mathematics, its nature, its impacts on education and science and technology, its personalities and philosophies. The book is directed towards the math buffs of the world and, more generally, towards the literate and interested public. Philip Davis is known for his work in numerical analysis and approximation theory, as well as his investigations in the history and philosophy of mathematics. Currently a Professor Emeritus from the Division of Applied Mathematics at Brown University, Davis is known for his books both in the areas of computational mathematics and approximation theory and for books exploring certain questions in the philosophy of mathematics and the role of mathematics in society.
Download or read book Mathematics and the Physical World written by Morris Kline and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2012-03-15 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stimulating account of development of mathematics from arithmetic, algebra, geometry and trigonometry, to calculus, differential equations, and non-Euclidean geometries. Also describes how math is used in optics, astronomy, and other phenomena.
Download or read book The Education of a Mathematician written by Philip J. Davis and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2000-07-21 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this charming memoir, a renowned mathematician and winner of the American Book Award traces his career in mathematics from early lessons in horse racing and the realities of life to his adventures on the lecture circuit. A thought-provoking mix of autobiography, history, and insights into the role of mathematics in everyday life, this highly ent
Download or read book Second Year Calculus written by David M. Bressoud and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Second Year Calculus: From Celestial Mechanics to Special Relativity covers multi-variable and vector calculus, emphasizing the historical physical problems which gave rise to the concepts of calculus. The book guides us from the birth of the mechanized view of the world in Isaac Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy in which mathematics becomes the ultimate tool for modelling physical reality, to the dawn of a radically new and often counter-intuitive age in Albert Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity in which it is the mathematical model which suggests new aspects of that reality. The development of this process is discussed from the modern viewpoint of differential forms. Using this concept, the student learns to compute orbits and rocket trajectories, model flows and force fields, and derive the laws of electricity and magnetism. These exercises and observations of mathematical symmetry enable the student to better understand the interaction of physics and mathematics.
Download or read book Yearning for the Impossible written by John Stillwell and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2006-05-23 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the history of mathematics from the perspective of the creative tension between common sense and the "impossible" as the author follows the discovery or invention of new concepts that have marked mathematical progress: - Irrational and Imaginary Numbers - The Fourth Dimension - Curved Space - Infinity and others The author puts t
Download or read book Encounter with Mathematics written by Lars Garding and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Trying to make mathematics understandable to the general public is a very difficult task. The writer has to take into account that his reader has very little patience with unfamiliar concepts and intricate logic and this means that large parts of mathematics are out of bounds. When planning this book, I set myself an easier goal. I wrote it for those who already know some mathematics, in particular those who study the subject the first year after high school. Its purpose is to provide a historical, scientific, and cultural frame for the parts of mathematics that meet the beginning student. Nine chapters ranging from number theory to applications are devoted to this program. Each one starts with a historical introduction, continues with a tight but complete account of some basic facts and proceeds to look at the present state of affairs including, if possible, some recent piece of research. Most of them end with one or two passages from historical mathematical papers, translated into English and edited so as to be understandable. Sometimes the reader is referred back to earlier parts of the text, but the various chapters are to a large extent independent of each other. A reader who gets stuck in the middle of a chapter can still read large parts of the others. It should be said, however, that the book is not meant to be read straight through.
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 Gazette Australian Mathematical Society written by Australian Mathematical Society and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 588 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Rethinking the Mathematics Curriculum written by Celia Hoyles and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rethinking the Mathematics Curriculum explores maths curricula around the world, and the differences in expectation, culture and politics that form them.
