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 176 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 The Math Book written by DK and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-09-03 with total page 711 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: See how math's infinite mysteries and beauty unfold in this captivating educational book! Discover more than 85 of the most important mathematical ideas, theorems, and proofs ever devised with this beautifully illustrated book. Get to know the great minds whose revolutionary discoveries changed our world today. You don't have to be a math genius to follow along with this book! This brilliant book is packed with short, easy-to-grasp explanations, step-by-step diagrams, and witty illustrations that play with our ideas about numbers. What is an imaginary number? Can two parallel lines ever meet? How can math help us predict the future? All will be revealed and explained in this encyclopedia of mathematics. It's as easy as 1-2-3! The Math Book tells the exciting story of how mathematical thought advanced through history. This diverse and inclusive account will have something for everybody, including the math behind world economies and espionage. This book charts the development of math around the world, from ancient mathematical ideas and inventions like prehistoric tally bones through developments in medieval and Renaissance Europe. Fast forward to today and gain insight into the recent rise of game and group theory. Delve in deeper into the history of math: - Ancient and Classical Periods 6000 BCE - 500 CE - The Middle Ages 500 - 1500 - The Renaissance 1500 - 1680 - The Enlightenment 1680 - 1800 - The 19th Century 1800 - 1900 - Modern Mathematics 1900 - Present The Series Simply Explained With over 7 million copies sold worldwide to date, The Math Book is part of the award-winning Big Ideas Simply Explained series from DK Books. It uses innovative graphics along with engaging writing to make complex subjects easier to understand.

Download or read book Explanation and Proof in Mathematics written by Gila Hanna and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-12-04 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the four decades since Imre Lakatos declared mathematics a "quasi-empirical science," increasing attention has been paid to the process of proof and argumentation in the field -- a development paralleled by the rise of computer technology and the mounting interest in the logical underpinnings of mathematics. Explanantion and Proof in Mathematics assembles perspectives from mathematics education and from the philosophy and history of mathematics to strengthen mutual awareness and share recent findings and advances in their interrelated fields. With examples ranging from the geometrists of the 17th century and ancient Chinese algorithms to cognitive psychology and current educational practice, contributors explore the role of refutation in generating proofs, the varied links between experiment and deduction, the use of diagrammatic thinking in addition to pure logic, and the uses of proof in mathematics education (including a critique of "authoritative" versus "authoritarian" teaching styles). A sampling of the coverage: The conjoint origins of proof and theoretical physics in ancient Greece. Proof as bearers of mathematical knowledge. Bridging knowing and proving in mathematical reasoning. The role of mathematics in long-term cognitive development of reasoning. Proof as experiment in the work of Wittgenstein. Relationships between mathematical proof, problem-solving, and explanation. Explanation and Proof in Mathematics is certain to attract a wide range of readers, including mathematicians, mathematics education professionals, researchers, students, and philosophers and historians of mathematics.

Download or read book Visualization Explanation and Reasoning Styles in Mathematics written by P. Mancosu and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-03-30 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 20th century philosophy of mathematics has to a great extent been dominated by views developed during the so-called foundational crisis in the beginning of that century. These views have primarily focused on questions pertaining to the logical structure of mathematics and questions regarding the justi?cation and consistency of mathematics. Paradigmatic in this - spect is Hilbert’s program which inherits from Frege and Russell the project to formalize all areas of ordinary mathematics and then adds the requi- ment of a proof, by epistemically privileged means (?nitistic reasoning), of the consistency of such formalized theories. While interest in modi?ed v- sions of the original foundational programs is still thriving, in the second part of the twentieth century several philosophers and historians of mat- matics have questioned whether such foundational programs could exhaust the realm of important philosophical problems to be raised about the nature of mathematics. Some have done so in open confrontation (and hostility) to the logically based analysis of mathematics which characterized the cl- sical foundational programs, while others (and many of the contributors to this book belong to this tradition) have only called for an extension of the range of questions and problems that should be raised in connection with an understanding of mathematics. The focus has turned thus to a consideration of what mathematicians are actually doing when they produce mathematics. Questions concerning concept-formation, understanding, heuristics, changes instyle of reasoning, the role of analogies and diagrams etc.

Download or read book The Meaning of Proofs written by Gabriele Lolli and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2022-09-27 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why mathematics is not merely formulaic: an argument that to write a mathematical proof is tantamount to inventing a story. In The Meaning of Proofs, mathematician Gabriele Lolli argues that to write a mathematical proof is tantamount to inventing a story. Lolli offers not instructions for how to write mathematical proofs, but a philosophical and poetic reflection on mathematical proofs as narrative. Mathematics, imprisoned within its symbols and images, Lolli writes, says nothing if its meaning is not narrated in a story. The minute mathematicians open their mouths to explain something—the meaning of x, how to find y—they are framing a narrative. Every proof is the story of an adventure, writes Lolli, a journey into an unknown land to open a new, connected route; once the road is open, we correct it, expand it. Just as fairy tales offer a narrative structure in which new characters can be inserted into recurring forms of the genre in original ways, in mathematics, each new abstract concept is the protagonist of a different theory supported by the general techniques of mathematical reasoning. In ancient Greece, there was more than an analogy between literature and mathematics, there was direct influence. Euclid’s proofs have roots in poetry and rhetoric. Mathematics, Lolli asserts, is not the mere manipulation of formulas.

Download or read book What is Mathematics written by Richard Courant and published by Oxford University Press, USA. 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 All the Mathematics You Missed written by Thomas A. Garrity and published by 清华大学出版社有限公司. This book was released on 2004 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book How Not to Be Wrong written by Jordan Ellenberg and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015-05-26 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Witty, compelling, and just plain fun to read . . ." —Evelyn Lamb, Scientific American The Freakonomics of math—a math-world superstar unveils the hidden beauty and logic of the world and puts its power in our hands The math we learn in school can seem like a dull set of rules, laid down by the ancients and not to be questioned. In How Not to Be Wrong, Jordan Ellenberg shows us how terribly limiting this view is: Math isn’t confined to abstract incidents that never occur in real life, but rather touches everything we do—the whole world is shot through with it. Math allows us to see the hidden structures underneath the messy and chaotic surface of our world. It’s a science of not being wrong, hammered out by centuries of hard work and argument. Armed with the tools of mathematics, we can see through to the true meaning of information we take for granted: How early should you get to the airport? What does “public opinion” really represent? Why do tall parents have shorter children? Who really won Florida in 2000? And how likely are you, really, to develop cancer? How Not to Be Wrong presents the surprising revelations behind all of these questions and many more, using the mathematician’s method of analyzing life and exposing the hard-won insights of the academic community to the layman—minus the jargon. Ellenberg chases mathematical threads through a vast range of time and space, from the everyday to the cosmic, encountering, among other things, baseball, Reaganomics, daring lottery schemes, Voltaire, the replicability crisis in psychology, Italian Renaissance painting, artificial languages, the development of non-Euclidean geometry, the coming obesity apocalypse, Antonin Scalia’s views on crime and punishment, the psychology of slime molds, what Facebook can and can’t figure out about you, and the existence of God. Ellenberg pulls from history as well as from the latest theoretical developments to provide those not trained in math with the knowledge they need. Math, as Ellenberg says, is “an atomic-powered prosthesis that you attach to your common sense, vastly multiplying its reach and strength.” With the tools of mathematics in hand, you can understand the world in a deeper, more meaningful way. How Not to Be Wrong will show you how.

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 Understanding Analysis and its Connections to Secondary Mathematics Teaching written by Nicholas H. Wasserman and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-01-03 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Getting certified to teach high school mathematics typically requires completing a course in real analysis. Yet most teachers point out real analysis content bears little resemblance to secondary mathematics and report it does not influence their teaching in any significant way. This textbook is our attempt to change the narrative. It is our belief that analysis can be a meaningful part of a teacher's mathematical education and preparation for teaching. This book is a companion text. It is intended to be a supplemental resource, used in conjunction with a more traditional real analysis book. The textbook is based on our efforts to identify ways that studying real analysis can provide future teachers with genuine opportunities to think about teaching secondary mathematics. It focuses on how mathematical ideas are connected to the practice of teaching secondary mathematics–and not just the content of secondary mathematics itself. Discussions around pedagogy are premised on the belief that the way mathematicians do mathematics can be useful for how we think about teaching mathematics. The book uses particular situations in teaching to make explicit ways that the content of real analysis might be important for teaching secondary mathematics, and how mathematical practices prevalent in the study of real analysis can be incorporated as practices for teaching. This textbook will be of particular interest to mathematics instructors–and mathematics teacher educators–thinking about how the mathematics of real analysis might be applicable to secondary teaching, as well as to any prospective (or current) teacher who has wondered about what the purpose of taking such courses could be.

Download or read book The Maths Book written by DK and published by Dorling Kindersley Ltd. This book was released on 2019-09-05 with total page 709 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn about the most important mathematical ideas, theorems, and movements in The Maths Book. Part of the fascinating Big Ideas series, this book tackles tricky topics and themes in a simple and easy to follow format. Learn about Maths in this overview guide to the subject, great for novices looking to find out more and experts wishing to refresh their knowledge alike! The Maths Book brings a fresh and vibrant take on the topic through eye-catching graphics and diagrams to immerse yourself in. This captivating book will broaden your understanding of Maths, with: - More than 85 ideas and events key to the development of mathematics - Packed with facts, charts, timelines and graphs to help explain core concepts - A visual approach to big subjects with striking illustrations and graphics throughout - Easy to follow text makes topics accessible for people at any level of understanding The Maths Book is a captivating introduction to the world's most famous theorems, mathematicians and movements, aimed at adults with an interest in the subject and students wanting to gain more of an overview. Charting the development of maths around the world from Babylon to Bletchley Park, this book explains how maths help us understand everything from patterns in nature to artificial intelligence. Your Maths Questions, Simply Explained What is an imaginary number? Can two parallel lines ever meet? How can maths help us predict the future? This engaging overview explores answers to big questions like these and how they contribute to our understanding of maths. If you thought it was difficult to learn about topics like algebra and statistics, The Maths Book presents key information in an easy to follow layout. Learn about the history of maths, from ancient ideas such as magic squares and the abacus to modern cryptography, fractals, and the final proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. The Big Ideas Series With millions of copies sold worldwide, The Maths Book is part of the award-winning Big Ideas series from DK. The series uses striking graphics along with engaging writing, making big topics easy to understand. r to understand.

Download or read book Advanced Calculus written by Patrick Fitzpatrick and published by American Mathematical Soc.. This book was released on 2009 with total page 610 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Advanced Calculus is intended as a text for courses that furnish the backbone of the student's undergraduate education in mathematical analysis. The goal is to rigorously present the fundamental concepts within the context of illuminating examples and stimulating exercises. This book is self-contained and starts with the creation of basic tools using the completeness axiom. The continuity, differentiability, integrability, and power series representation properties of functions of a single variable are established. The next few chapters describe the topological and metric properties of Euclidean space. These are the basis of a rigorous treatment of differential calculus (including the Implicit Function Theorem and Lagrange Multipliers) for mappings between Euclidean spaces and integration for functions of several real variables."--pub. desc.

Download or read book How We Understand Mathematics written by Jacek Woźny and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-04-25 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines mathematics as a product of the human mind and analyzes the language of "pure mathematics" from various advanced-level sources. Through analysis of the foundational texts of mathematics, it is demonstrated that math is a complex literary creation, containing objects, actors, actions, projection, prediction, planning, explanation, evaluation, roles, image schemas, metonymy, conceptual blending, and, of course, (natural) language. The book follows the narrative of mathematics in a typical order of presentation for a standard university-level algebra course, beginning with analysis of set theory and mappings and continuing along a path of increasing complexity. At each stage, primary concepts, axioms, definitions, and proofs will be examined in an effort to unfold the tell-tale traces of the basic human cognitive patterns of story and conceptual blending. This book will be of interest to mathematicians, teachers of mathematics, cognitive scientists, cognitive linguists, and anyone interested in the engaging question of how mathematics works and why it works so well.

Download or read book Analysis I written by Terence Tao and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-08-29 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is part one of a two-volume book on real analysis and is intended for senior undergraduate students of mathematics who have already been exposed to calculus. The emphasis is on rigour and foundations of analysis. Beginning with the construction of the number systems and set theory, the book discusses the basics of analysis (limits, series, continuity, differentiation, Riemann integration), through to power series, several variable calculus and Fourier analysis, and then finally the Lebesgue integral. These are almost entirely set in the concrete setting of the real line and Euclidean spaces, although there is some material on abstract metric and topological spaces. The book also has appendices on mathematical logic and the decimal system. The entire text (omitting some less central topics) can be taught in two quarters of 25–30 lectures each. The course material is deeply intertwined with the exercises, as it is intended that the student actively learn the material (and practice thinking and writing rigorously) by proving several of the key results in the theory.

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 How Math Explains the World written by D. Stein and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-03-17 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In How Math Explains the World, mathematician Stein reveals how seemingly arcane mathematical investigations and discoveries have led to bigger, more world-shaking insights into the nature of our world. In the four main sections of the book, Stein tells the stories of the mathematical thinkers who discerned some of the most fundamental aspects of our universe. From their successes and failures, delusions, and even duels, the trajectories of their innovations—and their impact on society—are traced in this fascinating narrative. Quantum mechanics, space-time, chaos theory and the workings of complex systems, and the impossibility of a "perfect" democracy are all here. Stein's book is both mind-bending and practical, as he explains the best way for a salesman to plan a trip, examines why any thought you could have is imbedded in the number p , and—perhaps most importantly—answers one of the modern world's toughest questions: why the garage can never get your car repaired on time. Friendly, entertaining, and fun, How Math Explains the World is the first book by one of California's most popular math teachers, a veteran of both "math for poets" and Princeton's Institute for Advanced Studies. And it's perfect for any reader wanting to know how math makes both science and the world tick.

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: