Download or read book Useless Arithmetic written by Orrin H. Pilkey and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2007-01-09 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Noted coastal geologist Orrin Pilkey and environmental scientist Linda Pilkey-Jarvis show that the quantitative mathematical models policy makers and government administrators use to form environmental policies are seriously flawed. Based on unrealistic and sometimes false assumptions, these models often yield answers that support unwise policies. Writing for the general, nonmathematician reader and using examples from throughout the environmental sciences, Pilkey and Pilkey-Jarvis show how unquestioned faith in mathematical models can blind us to the hard data and sound judgment of experienced scientific fieldwork. They begin with a riveting account of the extinction of the North Atlantic cod on the Grand Banks of Canada. Next they engage in a general discussion of the limitations of many models across a broad array of crucial environmental subjects. The book offers fascinating case studies depicting how the seductiveness of quantitative models has led to unmanageable nuclear waste disposal practices, poisoned mining sites, unjustifiable faith in predicted sea level rise rates, bad predictions of future shoreline erosion rates, overoptimistic cost estimates of artificial beaches, and a host of other thorny problems. The authors demonstrate how many modelers have been reckless, employing fudge factors to assure "correct" answers and caring little if their models actually worked. A timely and urgent book written in an engaging style, Useless Arithmetic evaluates the assumptions behind models, the nature of the field data, and the dialogue between modelers and their "customers."
Download or read book Useless Arithmetic written by Orrin H. Pilkey and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Writing for the general, nonmathematician reader and using examples from throughout the environmental sciences, Orrin Pilkey and Linda Pilkey-Jarvis show how unquestioned faith in mathematical models can blind us to the hard data and sound judgment of experienced scientific fieldwork. They begin with the extinction of the North Atlantic cod on the Grand Banks of Canada, and then they discuss the limitations of many models across a broad array of crucial environmental subjects. Case studies depict how the seductiveness of quantitative models has led to unmanageable nuclear waste disposal practices, poisoned mining sites, unjustifiable faith in predicted sea level rise rates, bad predictions of future shoreline erosion rates, overoptimistic cost estimates of artificial beaches, and a host of other problems. The authors demonstrate how many modelers have been reckless, employing fudge factors to assure "correct" answers and caring little if their models actually worked.
Download or read book How Not to Be Wrong written by Jordan Ellenberg and published by Penguin Press. This book was released on 2014-05-29 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A brilliant tour of mathematical thought and a guide to becoming a better thinker, How Not to Be Wrong shows that math is not just a long list of rules to be learned and carried out by rote. Math touches everything we do; It's what makes the world make sense. Using the mathematician's methods and hard-won insights-minus the jargon-professor and popular columnist Jordan Ellenberg guides general readers through his ideas with rigor and lively irreverence, infusing everything from election results to baseball to the existence of God and the psychology of slime molds with a heightened sense of clarity and wonder. Armed with the tools of mathematics, we can see the hidden structures beneath the messy and chaotic surface of our daily lives. How Not to Be Wrong shows us how--Publisher's description.
Download or read book The Math Myth written by Andrew Hacker and published by New Press, The. This book was released on 2010-05-25 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times–bestselling author looks at mathematics education in America—when it’s worthwhile, and when it’s not. Why do we inflict a full menu of mathematics—algebra, geometry, trigonometry, even calculus—on all young Americans, regardless of their interests or aptitudes? While Andrew Hacker has been a professor of mathematics himself, and extols the glories of the subject, he also questions some widely held assumptions in this thought-provoking and practical-minded book. Does advanced math really broaden our minds? Is mastery of azimuths and asymptotes needed for success in most jobs? Should the entire Common Core syllabus be required of every student? Hacker worries that our nation’s current frenzied emphasis on STEM is diverting attention from other pursuits and even subverting the spirit of the country. Here, he shows how mandating math for everyone prevents other talents from being developed and acts as an irrational barrier to graduation and careers. He proposes alternatives, including teaching facility with figures, quantitative reasoning, and understanding statistics. Expanding upon the author’s viral New York Times op-ed, The Math Myth is sure to spark a heated and needed national conversation—not just about mathematics but about the kind of people and society we want to be. “Hacker’s accessible arguments offer plenty to think about and should serve as a clarion call to students, parents, and educators who decry the one-size-fits-all approach to schooling.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
Download or read book The End of Error written by John L. Gustafson and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2017-06-26 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Future of Numerical Computing Written by one of the foremost experts in high-performance computing and the inventor of Gustafson’s Law, The End of Error: Unum Computing explains a new approach to computer arithmetic: the universal number (unum). The unum encompasses all IEEE floating-point formats as well as fixed-point and exact integer arithmetic. This new number type obtains more accurate answers than floating-point arithmetic yet uses fewer bits in many cases, saving memory, bandwidth, energy, and power. A Complete Revamp of Computer Arithmetic from the Ground Up Richly illustrated in color, this groundbreaking book represents a fundamental change in how to perform calculations automatically. It illustrates how this novel approach can solve problems that have vexed engineers and scientists for decades, including problems that have been historically limited to serial processing. Suitable for Anyone Using Computers for Calculations The book is accessible to anyone who uses computers for technical calculations, with much of the book only requiring high school math. The author makes the mathematics interesting through numerous analogies. He clearly defines jargon and uses color-coded boxes for mathematical formulas, computer code, important descriptions, and exercises.
Download or read book An Adventurer s Guide to Number Theory written by Richard Friedberg and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2012-07-06 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This witty introduction to number theory deals with the properties of numbers and numbers as abstract concepts. Topics include primes, divisibility, quadratic forms, and related theorems.
Download or read book A Mathematician s Apology written by G. H. Hardy and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1992-01-31 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: G. H. Hardy was one of this century's finest mathematical thinkers, renowned among his contemporaries as a 'real mathematician ... the purest of the pure'. He was also, as C. P. Snow recounts in his Foreword, 'unorthodox, eccentric, radical, ready to talk about anything'. This 'apology', written in 1940 as his mathematical powers were declining, offers a brilliant and engaging account of mathematics as very much more than a science; when it was first published, Graham Greene hailed it alongside Henry James's notebooks as 'the best account of what it was like to be a creative artist'. C. P. Snow's Foreword gives sympathetic and witty insights into Hardy's life, with its rich store of anecdotes concerning his collaboration with the brilliant Indian mathematician Ramanujan, his aphorisms and idiosyncrasies, and his passion for cricket. This is a unique account of the fascination of mathematics and of one of its most compelling exponents in modern times.
Download or read book Principia Mathematica written by Alfred North Whitehead and published by . This book was released on 1910 with total page 688 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Street Fighting Mathematics written by Sanjoy Mahajan and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2010-03-05 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An antidote to mathematical rigor mortis, teaching how to guess answers without needing a proof or an exact calculation. In problem solving, as in street fighting, rules are for fools: do whatever works—don't just stand there! Yet we often fear an unjustified leap even though it may land us on a correct result. Traditional mathematics teaching is largely about solving exactly stated problems exactly, yet life often hands us partly defined problems needing only moderately accurate solutions. This engaging book is an antidote to the rigor mortis brought on by too much mathematical rigor, teaching us how to guess answers without needing a proof or an exact calculation. In Street-Fighting Mathematics, Sanjoy Mahajan builds, sharpens, and demonstrates tools for educated guessing and down-and-dirty, opportunistic problem solving across diverse fields of knowledge—from mathematics to management. Mahajan describes six tools: dimensional analysis, easy cases, lumping, picture proofs, successive approximation, and reasoning by analogy. Illustrating each tool with numerous examples, he carefully separates the tool—the general principle—from the particular application so that the reader can most easily grasp the tool itself to use on problems of particular interest. Street-Fighting Mathematics grew out of a short course taught by the author at MIT for students ranging from first-year undergraduates to graduate students ready for careers in physics, mathematics, management, electrical engineering, computer science, and biology. They benefited from an approach that avoided rigor and taught them how to use mathematics to solve real problems. Street-Fighting Mathematics will appear in print and online under a Creative Commons Noncommercial Share Alike license.
Download or read book Mathematical Modeling with Excel written by Brian Albright and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2019-11-25 with total page 461 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text presents a wide variety of common types of models found in other mathematical modeling texts, as well as some new types. However, the models are presented in a very unique format. A typical section begins with a general description of the scenario being modeled. The model is then built using the appropriate mathematical tools. Then it is implemented and analyzed in Excel via step-by-step instructions. In the exercises, we ask students to modify or refine the existing model, analyze it further, or adapt it to similar scenarios.
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 A Math Primer for Engineers written by C.W. Cryer and published by IOS Press. This book was released on 2014-03-04 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mathematics and engineering are inevitably interrelated, and this interaction will steadily increase as the use of mathematical modelling grows. Although mathematicians and engineers often misunderstand one another, their basic approach is quite similar, as is the historical development of their respective disciplines. The purpose of this Math Primer is to provide a brief introduction to those parts of mathematics which are, or could be, useful in engineering, especially bioengineering. The aim is to summarize the ideas covered in each subject area without going into exhaustive detail. Formulas and equations have not been avoided, but every effort has been made to keep them simple in the hope of persuading readers that they are not only useful but also accessible. The wide range of topics covered includes introductory material such as numbers and sequences, geometry in two and three dimensions, linear algebra, and the calculus. Building on these foundations, linear spaces, tensor analysis and Fourier analysis are introduced. All these concepts are used to solve problems for ordinary and partial differential equations. Illustrative applications are taken from a variety of engineering disciplines, and the choice of a suitable model is considered from the point of view of both the mathematician and the engineer. This book will be of interest to engineers and bioengineers looking for the mathematical means to help further their work, and it will offer readers a glimpse of many ideas which may spark their interest.
Download or read book Hermeneutic Philosophies of Social Science written by Babette Babich and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2017-10-23 with total page 446 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hermeneutic philosophies of social science offer an approach to the philosophy of social science foregrounding the human subject and including attention to history as well as a methodological reflection on the notion of reflection, including the intrusions of distortions and prejudice. Hermeneutic philosophies of social science offer an explicit orientation to and concern with the subject of the human and social sciences. Hermeneutic philosophies of the social science represented in the present collection of essays draw inspiration from Gadamer’s work as well as from Paul Ricoeur in addition to Michel de Certeau and Michel Foucault among others. Special attention is given to Wilhelm Dilthey in addition to the broader phenomenological traditions of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger as well as the history of philosophy in Plato and Descartes. The volume is indispensible reading for students and scholars interested in epistemology, philosophy of science, social social studies of knowledge as well as social studies of technology.
Download or read book One and Many in Aristotle s Metaphysics written by Edward C. Halper and published by Parmenides Publishing. This book was released on 2009-01-28 with total page 635 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this first volume of One and Many, Halper argues that books Alpha to Delta should be read as a coherent treatment, within the larger whole of the Metaphysics, which addresses the problem of how there can be a single science of metaphysics. Halper shows that Aristotle poses and pursues the problem of the existence of metaphysics as a version of the problem of the one and the many, which he resolves by introducing doctrines of being and substance.
Download or read book Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking written by Lizy Kurian John and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2018-10-03 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Computer and microprocessor architectures are advancing at an astounding pace. However, increasing demands on performance coupled with a wide variety of specialized operating environments act to slow this pace by complicating the performance evaluation process. Carefully balancing efficiency and accuracy is key to avoid slowdowns, and such a balance can be achieved with an in-depth understanding of the available evaluation methodologies. Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking outlines a variety of evaluation methods and benchmark suites, considering their strengths, weaknesses, and when each is appropriate to use. Following a general overview of important performance analysis techniques, the book surveys contemporary benchmark suites for specific areas, such as Java, embedded systems, CPUs, and Web servers. Subsequent chapters explain how to choose appropriate averages for reporting metrics and provide a detailed treatment of statistical methods, including a summary of statistics, how to apply statistical sampling for simulation, how to apply SimPoint, and a comprehensive overview of statistical simulation. The discussion then turns to benchmark subsetting methodologies and the fundamentals of analytical modeling, including queuing models and Petri nets. Three chapters devoted to hardware performance counters conclude the book. Supplying abundant illustrations, examples, and case studies, Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking offers a firm foundation in evaluation methods along with up-to-date techniques that are necessary to develop next-generation architectures.
Download or read book The Mathematical Function Computation Handbook written by Nelson H.F. Beebe and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-08-20 with total page 1145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This highly comprehensive handbook provides a substantial advance in the computation of elementary and special functions of mathematics, extending the function coverage of major programming languages well beyond their international standards, including full support for decimal floating-point arithmetic. Written with clarity and focusing on the C language, the work pays extensive attention to little-understood aspects of floating-point and integer arithmetic, and to software portability, as well as to important historical architectures. It extends support to a future 256-bit, floating-point format offering 70 decimal digits of precision. Select Topics and Features: references an exceptionally useful, author-maintained MathCW website, containing source code for the book’s software, compiled libraries for numerous systems, pre-built C compilers, and other related materials; offers a unique approach to covering mathematical-function computation using decimal arithmetic; provides extremely versatile appendices for interfaces to numerous other languages: Ada, C#, C++, Fortran, Java, and Pascal; presupposes only basic familiarity with computer programming in a common language, as well as early level algebra; supplies a library that readily adapts for existing scripting languages, with minimal effort; supports both binary and decimal arithmetic, in up to 10 different floating-point formats; covers a significant portion (with highly accurate implementations) of the U.S National Institute of Standards and Technology’s 10-year project to codify mathematical functions. This highly practical text/reference is an invaluable tool for advanced undergraduates, recording many lessons of the intermingled history of computer hardw are and software, numerical algorithms, and mathematics. In addition, professional numerical analysts and others will find the handbook of real interest and utility because it builds on research by the mathematical software community over the last four decades.
Download or read book Finding Fibonacci written by Keith Devlin and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-07 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A compelling firsthand account of Keith Devlin's ten-year quest to tell Fibonacci's story In 2000, Keith Devlin set out to research the life and legacy of the medieval mathematician Leonardo of Pisa, popularly known as Fibonacci, whose book Liber abbaci has quite literally affected the lives of everyone alive today. Although he is most famous for the Fibonacci numbers—which, it so happens, he didn't invent—Fibonacci's greatest contribution was as an expositor of mathematical ideas at a level ordinary people could understand. In 1202, Liber abbaci—the "Book of Calculation"—introduced modern arithmetic to the Western world. Yet Fibonacci was long forgotten after his death, and it was not until the 1960s that his true achievements were finally recognized. Finding Fibonacci is Devlin's compelling firsthand account of his ten-year quest to tell Fibonacci's story. Devlin, a math expositor himself, kept a diary of the undertaking, which he draws on here to describe the project's highs and lows, its false starts and disappointments, the tragedies and unexpected turns, some hilarious episodes, and the occasional lucky breaks. You will also meet the unique individuals Devlin encountered along the way, people who, each for their own reasons, became fascinated by Fibonacci, from the Yale professor who traced modern finance back to Fibonacci to the Italian historian who made the crucial archival discovery that brought together all the threads of Fibonacci's astonishing story. Fibonacci helped to revive the West as the cradle of science, technology, and commerce, yet he vanished from the pages of history. This is Devlin's search to find him.
