| Description |
xxiii, 285 pages, [1] leaf of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm |
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text rdacontent |
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unmediated rdamedia |
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volume rdacarrier |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 235-267) and index. |
| Contents |
Numerals. Curious beginnings ; Certain ancient number systems ; Silk and Royal roads ; The Indian gift ; Arrival in Europe ; The Arab gift ; Liber abbaci ; Refuting origins -- Algebra. Sans symbols ; Diophantus's Arithmetica ; The great art ; Symbol infancy ; The timid symbol ; Hierarchies of dignity ; Vowels and consonants ; The explosion ; A catalogue of symbols ; The symbol master ; The last of the magicians -- The power of symbols. Rendezvous in the mind ; The good symbol ; Invisible gorillas ; Mental pictures -- Appendix A. Leibniz's notation -- Appendix B. Newton's fluxion of x [superscript n] -- Appendix C. Experiment -- Appendix D. Visualizing complex numbers -- Appendix E. Quaternions. |
| Summary |
While all of us regularly use basic math symbols such as those for plus, minus, and equals, few of us know that many of these symbols weren't available before the sixteenth century. What did mathematicians rely on for their work before then? And how did mathematical notations evolve into what we know today? In Enlightening Symbols, popular math writer Joseph Mazur explains the fascinating history behind the development of our mathematical notation system. He shows how symbols were used initially, how one symbol replaced another over time, and how written math was conveyed before and after ... . |
| Subject |
Mathematical notation -- History.
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Mathematical notation. (OCoLC)fst01012093
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| Genre/Form |
History. (OCoLC)fst01411628
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| ISBN |
9780691154633 (hardcover : alk. paper) |
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0691154635 (hardcover : alk. paper) |
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