| Description |
1 online resource (201 pages) : illustrations |
| Contents |
Cover; Half Title; Title Page; Copyright Page; Dedication; Table of contents; List of figures; Preface; Acknowledgments; About the Author; Introduction; Twelve Drops of Mathematical Wisdom; Let's Create Our Map; Why the Desert?; Is Mathematics for You, or Are You for Mathematics?; Notes; Chapter 1 January; Mathematical Tribes; I Wrote You a Poem; Newton's Infinitely Important and Infinitely Small Quantities; The Search for the Philosopher's Stone; That Divine Clock; Friends in Need; Notes; Chapter 2 February; The Holy Month of Wisdom; Going Back to Thales; Isidore, the Milesian |
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Approximations in Mathematics, Architecture, and LifeNotes; Chapter 3 March; Hidden Domes and Heavenly Ideas; The Hanging Chain Curve; Wren and Other Curved Shapes; Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder -- or in Mathematics?; Some Other Interesting Curves; Notes; Chapter 4 April; An Ideal and Emmy; Noether's Abstract Art of Mathematics; Noether Set Down the Law; What About the Ideal and Emmy?; Notes; Chapter 5 May; The Witch that Turned; Newton for, and by, Ladies; The Book; The Spectacle of Newtonianism; Agnesi and the Witch; And, By a Turn in the Storyline ... ; Notes; Chapter 6 June |
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Mathematics is Like ... a Translucent Object Floating in SpaceSolids Named After a Greek Philosopher; The Structure of the Fifth Element; The Translucent Object Floating in Space; Notes; Chapter 7 July; The Power of (Mathematical) Books; The Mathematical Preface; Burning Books; And Then, Across the Pond; Notes; Chapter 8 August; Revolutionary Mathematics; The Real Birthday of Imaginary Bourbaki; The Modern Elements; The Eternal Appeal of Pythagoras; Dangerous Bends; Bourbaki's Theorem -- En Fin; Notes; Chapter 9 September; The Mathematical Traveler is at Home Everywhere |
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The Number that Bears Your NameCan I Imagine an Even Bigger Number?; Big Numbers in Antiquity; Erdos and His Mathematical Friends' Numbers; A Famous Mistake and the Value of Big Numbers; Notes; Chapter 10 October; The Rounded Life and Music of Vibrating Strings; The Fourth Dimension; Thought Experiments; Some More Difficult Maths; A Full Circle Back to Le Rond and His Way of Finding Happiness; Notes; Chapter 11 November; We May be Friends, But I Still Have to Check Whether What You are Saying is True; New Worlds on the Horizon; The Boole Family and Their Friends; As Mathematical Families Go .. |
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The Legacy for the FutureNotes; Chapter 12 December; What Can a Mathematician Give to Their Friend as a New Year's Present?; The Journey to Prague; The Witches and Dreams; Friendships that Last Centuries; Let's Pack our Present Neatly; Notes; Final Remarks; Bibliography; Index |
| Summary |
A New Year's Present from a Mathematician is an exciting book dedicated to two questions: What is it that mathematicians do? And who gets to be called a mathematician' and why? This book seeks to answer these questions through a series of stories ranging from the beginning of modern mathematics through to the 20th century, but not in a usual, chronological manner. The author weaves her story around major questions concerning nature of mathematics, and links mathematicians by the substance of their ideas and the historical and personal context in which they were developed. Ideal as a gift for anyone with an interest in mathematics, this book gives a powerful insight into mathematical concepts in an easy-to-read-and-digest manner, without trivializing their nature. The attention given to engaging examples, framed within a poetic narrative structure, means that this book can be enjoyed by almost anyone, regardless of their level of mathematical education |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Snezana Lawrence is a mathematical historian, with a particular interest in the links between mathematics, architecture, and the belief systems related to mathematics. Her work on the creativity, identity, and engagement in the learning of mathematics has taken her to be involved in national and international initiatives to promote the use of the history of mathematics in mathematics education. Twitter @mathshistory, @snezanalawrence www.mathsisgoodforyou.com |
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Description based on online resource, title from digital title page (viewed on September 16, 2020) |
| Subject |
Mathematics -- History
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Mathematicians -- History
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MATHEMATICS -- General.
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MATHEMATICS -- Applied.
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MATHEMATICS -- History & Philosophy.
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Mathematicians.
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Mathematics.
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| Genre/Form |
Electronic books
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History.
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
9781000734874 |
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1000734870 |
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9780429268847 |
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042926884X |
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9781000735123 |
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1000735125 |
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9781000735376 |
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1000735370 |
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