Author: Jason Socrates Bardi
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0786733640
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 226
Book Description
Now regarded as the bane of many college students' existence, calculus was one of the most important mathematical innovations of the seventeenth century. But a dispute over its discovery sewed the seeds of discontent between two of the greatest scientific giants of all time -- Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Today Newton and Leibniz are generally considered the twin independent inventors of calculus, and they are both credited with giving mathematics its greatest push forward since the time of the Greeks. Had they known each other under different circumstances, they might have been friends. But in their own lifetimes, the joint glory of calculus was not enough for either and each declared war against the other, openly and in secret. This long and bitter dispute has been swept under the carpet by historians -- perhaps because it reveals Newton and Leibniz in their worst light -- but The Calculus Wars tells the full story in narrative form for the first time. This vibrant and gripping scientific potboiler ultimately exposes how these twin mathematical giants were brilliant, proud, at times mad and, in the end, completely human.
The Calculus Wars
Author: Jason Socrates Bardi
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0786733640
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 226
Book Description
Now regarded as the bane of many college students' existence, calculus was one of the most important mathematical innovations of the seventeenth century. But a dispute over its discovery sewed the seeds of discontent between two of the greatest scientific giants of all time -- Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Today Newton and Leibniz are generally considered the twin independent inventors of calculus, and they are both credited with giving mathematics its greatest push forward since the time of the Greeks. Had they known each other under different circumstances, they might have been friends. But in their own lifetimes, the joint glory of calculus was not enough for either and each declared war against the other, openly and in secret. This long and bitter dispute has been swept under the carpet by historians -- perhaps because it reveals Newton and Leibniz in their worst light -- but The Calculus Wars tells the full story in narrative form for the first time. This vibrant and gripping scientific potboiler ultimately exposes how these twin mathematical giants were brilliant, proud, at times mad and, in the end, completely human.
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0786733640
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 226
Book Description
Now regarded as the bane of many college students' existence, calculus was one of the most important mathematical innovations of the seventeenth century. But a dispute over its discovery sewed the seeds of discontent between two of the greatest scientific giants of all time -- Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Today Newton and Leibniz are generally considered the twin independent inventors of calculus, and they are both credited with giving mathematics its greatest push forward since the time of the Greeks. Had they known each other under different circumstances, they might have been friends. But in their own lifetimes, the joint glory of calculus was not enough for either and each declared war against the other, openly and in secret. This long and bitter dispute has been swept under the carpet by historians -- perhaps because it reveals Newton and Leibniz in their worst light -- but The Calculus Wars tells the full story in narrative form for the first time. This vibrant and gripping scientific potboiler ultimately exposes how these twin mathematical giants were brilliant, proud, at times mad and, in the end, completely human.
The Calculus of Violence
Author: Aaron Sheehan-Dean
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 067491631X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 481
Book Description
Winner of the Jefferson Davis Award Winner of the Johns Family Book Award Winner of the Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Writing Award “A work of deep intellectual seriousness, sweeping and yet also delicately measured, this book promises to resolve longstanding debates about the nature of the Civil War.” —Gregory P. Downs, author of After Appomattox Shiloh, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg—tens of thousands of soldiers died on these iconic Civil War battlefields, and throughout the South civilians suffered terrible cruelty. At least three-quarters of a million lives were lost during the American Civil War. Given its seemingly indiscriminate mass destruction, this conflict is often thought of as the first “total war.” But Aaron Sheehan-Dean argues for another interpretation. The Calculus of Violence demonstrates that this notoriously bloody war could have been much worse. Military forces on both sides sought to contain casualties inflicted on soldiers and civilians. In Congress, in church pews, and in letters home, Americans debated the conditions under which lethal violence was legitimate, and their arguments differentiated carefully among victims—women and men, black and white, enslaved and free. Sometimes, as Sheehan-Dean shows, these well-meaning restraints led to more carnage by implicitly justifying the killing of people who were not protected by the laws of war. As the Civil War raged on, the Union’s confrontations with guerrillas and the Confederacy’s confrontations with black soldiers forced a new reckoning with traditional categories of lawful combatants and raised legal disputes that still hang over military operations around the world today. In examining the agonizing debates about the meaning of a just war in the Civil War era, Sheehan-Dean discards conventional abstractions—total, soft, limited—as too tidy to contain what actually happened on the ground.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 067491631X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 481
Book Description
Winner of the Jefferson Davis Award Winner of the Johns Family Book Award Winner of the Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Writing Award “A work of deep intellectual seriousness, sweeping and yet also delicately measured, this book promises to resolve longstanding debates about the nature of the Civil War.” —Gregory P. Downs, author of After Appomattox Shiloh, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg—tens of thousands of soldiers died on these iconic Civil War battlefields, and throughout the South civilians suffered terrible cruelty. At least three-quarters of a million lives were lost during the American Civil War. Given its seemingly indiscriminate mass destruction, this conflict is often thought of as the first “total war.” But Aaron Sheehan-Dean argues for another interpretation. The Calculus of Violence demonstrates that this notoriously bloody war could have been much worse. Military forces on both sides sought to contain casualties inflicted on soldiers and civilians. In Congress, in church pews, and in letters home, Americans debated the conditions under which lethal violence was legitimate, and their arguments differentiated carefully among victims—women and men, black and white, enslaved and free. Sometimes, as Sheehan-Dean shows, these well-meaning restraints led to more carnage by implicitly justifying the killing of people who were not protected by the laws of war. As the Civil War raged on, the Union’s confrontations with guerrillas and the Confederacy’s confrontations with black soldiers forced a new reckoning with traditional categories of lawful combatants and raised legal disputes that still hang over military operations around the world today. In examining the agonizing debates about the meaning of a just war in the Civil War era, Sheehan-Dean discards conventional abstractions—total, soft, limited—as too tidy to contain what actually happened on the ground.
Mathematics and War
Author: Bernhelm Booß-Bavnbek
Publisher: Birkhäuser
ISBN: 3034880936
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 418
Book Description
Mathematics has for centuries been stimulated, financed and credited by military purposes. Some mathematical thoughts and mathematical technology have also been vital in war. During World War II mathematical work by the Anti-Hitler coalition was part of an aspiration to serve humanity and not help destroy it. At present, it is not an easy task to view the bellicose potentials of mathematics in a proper perspective. The book presents historical evidence and recent changes in the interaction between mathematics and the military. It discusses the new mathematically enhanced development of military technology which seems to have changed the very character of modern warfare.
Publisher: Birkhäuser
ISBN: 3034880936
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 418
Book Description
Mathematics has for centuries been stimulated, financed and credited by military purposes. Some mathematical thoughts and mathematical technology have also been vital in war. During World War II mathematical work by the Anti-Hitler coalition was part of an aspiration to serve humanity and not help destroy it. At present, it is not an easy task to view the bellicose potentials of mathematics in a proper perspective. The book presents historical evidence and recent changes in the interaction between mathematics and the military. It discusses the new mathematically enhanced development of military technology which seems to have changed the very character of modern warfare.
How Not to Be Wrong
Author: Jordan Ellenberg
Publisher: Penguin Press
ISBN: 1594205221
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 480
Book Description
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.
Publisher: Penguin Press
ISBN: 1594205221
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 480
Book Description
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.
Philosophers at War
Author: Alfred Rupert Hall
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521524896
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 358
Book Description
A blow-by-blow account of the celebrated controversy over the invention of the calculus.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521524896
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 358
Book Description
A blow-by-blow account of the celebrated controversy over the invention of the calculus.
The Tangled Origins of the Leibnizian Calculus
Author: Richard C. Brown
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9814390798
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 333
Book Description
1. Evolution or revolution in mathematics -- 2. Issues in seventeenth century mathematics -- 3. Isaac Barrow: a foil to Leibniz -- 4. A young central European polymath -- 5. First steps in mathematics -- 6. The creation of calculus -- 7. Logic -- 8. The universal characteristic -- 9. The baroque cultural context -- 10. Epilogue -- 11. Some concluding remarks on mathematical change -- Appendices.
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9814390798
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 333
Book Description
1. Evolution or revolution in mathematics -- 2. Issues in seventeenth century mathematics -- 3. Isaac Barrow: a foil to Leibniz -- 4. A young central European polymath -- 5. First steps in mathematics -- 6. The creation of calculus -- 7. Logic -- 8. The universal characteristic -- 9. The baroque cultural context -- 10. Epilogue -- 11. Some concluding remarks on mathematical change -- Appendices.
The Mathematical Imagination
Author: Matthew Handelman
Publisher: Fordham Univ Press
ISBN: 0823283852
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 287
Book Description
This book offers an archeology of the undeveloped potential of mathematics for critical theory. As Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno first conceived of the critical project in the 1930s, critical theory steadfastly opposed the mathematization of thought. Mathematics flattened thought into a dangerous positivism that led reason to the barbarism of World War II. The Mathematical Imagination challenges this narrative, showing how for other German-Jewish thinkers, such as Gershom Scholem, Franz Rosenzweig, and Siegfried Kracauer, mathematics offered metaphors to negotiate the crises of modernity during the Weimar Republic. Influential theories of poetry, messianism, and cultural critique, Handelman shows, borrowed from the philosophy of mathematics, infinitesimal calculus, and geometry in order to refashion cultural and aesthetic discourse. Drawn to the austerity and muteness of mathematics, these friends and forerunners of the Frankfurt School found in mathematical approaches to negativity strategies to capture the marginalized experiences and perspectives of Jews in Germany. Their vocabulary, in which theory could be both mathematical and critical, is missing from the intellectual history of critical theory, whether in the work of second generation critical theorists such as Jürgen Habermas or in contemporary critiques of technology. The Mathematical Imagination shows how Scholem, Rosenzweig, and Kracauer’s engagement with mathematics uncovers a more capacious vision of the critical project, one with tools that can help us intervene in our digital and increasingly mathematical present. The Mathematical Imagination is available from the publisher on an open-access basis.
Publisher: Fordham Univ Press
ISBN: 0823283852
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 287
Book Description
This book offers an archeology of the undeveloped potential of mathematics for critical theory. As Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno first conceived of the critical project in the 1930s, critical theory steadfastly opposed the mathematization of thought. Mathematics flattened thought into a dangerous positivism that led reason to the barbarism of World War II. The Mathematical Imagination challenges this narrative, showing how for other German-Jewish thinkers, such as Gershom Scholem, Franz Rosenzweig, and Siegfried Kracauer, mathematics offered metaphors to negotiate the crises of modernity during the Weimar Republic. Influential theories of poetry, messianism, and cultural critique, Handelman shows, borrowed from the philosophy of mathematics, infinitesimal calculus, and geometry in order to refashion cultural and aesthetic discourse. Drawn to the austerity and muteness of mathematics, these friends and forerunners of the Frankfurt School found in mathematical approaches to negativity strategies to capture the marginalized experiences and perspectives of Jews in Germany. Their vocabulary, in which theory could be both mathematical and critical, is missing from the intellectual history of critical theory, whether in the work of second generation critical theorists such as Jürgen Habermas or in contemporary critiques of technology. The Mathematical Imagination shows how Scholem, Rosenzweig, and Kracauer’s engagement with mathematics uncovers a more capacious vision of the critical project, one with tools that can help us intervene in our digital and increasingly mathematical present. The Mathematical Imagination is available from the publisher on an open-access basis.
Development Of Mathematics Between The World Wars, The: Case Studies, Examples And Analyses
Author: Martina Becvarova
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 1786349329
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 623
Book Description
The Development of Mathematics Between the World Wars traces the transformation of scientific life within mathematical communities during the interwar period in Central and Eastern Europe, specifically in Germany, Russia, Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. Throughout the book, in-depth mathematical analyses and examples are included for the benefit of the reader.World War I heavily affected academic life. In European countries, many talented researchers and students were killed in action and scientific activities were halted to resume only in the postwar years. However, this inhibition turned out to be a catalyst for the birth of a new generation of mathematicians, for the emergence of new ideas and theories and for the surprising creation of new and outstanding scientific schools.The final four chapters are not restricted to Central and Eastern Europe and deal with the development of mathematics between World War I and World War II. After describing the general state of mathematics at the end of the 19th century and the first third of the 20th century, three case studies dealing with selected mathematical disciplines are presented (set theory, potential theory, combinatorics), in a way accessible to a broad audience of mathematicians as well as historians of mathematics.
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 1786349329
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 623
Book Description
The Development of Mathematics Between the World Wars traces the transformation of scientific life within mathematical communities during the interwar period in Central and Eastern Europe, specifically in Germany, Russia, Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. Throughout the book, in-depth mathematical analyses and examples are included for the benefit of the reader.World War I heavily affected academic life. In European countries, many talented researchers and students were killed in action and scientific activities were halted to resume only in the postwar years. However, this inhibition turned out to be a catalyst for the birth of a new generation of mathematicians, for the emergence of new ideas and theories and for the surprising creation of new and outstanding scientific schools.The final four chapters are not restricted to Central and Eastern Europe and deal with the development of mathematics between World War I and World War II. After describing the general state of mathematics at the end of the 19th century and the first third of the 20th century, three case studies dealing with selected mathematical disciplines are presented (set theory, potential theory, combinatorics), in a way accessible to a broad audience of mathematicians as well as historians of mathematics.
The War of Guns and Mathematics
Author: David Aubin
Publisher: American Mathematical Society
ISBN: 1470414694
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 414
Book Description
For a long time, World War I has been shortchanged by the historiography of science. Until recently, World War II was usually considered as the defining event for the formation of the modern relationship between science and society. In this context, the effects of the First World War, by contrast, were often limited to the massive deaths of promising young scientists. By focusing on a few key places (Paris, Cambridge, Rome, Chicago, and others), the present book gathers studies representing a broad spectrum of positions adopted by mathematicians about the conflict, from militant pacifism to military, scientific, or ideological mobilization. The use of mathematics for war is thoroughly examined. This book suggests a new vision of the long-term influence of World War I on mathematics and mathematicians. Continuities and discontinuities in the structure and organization of the mathematical sciences are discussed, as well as their images in various milieux. Topics of research and the values with which they were defended are scrutinized. This book, in particular, proposes a more in-depth evaluation of the issue of modernity and modernization in mathematics. The issue of scientific international relations after the war is revisited by a close look at the situation in a few Allied countries (France, Britain, Italy, and the USA). The historiography has emphasized the place of Germany as the leading mathematical country before WWI and the absurdity of its postwar ostracism by the Allies. The studies presented here help explain how dramatically different prewar situations, prolonged interaction during the war, and new international postwar organizations led to attempts at redrafting models for mathematical developments.
Publisher: American Mathematical Society
ISBN: 1470414694
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 414
Book Description
For a long time, World War I has been shortchanged by the historiography of science. Until recently, World War II was usually considered as the defining event for the formation of the modern relationship between science and society. In this context, the effects of the First World War, by contrast, were often limited to the massive deaths of promising young scientists. By focusing on a few key places (Paris, Cambridge, Rome, Chicago, and others), the present book gathers studies representing a broad spectrum of positions adopted by mathematicians about the conflict, from militant pacifism to military, scientific, or ideological mobilization. The use of mathematics for war is thoroughly examined. This book suggests a new vision of the long-term influence of World War I on mathematics and mathematicians. Continuities and discontinuities in the structure and organization of the mathematical sciences are discussed, as well as their images in various milieux. Topics of research and the values with which they were defended are scrutinized. This book, in particular, proposes a more in-depth evaluation of the issue of modernity and modernization in mathematics. The issue of scientific international relations after the war is revisited by a close look at the situation in a few Allied countries (France, Britain, Italy, and the USA). The historiography has emphasized the place of Germany as the leading mathematical country before WWI and the absurdity of its postwar ostracism by the Allies. The studies presented here help explain how dramatically different prewar situations, prolonged interaction during the war, and new international postwar organizations led to attempts at redrafting models for mathematical developments.
Mathematics Tomorrow
Author: L.A. Steen
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461381274
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 245
Book Description
Mathematics today is approaching a state of cnSIS. As the demands of science and society for mathematical literacy increase, the percentage of American college students intending to major in mathematics plummets and achievement scores of entering college students continue thelt unremit ting decline. As research in core mathematics reaches unprecedented heights of power and sophistication, the growth of diverse applied special ties threatens to fragment mathematics into distinct and frequently hostile mathematical sciences. These crises in mathematics presage difficulties for science and engineer ing, and alarms are beginning to sound in the scientific and even in the political communities. Citing a trend towards "virtual scientific and techno logical illiteracy" and a "shrinking of our national commitment to excel lence . . . in science, mathematics and technology," a recent study con ducted for the President by the U. S. National Science Foundation and Department of Education warns of serious impending shortcomings in public understanding of science. "Today people in a wide range of non scientific . . . professions must have a greater understanding of technology than at any time in our history. Yet our educational system does not now provide such understanding. " The study goes on to conclude that present trends pose great risk of manpower shortages in the mathematical and engineering sciences. "The pool from which our future scientific and engineering personnel can be drawn is . . . in danger of becoming smaller, even as the need for such personnel is increasing. " It is time to take a serious look at mathematics tomorrow.
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461381274
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 245
Book Description
Mathematics today is approaching a state of cnSIS. As the demands of science and society for mathematical literacy increase, the percentage of American college students intending to major in mathematics plummets and achievement scores of entering college students continue thelt unremit ting decline. As research in core mathematics reaches unprecedented heights of power and sophistication, the growth of diverse applied special ties threatens to fragment mathematics into distinct and frequently hostile mathematical sciences. These crises in mathematics presage difficulties for science and engineer ing, and alarms are beginning to sound in the scientific and even in the political communities. Citing a trend towards "virtual scientific and techno logical illiteracy" and a "shrinking of our national commitment to excel lence . . . in science, mathematics and technology," a recent study con ducted for the President by the U. S. National Science Foundation and Department of Education warns of serious impending shortcomings in public understanding of science. "Today people in a wide range of non scientific . . . professions must have a greater understanding of technology than at any time in our history. Yet our educational system does not now provide such understanding. " The study goes on to conclude that present trends pose great risk of manpower shortages in the mathematical and engineering sciences. "The pool from which our future scientific and engineering personnel can be drawn is . . . in danger of becoming smaller, even as the need for such personnel is increasing. " It is time to take a serious look at mathematics tomorrow.