Mage Merlin's Unsolved Mathematical Mysteries PDF Download

Author: Satyan Devadoss
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262542757
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 117

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Book Description
Sixteen of today's greatest unsolved mathematical puzzles in a story-driven, illustrated volume that invites readers to peek over the edge of the unknown. Most people think of mathematics as a set of useful tools designed to answer analytical questions, beginning with simple arithmetic and ending with advanced calculus. But, as Mage Merlin's Unsolved Mathematical Mysteries shows, mathematics is filled with intriguing mysteries that take us to the edge of the unknown. This richly illustrated, story-driven volume presents sixteen of today's greatest unsolved mathematical puzzles, all understandable by anyone with elementary math skills. These intriguing mysteries are presented to readers as puzzles that have time-traveled from Camelot, preserved in the notebook of Merlin, the wise magician in King Arthur's court. Our guide is Mage Maryam (named in honor of the brilliant young mathematician, the late Maryam Mirzakhani), a distant descendant of Merlin. Maryam introduces the mysteries--each of which is presented across two beautifully illustrated pages--and provides mathematical and historical context afterward. We find Merlin confronting mathematical puzzles involving tinker toys (a present for Camelot's princesses from the sorceress Morgana), cake-slicing at a festival, Lancelot's labyrinth, a vault for the Holy Grail, and more. Each mystery is a sword awaiting removal from its stone, capturing the beauty and power of mathematics.

Author: Dragan Radulović
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1009063049
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 167

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Book Description
According to G. H. Hardy, the 'real' mathematics of the greats like Fermat and Euler is 'useless,' and thus the work of mathematicians should not be judged on its applicability to real-world problems. Yet, mysteriously, much of mathematics used in modern science and technology was derived from this 'useless' mathematics. Mobile phone technology is based on trig functions, which were invented centuries ago. Newton observed that the Earth's orbit is an ellipse, a curve discovered by ancient Greeks in their futile attempt to double the cube. It is like some magic hand had guided the ancient mathematicians so their formulas were perfectly fitted for the sophisticated technology of today. Using anecdotes and witty storytelling, this book explores that mystery. Through a series of fascinating stories of mathematical effectiveness, including Planck's discovery of quanta, mathematically curious readers will get a sense of how mathematicians develop their concepts.

Author: Alexis L. Boylan
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262359723
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
As if John Berger's Ways of Seeing was re-written for the 21st century, Alexis L. Boylan crafts a guide for navigating the complexities of visual culture in this concise introduction. The visual surrounds us, some of it invited, most of it not. In this visual environment, everything we see--art, color, the moon, a skyscraper, a stop sign, a political poster, rising sea levels, a photograph of Kim Kardashian West--somehow becomes legible, normalized, accessible. How does this happen? How do we live and move in our visual environments? This volume offers a guide for navigating the complexities of visual culture, outlining strategies for thinking about what it means to look and see--and what is at stake in doing so.

Author: David Joyner
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 0801890136
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
David Joyner uses mathematical toys such as the Rubik's Cube to make abstract algebra and group theory fun. This updated second edition uses SAGE, an open-source computer algebra system, to illustrate many of the computations.

Author: Matt Cook
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262542293
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
This “fun, brain-twisting book . . . will make you think” as it explores more than 75 paradoxes in mathematics, philosophy, physics, and the social sciences (Sean Carroll, New York Times–bestselling author of Something Deeply Hidden). Paradox is a sophisticated kind of magic trick. A magician’s purpose is to create the appearance of impossibility, to pull a rabbit from an empty hat. Yet paradox doesn’t require tangibles, like rabbits or hats. Paradox works in the abstract, with words and concepts and symbols, to create the illusion of contradiction. There are no contradictions in reality, but there can appear to be. In Sleight of Mind, Matt Cook and a few collaborators dive deeply into more than 75 paradoxes in mathematics, physics, philosophy, and the social sciences. As each paradox is discussed and resolved, Cook helps readers discover the meaning of knowledge and the proper formation of concepts—and how reason can dispel the illusion of contradiction. The journey begins with “a most ingenious paradox” from Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance. Readers will then travel from Ancient Greece to cutting-edge laboratories, encounter infinity and its different sizes, and discover mathematical impossibilities inherent in elections. They will tackle conundrums in probability, induction, geometry, and game theory; perform “supertasks”; build apparent perpetual motion machines; meet twins living in different millennia; explore the strange quantum world—and much more.

Author: Jacob Klein
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486319814
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
Important study focuses on the revival and assimilation of ancient Greek mathematics in the 13th-16th centuries, via Arabic science, and the 16th-century development of symbolic algebra. 1968 edition. Bibliography.

Author: Satyan L. Devadoss
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400838983
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
An essential introduction to discrete and computational geometry Discrete geometry is a relatively new development in pure mathematics, while computational geometry is an emerging area in applications-driven computer science. Their intermingling has yielded exciting advances in recent years, yet what has been lacking until now is an undergraduate textbook that bridges the gap between the two. Discrete and Computational Geometry offers a comprehensive yet accessible introduction to this cutting-edge frontier of mathematics and computer science. This book covers traditional topics such as convex hulls, triangulations, and Voronoi diagrams, as well as more recent subjects like pseudotriangulations, curve reconstruction, and locked chains. It also touches on more advanced material, including Dehn invariants, associahedra, quasigeodesics, Morse theory, and the recent resolution of the Poincaré conjecture. Connections to real-world applications are made throughout, and algorithms are presented independently of any programming language. This richly illustrated textbook also features numerous exercises and unsolved problems. The essential introduction to discrete and computational geometry Covers traditional topics as well as new and advanced material Features numerous full-color illustrations, exercises, and unsolved problems Suitable for sophomores in mathematics, computer science, engineering, or physics Rigorous but accessible An online solutions manual is available (for teachers only)

Author: Joel David Hamkins
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262542234
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
An introduction to the philosophy of mathematics grounded in mathematics and motivated by mathematical inquiry and practice. In this book, Joel David Hamkins offers an introduction to the philosophy of mathematics that is grounded in mathematics and motivated by mathematical inquiry and practice. He treats philosophical issues as they arise organically in mathematics, discussing such topics as platonism, realism, logicism, structuralism, formalism, infinity, and intuitionism in mathematical contexts. He organizes the book by mathematical themes--numbers, rigor, geometry, proof, computability, incompleteness, and set theory--that give rise again and again to philosophical considerations.

Author: Nicolas Rashevsky
Publisher: MIT Press (MA)
ISBN:
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Author: Ulrich Libbrecht
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486446190
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 594

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Book Description
An exploration of the life and work of the thirteenth-century mathematician Ch'in, this fascinating book examines a range of mathematical issues that reflect Chinese life of a millennium ago. Its first part consists of four closely related studies of Ch'in and his work. The first study brings together what is known of the mathematician's life and of the history of his only extant work, the Shu-shu chiu-chang. Subsequent studies examine the entire range of mathematical techniques and problems found within Ch'in's book. The core of this book consists of an in-depth study of what modern mathematicians still refer to as the Chinese remainder theorem for the solution of indeterminate equations of the first degree. This was Ch'in's most original contribution to mathematics--so original that no one could correctly explain Ch'in's procedure until the early nineteenth century. This volume's concluding study unites information on artisanal, economic, administrative, and military affairs dispersed throughout Ch'in's writings, providing rare insights into thirteenth-century China.