The Principal Works of Simon Stevin PDF Download

Author: Simon Stevin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 476

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Author: Jozef T. Devreese
Publisher: WIT Press
ISBN: 1845643917
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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This book gives a comprehensive picture of the activities and the creative heritage of Simon Stevin, who made outstanding contributions to various fields of science, in particular physics and mathematics. Among the striking spectrum of his ingenious achievements, it is worth emphasizing that Simon Stevin is rightly considered as the father of the system of decimal fractions as it is in use today. Stevin also urged the universal use of decimal fractions along with standardization in coinage, measures and weights. This was a most visionary proposal. Stevin was the first since Archimedes to make a significant new contribution to statics and hydrostatics. He truly was "homo universalis." The impact of Stevin's work has been multilateral and worldwide, including literature (William Shakespeare), science (from Christian Huygens to Richard Feynman), politics (Thomas Jefferson) and many other fields. Thomas Jefferson, together with Alexander Hamilton and Robert Morris, advocated introducing the decimal monetary units in the USA with reference to the book "De Thiende" by S. Stevin and in particular to the English translation of the book: "Disme: The Art of Tenths" by Robert Norton. In accordance with the title of this translation, the name of the first silver coin issued in the USA in 1792 was 'disme' (since 1837 the spelling changed to ('dime'). It was considered as a symbol of national independence of the USA.

Author: Simon Stevin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 532

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Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004432914
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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This book studies the Dutch mathematician Simon Stevin (1548-1620) as a new type of ‘man of knowledge’. Stevin exemplifies a wider trend of polymathy in the early modern period. Polymaths played a crucial role in the transformation of European learning.

Author: Karl Menger
Publisher: Dover Publications
ISBN: 9780486457710
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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One of the twentieth century's most original mathematicians and thinkers, Karl Menger taught students of many backgrounds. In this, his radical revision of the traditional calculus text, he presents pure and applied calculus in a unified conceptual frame, offering a thorough understanding of theory as well as of the methodology underlying the use of calculus as a tool. The most outstanding feature of this text is the care with which it explains basic ideas, a feature that makes it equally suitable for beginners and experienced readers. The text begins with a "mini-calculus" which brings out the fundamental results without recourse to the notions of limit and continuity. The standard subject matter is then presented as a pure and unambiguous calculus of functions. The issues surrounding the applications of pure calculus to problems in the sciences are faced in a forthright manner by carefully analyzing the meaning of "variable quantity" and clarified by resuscitating Newton's concept of fluents. The accompanying exercises are original, insightful and an integral part of the text. This Dover edition features a new Preface and Guide to Further Reading by Bert Schweizer and Abe Sklar.

Author: S. Stevin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 976

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Author: Simon Stevin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 474

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Author: Apostolos Doxiadis
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400842689
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 593

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Why narrative is essential to mathematics Circles Disturbed brings together important thinkers in mathematics, history, and philosophy to explore the relationship between mathematics and narrative. The book's title recalls the last words of the great Greek mathematician Archimedes before he was slain by a Roman soldier—"Don't disturb my circles"—words that seem to refer to two radically different concerns: that of the practical person living in the concrete world of reality, and that of the theoretician lost in a world of abstraction. Stories and theorems are, in a sense, the natural languages of these two worlds—stories representing the way we act and interact, and theorems giving us pure thought, distilled from the hustle and bustle of reality. Yet, though the voices of stories and theorems seem totally different, they share profound connections and similarities. A book unlike any other, Circles Disturbed delves into topics such as the way in which historical and biographical narratives shape our understanding of mathematics and mathematicians, the development of "myths of origins" in mathematics, the structure and importance of mathematical dreams, the role of storytelling in the formation of mathematical intuitions, the ways mathematics helps us organize the way we think about narrative structure, and much more. In addition to the editors, the contributors are Amir Alexander, David Corfield, Peter Galison, Timothy Gowers, Michael Harris, David Herman, Federica La Nave, G.E.R. Lloyd, Uri Margolin, Colin McLarty, Jan Christoph Meister, Arkady Plotnitsky, and Bernard Teissier.

Author: Paul Sandori
Publisher: Courier Dover Publications
ISBN: 0486807002
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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This study focuses on statics' original simplicity as an exercise in logic, without resort to extensive mathematical detail. Discussions of significant historical discoveries offer an enjoyable, useful view of the field. 1982 edition.

Author: Ekkehard Kopp
Publisher: Open Book Publishers
ISBN: 1800640978
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Making up Numbers: A History of Invention in Mathematics offers a detailed but accessible account of a wide range of mathematical ideas. Starting with elementary concepts, it leads the reader towards aspects of current mathematical research. The book explains how conceptual hurdles in the development of numbers and number systems were overcome in the course of history, from Babylon to Classical Greece, from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, and so to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The narrative moves from the Pythagorean insistence on positive multiples to the gradual acceptance of negative numbers, irrationals and complex numbers as essential tools in quantitative analysis. Within this chronological framework, chapters are organised thematically, covering a variety of topics and contexts: writing and solving equations, geometric construction, coordinates and complex numbers, perceptions of ‘infinity’ and its permissible uses in mathematics, number systems, and evolving views of the role of axioms. Through this approach, the author demonstrates that changes in our understanding of numbers have often relied on the breaking of long-held conventions to make way for new inventions at once providing greater clarity and widening mathematical horizons. Viewed from this historical perspective, mathematical abstraction emerges as neither mysterious nor immutable, but as a contingent, developing human activity. Making up Numbers will be of great interest to undergraduate and A-level students of mathematics, as well as secondary school teachers of the subject. In virtue of its detailed treatment of mathematical ideas, it will be of value to anyone seeking to learn more about the development of the subject.