Author: Fukagawa Hidetoshi
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400829712
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 392
Book Description
Between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries Japan was totally isolated from the West by imperial decree. During that time, a unique brand of homegrown mathematics flourished, one that was completely uninfluenced by developments in Western mathematics. People from all walks of life--samurai, farmers, and merchants--inscribed a wide variety of geometry problems on wooden tablets called sangaku and hung them in Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines throughout Japan. Sacred Mathematics is the first book published in the West to fully examine this tantalizing--and incredibly beautiful--mathematical tradition. Fukagawa Hidetoshi and Tony Rothman present for the first time in English excerpts from the travel diary of a nineteenth-century Japanese mathematician, Yamaguchi Kanzan, who journeyed on foot throughout Japan to collect temple geometry problems. The authors set this fascinating travel narrative--and almost everything else that is known about temple geometry--within the broader cultural and historical context of the period. They explain the sacred and devotional aspects of sangaku, and reveal how Japanese folk mathematicians discovered many well-known theorems independently of mathematicians in the West--and in some cases much earlier. The book is generously illustrated with photographs of the tablets and stunning artwork of the period. Then there are the geometry problems themselves, nearly two hundred of them, fully illustrated and ranging from the utterly simple to the virtually impossible. Solutions for most are provided. A unique book in every respect, Sacred Mathematics demonstrates how mathematical thinking can vary by culture yet transcend cultural and geographic boundaries.
Sacred Mathematics
Author: Fukagawa Hidetoshi
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400829712
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 392
Book Description
Between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries Japan was totally isolated from the West by imperial decree. During that time, a unique brand of homegrown mathematics flourished, one that was completely uninfluenced by developments in Western mathematics. People from all walks of life--samurai, farmers, and merchants--inscribed a wide variety of geometry problems on wooden tablets called sangaku and hung them in Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines throughout Japan. Sacred Mathematics is the first book published in the West to fully examine this tantalizing--and incredibly beautiful--mathematical tradition. Fukagawa Hidetoshi and Tony Rothman present for the first time in English excerpts from the travel diary of a nineteenth-century Japanese mathematician, Yamaguchi Kanzan, who journeyed on foot throughout Japan to collect temple geometry problems. The authors set this fascinating travel narrative--and almost everything else that is known about temple geometry--within the broader cultural and historical context of the period. They explain the sacred and devotional aspects of sangaku, and reveal how Japanese folk mathematicians discovered many well-known theorems independently of mathematicians in the West--and in some cases much earlier. The book is generously illustrated with photographs of the tablets and stunning artwork of the period. Then there are the geometry problems themselves, nearly two hundred of them, fully illustrated and ranging from the utterly simple to the virtually impossible. Solutions for most are provided. A unique book in every respect, Sacred Mathematics demonstrates how mathematical thinking can vary by culture yet transcend cultural and geographic boundaries.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400829712
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 392
Book Description
Between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries Japan was totally isolated from the West by imperial decree. During that time, a unique brand of homegrown mathematics flourished, one that was completely uninfluenced by developments in Western mathematics. People from all walks of life--samurai, farmers, and merchants--inscribed a wide variety of geometry problems on wooden tablets called sangaku and hung them in Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines throughout Japan. Sacred Mathematics is the first book published in the West to fully examine this tantalizing--and incredibly beautiful--mathematical tradition. Fukagawa Hidetoshi and Tony Rothman present for the first time in English excerpts from the travel diary of a nineteenth-century Japanese mathematician, Yamaguchi Kanzan, who journeyed on foot throughout Japan to collect temple geometry problems. The authors set this fascinating travel narrative--and almost everything else that is known about temple geometry--within the broader cultural and historical context of the period. They explain the sacred and devotional aspects of sangaku, and reveal how Japanese folk mathematicians discovered many well-known theorems independently of mathematicians in the West--and in some cases much earlier. The book is generously illustrated with photographs of the tablets and stunning artwork of the period. Then there are the geometry problems themselves, nearly two hundred of them, fully illustrated and ranging from the utterly simple to the virtually impossible. Solutions for most are provided. A unique book in every respect, Sacred Mathematics demonstrates how mathematical thinking can vary by culture yet transcend cultural and geographic boundaries.
Sangaku Reflections
Author: J. Marshall Unger
Publisher: Cornell East Asia Series
ISBN: 9781939161697
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
"During the period of national isolation, a mathematical tradition called wasan flourished in Japan. Though virtually unknown to Europeans before the Meiji Restoration, its practitioners, the wasanka, produced some results comparable to (and sometimes in advance of) those of mathematicians of the European Enlightment. This volume, a companion to Unger's earlier translation of solutions by Aida Yasuaki (1747-1817), focuses on problems that Aida most likely used as a teacher. Unger explains the reasons for believing this, and sheds further light on the intellectual milieu in which Aida worked by discussing other books by Aida, including one in which he describes Dutch techniques of navigation. A specialist in the history of the Japanese language, Unger aims to make actual wasan materials accessible to bring fellow amateur mathematicians and interested professionals, and to explore new aspects of how wasan fit into the larger picture of premodern Japanese cultural history."--Back cover.
Publisher: Cornell East Asia Series
ISBN: 9781939161697
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
"During the period of national isolation, a mathematical tradition called wasan flourished in Japan. Though virtually unknown to Europeans before the Meiji Restoration, its practitioners, the wasanka, produced some results comparable to (and sometimes in advance of) those of mathematicians of the European Enlightment. This volume, a companion to Unger's earlier translation of solutions by Aida Yasuaki (1747-1817), focuses on problems that Aida most likely used as a teacher. Unger explains the reasons for believing this, and sheds further light on the intellectual milieu in which Aida worked by discussing other books by Aida, including one in which he describes Dutch techniques of navigation. A specialist in the history of the Japanese language, Unger aims to make actual wasan materials accessible to bring fellow amateur mathematicians and interested professionals, and to explore new aspects of how wasan fit into the larger picture of premodern Japanese cultural history."--Back cover.
Modern Sangaku
Author: Jean Constant
Publisher: Hermay NM
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 97
Book Description
Sangaku are geometrical problems carved on wooden tablets. They were very popular in Japan during the Edo period (1603-1867) but the tradition got all but forgotten until recently as a renewed interest by mathematicians and scholars brought them back to the public attention. This book includes over 60 illustrations inspired by original Sangaku problems and focuses on the aesthetic appeal of this exceptional and unique demonstration of universal geometry principles. The images in this book are available, large format, @ http://bit.ly/JCArtGallery
Publisher: Hermay NM
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 97
Book Description
Sangaku are geometrical problems carved on wooden tablets. They were very popular in Japan during the Edo period (1603-1867) but the tradition got all but forgotten until recently as a renewed interest by mathematicians and scholars brought them back to the public attention. This book includes over 60 illustrations inspired by original Sangaku problems and focuses on the aesthetic appeal of this exceptional and unique demonstration of universal geometry principles. The images in this book are available, large format, @ http://bit.ly/JCArtGallery
Biologically-Inspired Computing for the Arts: Scientific Data through Graphics
Author: Ursyn, Anna
Publisher: IGI Global
ISBN: 1466609435
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 444
Book Description
"This book comprises a collection of authors' individual approaches to the relationship between nature, science, and art created with the use of computers, discussing issues related to the use of visual language in communication about biologically-inspired scientific data, visual literacy in science, and application of practitioner's approach"--Provided by publisher.
Publisher: IGI Global
ISBN: 1466609435
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 444
Book Description
"This book comprises a collection of authors' individual approaches to the relationship between nature, science, and art created with the use of computers, discussing issues related to the use of visual language in communication about biologically-inspired scientific data, visual literacy in science, and application of practitioner's approach"--Provided by publisher.
Literacy and Script Reform in Occupation Japan
Author: J. Marshall Unger
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195101669
Category : Japanese language
Languages : en
Pages : 189
Book Description
Although the United States Education Mission recommended that the Japanese give serious consideration to the introduction of alphabetic writing, key American officials in the Civil Information and Education Section of GHQ/SCAP delayed and effectively killed action on this recommendation. Japanese advocates of romanization nevertheless managed to obtain CI&E approval for an experiment in elementary schools to test the hypothesis that schoolchildren could make faster progress if spared the necessity of studying Chinese characters as part of non-language courses such as arithmetic. Though not conclusive, the experiment's results supported the hypothesis and suggested the need for more and better testing.
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195101669
Category : Japanese language
Languages : en
Pages : 189
Book Description
Although the United States Education Mission recommended that the Japanese give serious consideration to the introduction of alphabetic writing, key American officials in the Civil Information and Education Section of GHQ/SCAP delayed and effectively killed action on this recommendation. Japanese advocates of romanization nevertheless managed to obtain CI&E approval for an experiment in elementary schools to test the hypothesis that schoolchildren could make faster progress if spared the necessity of studying Chinese characters as part of non-language courses such as arithmetic. Though not conclusive, the experiment's results supported the hypothesis and suggested the need for more and better testing.
On the Most Ancient Wisdom of the Italians
Author: Giambattista Vico
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780801412806
Category : Metaphysics
Languages : en
Pages : 228
Book Description
On the Most Ancient Wisdom of the Italians, originally published in 1710, is widely regarded as Vico's most significant work after the New Science and the Autobiography. Subtitled "The Book of Metaphysics," it was one of three planned volumes of a larger work that was never published, and it marks Vico's transition from rhetorician to philosopher of historical knowledge. This edition incorporates translations from the Italian of a contemporary review and Vico's responses, published in 1711 and 1712. L. M. Palmer's translation helps make more accessible a treatise of vital importance for an understanding of Vico's epistemology, psychology, and philosophy of mathematics.
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780801412806
Category : Metaphysics
Languages : en
Pages : 228
Book Description
On the Most Ancient Wisdom of the Italians, originally published in 1710, is widely regarded as Vico's most significant work after the New Science and the Autobiography. Subtitled "The Book of Metaphysics," it was one of three planned volumes of a larger work that was never published, and it marks Vico's transition from rhetorician to philosopher of historical knowledge. This edition incorporates translations from the Italian of a contemporary review and Vico's responses, published in 1711 and 1712. L. M. Palmer's translation helps make more accessible a treatise of vital importance for an understanding of Vico's epistemology, psychology, and philosophy of mathematics.
Beauty and Revolution in Science
Author: James W. McAllister
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501728644
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 246
Book Description
Explaining why he embraced the theory of relativity, the Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist P. A. M. Dirac stated, "It is the essential beauty of the theory which I feel is the real reason for believing in it." How reasonable and rational can science be when its practitioners speak of "revolutions" in their thinking and extol certain theories for their "beauty"? James W. McAllister addresses this question with the first systematic study of the aesthetic evaluations that scientists pass on their theories.Using a wealth of other examples, McAllister explains how scientists' aesthetic preferences are influenced by the empirical track record of theories, describes the origin and development of aesthetic styles of theorizing, and reconsiders whether simplicity is an empirical or an aesthetic virtue of theories. McAllister then advances an innovative model of scientific revolutions, in opposition to that of Thomas S. Kuhn.Three detailed studies demonstrate the interconnection of empirical performance, beauty, and revolution. One examines the impact of new construction materials on the history of architecture. Another reexamines the transition from the Ptolemaic system to Kepler's theory in planetary astronomy, and the third documents the rise of relativity and quantum theory in the twentieth century.
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501728644
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 246
Book Description
Explaining why he embraced the theory of relativity, the Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist P. A. M. Dirac stated, "It is the essential beauty of the theory which I feel is the real reason for believing in it." How reasonable and rational can science be when its practitioners speak of "revolutions" in their thinking and extol certain theories for their "beauty"? James W. McAllister addresses this question with the first systematic study of the aesthetic evaluations that scientists pass on their theories.Using a wealth of other examples, McAllister explains how scientists' aesthetic preferences are influenced by the empirical track record of theories, describes the origin and development of aesthetic styles of theorizing, and reconsiders whether simplicity is an empirical or an aesthetic virtue of theories. McAllister then advances an innovative model of scientific revolutions, in opposition to that of Thomas S. Kuhn.Three detailed studies demonstrate the interconnection of empirical performance, beauty, and revolution. One examines the impact of new construction materials on the history of architecture. Another reexamines the transition from the Ptolemaic system to Kepler's theory in planetary astronomy, and the third documents the rise of relativity and quantum theory in the twentieth century.
The Maxwellians
Author: Bruce J. Hunt
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780801482342
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 284
Book Description
James Clerk Maxwell published the Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism in 1873. At his death, six years later, his theory of the electromagnetic field was neither well understood nor widely accepted. By the mid-1890s, however, it was regarded as one of the most fundamental and fruitful of all physical theories. Bruce J. Hunt examines the joint work of a group of young British physicists--G. F. FitzGerald, Oliver Heaviside, and Oliver Lodge--along with a key German contributor, Heinrich Hertz. It was these "Maxwellians" who transformed the fertile but half-finished ideas presented in the Treatise into the concise and powerful system now known as "Maxwell's theory."
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780801482342
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 284
Book Description
James Clerk Maxwell published the Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism in 1873. At his death, six years later, his theory of the electromagnetic field was neither well understood nor widely accepted. By the mid-1890s, however, it was regarded as one of the most fundamental and fruitful of all physical theories. Bruce J. Hunt examines the joint work of a group of young British physicists--G. F. FitzGerald, Oliver Heaviside, and Oliver Lodge--along with a key German contributor, Heinrich Hertz. It was these "Maxwellians" who transformed the fertile but half-finished ideas presented in the Treatise into the concise and powerful system now known as "Maxwell's theory."
Japanese Temple Geometry Problems
Author: Hidetoshi Fukagawa
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 228
Book Description
A selection from the hundreds of problems in Euclidean geometry displayed on devotional mathematical tablets (Sangaku) which were hung under the roofs of shrines or temples in Japan during two centuries of schism from the west, with solutions and answers.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 228
Book Description
A selection from the hundreds of problems in Euclidean geometry displayed on devotional mathematical tablets (Sangaku) which were hung under the roofs of shrines or temples in Japan during two centuries of schism from the west, with solutions and answers.
Reflections on Urban, Regional and National Space
Author: Uzo Nishiyama
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351391038
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
Nishiyama Uzō, educated as an architect between 1930 and 1933, was a key figure in Japanese urban planning. He was a prolific writer who influenced a whole generation of Japanese urban planners and his interpretations of foreign planning and local practice still influence Japanese planning theory and practice today. Nishiyama’s first publications date to the 1930s, and his last ones appeared in the 1990s, spanning a period of enormous political and spatial changes. The three articles translated here, originally published in the 1940s in professional magazines, show how Nishiyama developed his theoretical models based on a social approach to architecture and planning, focusing on land use and land control rather than aesthetic preferences. They provide insight into Nishiyama’s early thinking, his analysis of foreign examples, his reflection on large-scale regional and national spatial organization, and his architectural and urban visions, providing a remarkable and fascinating insight into the state of planning in Japan. These texts call scholarly attention to the writing of a global planning history and invite the reader to engage with a major figure in planning who is largely unknown outside Japan; to reconsider Japanese planning history; and to work towards a truly global planning history. How does Nishiyama compare to the great urban planners of the past in the West, such as Patrick Geddes, Lewis Mumford, or Werner Hegemann? Many more translations will be necessary to answer this question.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351391038
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
Nishiyama Uzō, educated as an architect between 1930 and 1933, was a key figure in Japanese urban planning. He was a prolific writer who influenced a whole generation of Japanese urban planners and his interpretations of foreign planning and local practice still influence Japanese planning theory and practice today. Nishiyama’s first publications date to the 1930s, and his last ones appeared in the 1990s, spanning a period of enormous political and spatial changes. The three articles translated here, originally published in the 1940s in professional magazines, show how Nishiyama developed his theoretical models based on a social approach to architecture and planning, focusing on land use and land control rather than aesthetic preferences. They provide insight into Nishiyama’s early thinking, his analysis of foreign examples, his reflection on large-scale regional and national spatial organization, and his architectural and urban visions, providing a remarkable and fascinating insight into the state of planning in Japan. These texts call scholarly attention to the writing of a global planning history and invite the reader to engage with a major figure in planning who is largely unknown outside Japan; to reconsider Japanese planning history; and to work towards a truly global planning history. How does Nishiyama compare to the great urban planners of the past in the West, such as Patrick Geddes, Lewis Mumford, or Werner Hegemann? Many more translations will be necessary to answer this question.