A Dissertation on the Use of the Negative Sign in Algebra PDF Download

Author: Francis Maseres
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Author: George Edward Griffiths
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Books
Languages : en
Pages : 604

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Author: Alberto A. Martínez
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691187827
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
A student in class asks the math teacher: "Shouldn't minus times minus make minus?" Teachers soon convince most students that it does not. Yet the innocent question brings with it a germ of mathematical creativity. What happens if we encourage that thought, odd and ungrounded though it may seem? Few books in the field of mathematics encourage such creative thinking. Fewer still are engagingly written and fun to read. This book succeeds on both counts. Alberto Martinez shows us how many of the mathematical concepts that we take for granted were once considered contrived, imaginary, absurd, or just plain wrong. Even today, he writes, not all parts of math correspond to things, relations, or operations that we can actually observe or carry out in everyday life. Negative Math ponders such issues by exploring controversies in the history of numbers, especially the so-called negative and "impossible" numbers. It uses history, puzzles, and lively debates to demonstrate how it is still possible to devise new artificial systems of mathematical rules. In fact, the book contends, departures from traditional rules can even be the basis for new applications. For example, by using an algebra in which minus times minus makes minus, mathematicians can describe curves or trajectories that are not represented by traditional coordinate geometry. Clear and accessible, Negative Math expects from its readers only a passing acquaintance with basic high school algebra. It will prove pleasurable reading not only for those who enjoy popular math, but also for historians, philosophers, and educators. Key Features? Uses history, puzzles, and lively debates to devise new mathematical systems Shows how departures from rules can underlie new practical applications Clear and accessible Requires a background only in basic high school algebra

Author: London Institution. Library
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Classified catalogs
Languages : en
Pages : 758

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Author: Bonnie Gold
Publisher: MAA
ISBN: 9780883855676
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Sixteen original essays exploring recent developments in the philosophy of mathematics, written in a way mathematicians will understand.

Author: Royal Astronomical Society
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Astronomy
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Author: Benjamin Wardhaugh
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192527223
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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This book contains all the letters that are known to survive from the correspondence of Charles Hutton (1737-1823). Hutton was one of the most prominent British mathematicians of his generation; he played roles at the Royal Society, the Royal Military Academy, the Board of Longitude, the 'philomath' network and elsewhere. He worked on the explosive force of gunpowder and the mean density of the earth, wining the Royal Society's Copley medal in 1778; he was also at the focus of a celebrated row at the Royal Society in 1784 over the place of mathematics there. He is of particular historical interest because of the variety of roles he played in British mathematics, the dexterity with which he navigated, exploited and shaped personal and professional networks in mathematics and science, and the length and visibility of his career. Hutton corresponded nationally and internationally, and his correspondence illustrates the overlapping, the intersection and interaction of the different networks in which Hutton moved. It therefore provides new information about how Georgian mathematics was structured socially, and how mathematical careers worked in that period. It provides a rare and valuable view of a mathematical culture that would substantially cease to exist when British mathematics embraced continental methods from the early ninetheenth century onwards. Over 130 letters survive, from 1770 to 1822, but they are widely scattered (in nearly thirty different archives) and have not been catalogued or edited before. This edition situates the correspondence with an introduction and explanatory notes.

Author: William Hillhouse
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 48

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Author: Robert Watt
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 726

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Author: Robert Watt
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English literature
Languages : en
Pages : 720

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