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Author: Donald Ervin Knuth Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional ISBN: 9780201038125 Category : Computers Languages : en Pages : 130
Book Description
Nearly 30 years ago, John Horton Conway introduced a new way to construct numbers. Donald E. Knuth, in appreciation of this revolutionary system, took a week off from work on The Art of Computer Programming to write an introduction to Conway's method. Never content with the ordinary, Knuth wrote this introduction as a work of fiction--a novelette. If not a steamy romance, the book nonetheless shows how a young couple turned on to pure mathematics and found total happiness. The book's primary aim, Knuth explains in a postscript, is not so much to teach Conway's theory as "to teach how one might go about developing such a theory." He continues: "Therefore, as the two characters in this book gradually explore and build up Conway's number system, I have recorded their false starts and frustrations as well as their good ideas. I wanted to give a reasonably faithful portrayal of the important principles, techniques, joys, passions, and philosophy of mathematics, so I wrote the story as I was actually doing the research myself."... It is an astonishing feat of legerdemain. An empty hat rests on a table made of a few axioms of standard set theory. Conway waves two simple rules in the air, then reaches into almost nothing and pulls out an infinitely rich tapestry of numbers that form a real and closed field. Every real number is surrounded by a host of new numbers that lie closer to it than any other "real" value does. The system is truly "surreal." quoted from Martin Gardner, Mathematical Magic Show, pp. 16--19 Surreal Numbers, now in its 13th printing, will appeal to anyone who might enjoy an engaging dialogue on abstract mathematical ideas, and who might wish to experience how new mathematics is created. 0201038129B04062001
Author: Donald Ervin Knuth Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional ISBN: 9780201038125 Category : Computers Languages : en Pages : 130
Book Description
Nearly 30 years ago, John Horton Conway introduced a new way to construct numbers. Donald E. Knuth, in appreciation of this revolutionary system, took a week off from work on The Art of Computer Programming to write an introduction to Conway's method. Never content with the ordinary, Knuth wrote this introduction as a work of fiction--a novelette. If not a steamy romance, the book nonetheless shows how a young couple turned on to pure mathematics and found total happiness. The book's primary aim, Knuth explains in a postscript, is not so much to teach Conway's theory as "to teach how one might go about developing such a theory." He continues: "Therefore, as the two characters in this book gradually explore and build up Conway's number system, I have recorded their false starts and frustrations as well as their good ideas. I wanted to give a reasonably faithful portrayal of the important principles, techniques, joys, passions, and philosophy of mathematics, so I wrote the story as I was actually doing the research myself."... It is an astonishing feat of legerdemain. An empty hat rests on a table made of a few axioms of standard set theory. Conway waves two simple rules in the air, then reaches into almost nothing and pulls out an infinitely rich tapestry of numbers that form a real and closed field. Every real number is surrounded by a host of new numbers that lie closer to it than any other "real" value does. The system is truly "surreal." quoted from Martin Gardner, Mathematical Magic Show, pp. 16--19 Surreal Numbers, now in its 13th printing, will appeal to anyone who might enjoy an engaging dialogue on abstract mathematical ideas, and who might wish to experience how new mathematics is created. 0201038129B04062001
Author: John H. Conway Publisher: CRC Press ISBN: 1439864152 Category : Mathematics Languages : en Pages : 253
Book Description
Originally written to define the relation between the theories of transfinite numbers and mathematical games, the resulting work is a mathematically sophisticated but eminently enjoyable guide to game theory. By defining numbers as the strengths of positions in certain games, the author arrives at a new class that includes both real numbers and ordinal numbers: surreal numbers. The second edition presents developments in mathematical game theory, focusing on surreal numbers and the additive theory of partizan games.
Author: N.L. Alling Publisher: Elsevier ISBN: 0080872522 Category : Mathematics Languages : en Pages : 391
Book Description
In this volume, a tower of surreal number fields is defined, each being a real-closed field having a canonical formal power series structure and many other higher order properties. Formal versions of such theorems as the Implicit Function Theorem hold over such fields. The Main Theorem states that every formal power series in a finite number of variables over a surreal field has a positive radius of hyper-convergence within which it may be evaluated. Analytic functions of several surreal and surcomplex variables can then be defined and studied. Some first results in the one variable case are derived. A primer on Conway's field of surreal numbers is also given.Throughout the manuscript, great efforts have been made to make the volume fairly self-contained. Much exposition is given. Many references are cited. While experts may want to turn quickly to new results, students should be able to find the explanation of many elementary points of interest. On the other hand, many new results are given, and much mathematics is brought to bear on the problems at hand.
Author: Michael Henle Publisher: American Mathematical Soc. ISBN: 1614441073 Category : Mathematics Languages : en Pages : 219
Book Description
Everyone knows the real numbers, those fundamental quantities that make possible all of mathematics from high school algebra and Euclidean geometry through the Calculus and beyond; and also serve as the basis for measurement in science, industry, and ordinary life. This book surveys alternative real number systems: systems that generalize and extend the real numbers yet stay close to these properties that make the reals central to mathematics. Alternative real numbers include many different kinds of numbers, for example multidimensional numbers (the complex numbers, the quaternions and others), infinitely small and infinitely large numbers (the hyperreal numbers and the surreal numbers), and numbers that represent positions in games (the surreal numbers). Each system has a well-developed theory, including applications to other areas of mathematics and science, such as physics, the theory of games, multi-dimensional geometry, and formal logic. They are all active areas of current mathematical research and each has unique features, in particular, characteristic methods of proof and implications for the philosophy of mathematics, both highlighted in this book. Alternative real number systems illuminate the central, unifying role of the real numbers and include some exciting and eccentric parts of mathematics. Which Numbers Are Real? Will be of interest to anyone with an interest in numbers, but specifically to upper-level undergraduates, graduate students, and professional mathematicians, particularly college mathematics teachers.
Author: Alain Badiou Publisher: John Wiley & Sons ISBN: 1509534067 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 240
Book Description
The political regime of global capitalism reduces the world to an endless network of numbers within numbers, but how many of us really understand what numbers are? Without such an understanding, how can we challenge the regime of number? In Number and Numbers Alain Badiou offers an philosophically penetrating account with a powerful political subtext of the attempts that have been made over the last century to define the special status of number. Badiou argues that number cannot be defined by the multiform calculative uses to which numbers are put, nor is it exhausted by the various species described by number theory. Drawing on the mathematical theory of surreal numbers, he develops a unified theory of Number as a particular form of being, an infinite expanse to which our access remains limited. This understanding of Number as being harbours important philosophical truths about the structure of the world in which we live. In Badiou's view, only by rigorously thinking through Number can philosophy offer us some hope of breaking through the dense and apparently impenetrable capitalist fabric of numerical relations. For this will finally allow us to point to that which cannot be numbered: the possibility of an event that would deliver us from our unthinking subordination of number.
Author: Gary Rimmer Publisher: Red Wheel Weiser ISBN: 1609259041 Category : Reference Languages : en Pages : 244
Book Description
This isn’t a book of statistics and it isn’t a book of science. It has nothing whatsoever to do with actuaries or accountants. Number Freaking is a book of surreal sums and absurd arithmetic: it’s doodling with numbers, doing sums in your head just for fun, playing dice with the universe. It’s the art of putting numbers where none existed before to take an off-the-wall peek behind the curtains at how numbers rule our lives. It’s about taking numbers that were never meant to be in the same room, crashing them together and seeing what comes out the other end. Number Freaking reveals the low drama of life, the unexpected realities and unforeseen truths that emerge only when numbers are tested to destruction. How long would it take to drive your car to the moon? How many people on Earth are drunk right now? If you were falling from the world’s tallest building, would you have time to phone a friend to say goodbye? Which is more crowded: Jakarta, an IKEA store or Hell? How long will it take for America to eventually collide with Japan? What's a decent boyfriend worth… in chocolate? Discover for yourself how far you walk in a lifetime, how many people have ever lived and how to cure world debt in this essential guide to modern life.
Author: John H. Conway Publisher: CRC Press ISBN: 1439864896 Category : Mathematics Languages : en Pages : 442
Book Description
Start with a single shape. Repeat it in some way—translation, reflection over a line, rotation around a point—and you have created symmetry. Symmetry is a fundamental phenomenon in art, science, and nature that has been captured, described, and analyzed using mathematical concepts for a long time. Inspired by the geometric intuition of Bill Thurston and empowered by his own analytical skills, John Conway, with his coauthors, has developed a comprehensive mathematical theory of symmetry that allows the description and classification of symmetries in numerous geometric environments. This richly and compellingly illustrated book addresses the phenomenological, analytical, and mathematical aspects of symmetry on three levels that build on one another and will speak to interested lay people, artists, working mathematicians, and researchers.
Author: Elwyn R. Berlekamp Publisher: CRC Press ISBN: 0429945590 Category : Mathematics Languages : en Pages : 343
Book Description
This classic on games and how to play them intelligently is being re-issued in a new, four volume edition. This book has laid the foundation to a mathematical approach to playing games. The wise authors wield witty words, which wangle wonderfully winning ways. In Volume 1, the authors do the Spade Work, presenting theories and techniques to "dissect" games of varied structures and formats in order to develop winning strategies.
Author: Donald Ervin Knuth
Author: Donald Ervin Knuth
Author: Harry Gonshor
Author: Ivars Peterson
Author: John H. Conway
Author: N.L. Alling
Author: Michael Henle
Author: Alain Badiou
Author: Gary Rimmer
Author: John H. Conway
Author: Elwyn R. Berlekamp