The Mathematical Century

The Mathematical Century PDF Author: Piergiorgio Odifreddi
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691128057
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
The twentieth century was a time of unprecedented development in mathematics, as well as in all sciences: more theorems were proved and results found in a hundred years than in all of previous history. In The Mathematical Century, Piergiorgio Odifreddi distills this unwieldy mass of knowledge into a fascinating and authoritative overview of the subject. He concentrates on thirty highlights of pure and applied mathematics. Each tells the story of an exciting problem, from its historical origins to its modern solution, in lively prose free of technical details. Odifreddi opens by discussing the four main philosophical foundations of mathematics of the nineteenth century and ends by describing the four most important open mathematical problems of the twenty-first century. In presenting the thirty problems at the heart of the book he devotes equal attention to pure and applied mathematics, with applications ranging from physics and computer science to biology and economics. Special attention is dedicated to the famous "23 problems" outlined by David Hilbert in his address to the International Congress of Mathematicians in 1900 as a research program for the new century, and to the work of the winners of the Fields Medal, the equivalent of a Nobel prize in mathematics. This eminently readable book will be treasured not only by students and their teachers but also by all those who seek to make sense of the elusive macrocosm of twentieth-century mathematics.

The Mathematical Century

The Mathematical Century PDF Author: Piergiorgio Odifreddi
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691128057
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
The twentieth century was a time of unprecedented development in mathematics, as well as in all sciences: more theorems were proved and results found in a hundred years than in all of previous history. In The Mathematical Century, Piergiorgio Odifreddi distills this unwieldy mass of knowledge into a fascinating and authoritative overview of the subject. He concentrates on thirty highlights of pure and applied mathematics. Each tells the story of an exciting problem, from its historical origins to its modern solution, in lively prose free of technical details. Odifreddi opens by discussing the four main philosophical foundations of mathematics of the nineteenth century and ends by describing the four most important open mathematical problems of the twenty-first century. In presenting the thirty problems at the heart of the book he devotes equal attention to pure and applied mathematics, with applications ranging from physics and computer science to biology and economics. Special attention is dedicated to the famous "23 problems" outlined by David Hilbert in his address to the International Congress of Mathematicians in 1900 as a research program for the new century, and to the work of the winners of the Fields Medal, the equivalent of a Nobel prize in mathematics. This eminently readable book will be treasured not only by students and their teachers but also by all those who seek to make sense of the elusive macrocosm of twentieth-century mathematics.

Mathematical Analysis During the 20th Century

Mathematical Analysis During the 20th Century PDF Author: Jean-Paul Pier
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN: 9780198503941
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 428

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Book Description
'Will be a valuable source book for analysts interested in the history of the main ideas of analysis, as well as for others wanting to know about developments in other fields.' -EMS'This is a superb history of 20th century mathematical analysis.' -Zentralblatt MathematikThis book studies the 20th century evolution of essential ideas in mathematical analysis, a field that since the times of Newton and Leibnitz has been one of the most important and prestigious in mathematics. Each chapter features a comprehensive first part on developments during the period 1900-1950, and then provides outlooks on representative achievements during the later part of the century. The book will be an interesting and useful reference for graduate students and lecturers in mathematics, professional mathematicians and historians of science, as well as the interested layperson.

Perfect Rigour

Perfect Rigour PDF Author: Masha Gessen
Publisher: Icon Books Ltd
ISBN: 1848313098
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 119

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Book Description
In 2006, an eccentric Russian mathematician named Grigori Perelman solved one of the world's greatest intellectual puzzles. The Poincare conjecture is an extremely complex topological problem that had eluded the best minds for over a century. In 2000, the Clay Institute in Boston named it one of seven great unsolved mathematical problems, and promised a million dollars to anyone who could find a solution. Perelman was awarded the prize this year - and declined the money. Journalist Masha Gessen was determined to find out why. Drawing on interviews with Perelman's teachers, classmates, coaches, teammates, and colleagues in Russia and the US - and informed by her own background as a math whiz raised in Russia - she set out to uncover the nature of Perelman's astonishing abilities. In telling his story, Masha Gessen has constructed a gripping and tragic tale that sheds rare light on the unique burden of genius.

Out of the Mouths of Mathematicians: A Quotation Book for Philomaths

Out of the Mouths of Mathematicians: A Quotation Book for Philomaths PDF Author: Rosemary Schmalz
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN: 147045730X
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
Moritz's 'Memorabilia Mathematica' inspired this work, but this one differs in that sources are limited to mathematicians of the 20th century. Useful to researchers to facilitate a literature search, to writers who want to emphasize or substantiate a point, and to teachers, students, and other readeres who will have their appetite for the subject whetted by the 83 quotes. -- Book News, Inc.

The World as a Mathematical Game

The World as a Mathematical Game PDF Author: Giorgio Israel
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3764398965
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
Galileo and Newton’s work towards the mathematisation of the physical world; Leibniz’s universal logical calculus; the Enlightenment’s mathématique sociale. John von Neumann inherited all these aims and philosophical intuitions, together with an idea that grew up around the Vienna Circle of an ethics in the form of an exact science capable of guiding individuals to make correct decisions. With the help of his boundless mathematical capacity, von Neumann developed a conception of the world as a mathematical game, a world globally governed by a universal logic in which individual consciousness moved following different strategies: his vision guided him from set theory to quantum mechanics, to economics and to his theory of automata (anticipating artificial intelligence and cognitive science). This book provides the first comprehensive scientific and intellectual biography of John von Neumann, a man who perhaps more than any other is representative of twentieth century science.

A Century of Mathematics

A Century of Mathematics PDF Author: John Ewing
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780883854570
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
This is the story of American mathematics during the past century. It contains articles and excerpts from a century of the American Mathematical Monthly, giving the reader an opportunity to skim all one hundred volumes of this popular mathematics magazine without actually opening them. It samples mathematics year by year and decade by decade. The reader can glimpse the mathematical community at the turn of the century, the controversy about Einstein and relativity, the debates about formalism in logic, the immigration of mathematicians from Europe, and the frantic effort to organize as the war began. More recent articles deal with the advent of computers and the changes they brought, and with some of the triumphs of modern research.

The Development of Mathematics Throughout the Centuries

The Development of Mathematics Throughout the Centuries PDF Author: Brian Evans
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118853970
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
Throughout the book, readers take a journey throughout time and observe how people around the world have understood these patterns of quantity, structure, and dimension around them. The Development of Mathematics Throughout the Centuries: A Brief History in a Cultural Contex provides a brief overview of the history of mathematics in a very straightforward and understandable manner and also addresses major findings that influenced the development of mathematics as a coherent discipline. This book: Highlights the contributions made by various world cultures including African, Egyptian, Babylonian, Chinese, Indian, Islamic, and pre-Columbian American mathematics Features an approach that is not too rigorous and is ideal for a one-semester course of the history of mathematics. Includes a Resources and Recommended Reading section for further exploration and has been extensively classroom-tested

A Century of Advancing Mathematics

A Century of Advancing Mathematics PDF Author: Paul Zorn
Publisher: The Mathematical Association of America
ISBN: 0883855887
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description
The MAA was founded in 1915 to serve as a home for The American Mathematical Monthly. The mission of the Association-to advance mathematics, especially at the collegiate level-has, however, always been larger than merely publishing world-class mathematical exposition. MAA members have explored more than just mathematics; we have, as this volume tries to make evident, investigated mathematical connections to pedagogy, history, the arts, technology, literature, every field of intellectual endeavor. Essays, all commissioned for this volume, include exposition by Bob Devaney, Robin Wilson, and Frank Morgan; history from Karen Parshall, Della Dumbaugh, and Bill Dunham; pedagogical discussion from Paul Zorn, Joe Gallian, and Michael Starbird, and cultural commentary from Bonnie Gold, Jon Borwein, and Steve Abbott. This volume contains 35 essays by all-star writers and expositors writing to celebrate an extraordinary century for mathematics-more mathematics has been created and published since 1915 than in all of previous recorded history. We've solved age-old mysteries, created entire new fields of study, and changed our conception of what mathematics is. Many of those stories are told in this volume as the contributors paint a portrait of the broad cultural sweep of mathematics during the MAA's first century. Mathematics is the most thrilling, the most human, area of intellectual inquiry; you will find in this volume compelling proof of that claim.

A Century of Mathematics in America

A Century of Mathematics in America PDF Author: Peter L. Duren
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN: 9780821801307
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 602

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Book Description
The first section of the book deals with some of the influential mathematics departments in the United States. Functioning as centers of research and training, these departments played a major role in shaping the mathematical life in this country. The second section deals with an extraordinary conference held at Princeton in 1946 to commemorate the university's bicentennial. The influence of women in American mathematics, the burgeoning of differential geometry in the last 50 years, and discussions of the work of von Karman and Weiner are among other topics covered.

Mathematical Events of the Twentieth Century

Mathematical Events of the Twentieth Century PDF Author: Vladimir I. Arnold
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9783642062254
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book contains several contributions on the most outstanding events in the development of twentieth century mathematics, representing a wide variety of specialities in which Russian and Soviet mathematicians played a considerable role. The articles are written in an informal style, from mathematical philosophy to the description of the development of ideas, personal memories and give a unique account of personal meetings with famous representatives of twentieth century mathematics who exerted great influence in its development. This book will be of great interest to mathematicians, who will enjoy seeing their own specialities described with some historical perspective. Historians will read it with the same motive, and perhaps also to select topics for future investigation.