| Description |
1 online resource (xxiv, 267 pages) : illustrations |
| Contents |
Cover; Title; Copyright; Contents; List of Illustrations; Preface to the Paperback Edition; Preface; CHAPTER ONE: The Puzzles of Imaginary Numbers; CHAPTER TWO: A First Try at Understanding the Geometry of v1; CHAPTER THREE: The Puzzles Start to Clear; CHAPTER FOUR: Using Complex Numbers; CHAPTER FIVE More Uses of Complex Numbers; CHAPTER SIX Wizard Mathematics; CHAPTER SEVEN: The Nineteenth Century, Cauchy, and the Beginning of Complex Function Theory; APPENDIXES A. The Fundamental Theorem of Algebra; APPENDIXES B. The Complex Roots of a Transcendental Equation |
|
APPENDIXES C. (v1)[sup(v1)]to 135 Decimal Places, and How It Was ComputedAPPENDIXES D. Solving Clausen's Puzzle; APPENDIXES E. Deriving the Differential Equation for the Phase-Shift Oscillator; APPENDIXES F. The Value of the Gamma Function on the Critical Line; Notes; Name Index; Subject Index; Acknowledgments |
| Summary |
Today complex numbers have such widespread practical use--from electrical engineering to aeronautics--that few people would expect the story behind their derivation to be filled with adventure and enigma. In An Imaginary Tale, Paul Nahin tells the 2000-year-old history of one of mathematics' most elusive numbers, the square root of minus one, also known as i. He recreates the baffling mathematical problems that conjured it up, and the colorful characters who tried to solve them. In 1878, when two brothers stole a mathematical papyrus from the ancient Egyptian burial site in the Valley of Kings |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Print version record |
| Subject |
Numbers, Complex.
|
|
Numbers, Complex
|
|
Números complexos (geometria)
|
| Form |
Electronic book
|
| ISBN |
9781400833894 |
|
1400833892 |
|
