| Description |
xx, 715 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
1. Origins -- 2. Egypt -- 3. Mesopotamia -- 4. Ionia and the Pythagoreans -- 5. The heroic age -- 6. The age of Plato and Aristotle -- 7. Euclid of Alexandria -- 8. Archimedes of Syracuse -- 9. Apollonius of Perga -- 10. Greek trigonometry and mensuration -- 11. Revival and decline of Greek mathematics -- 12. China and India -- 13. The Arabic hegemony -- 14. Europe in the Middle Ages -- 15. The Renaissance -- 16. Prelude to modern mathematics -- 17. The time of Fermat and Descartes -- 18. A transitional period -- 19. Newton and Leibniz -- 20. The Bernoulli era -- 21. The age of Euler -- 22. Mathematicians of the French Revolution -- 23. The time of Gauss and Cauchy -- 24. Geometry -- 25. Analysis -- 26. Algebra -- 27. Poincaré and Hilbert -- 38. Aspects of the twentieth century -- References; General bibliography; Appendix. Chronological table |
| Summary |
Origins -- Egypt -- Mesopotamia -- Ionia and the Pythagoreans -- Heroic age -- Age of Plato and Aristotle -- Euclid of Alexandria -- Archimedes of Syracuse -- Apollonius of Perga -- Greek trigonometry and mensuration -- Revival and decline of Greek mathematics -- China and India -- Arabic hegemony -- Europe in the Middle Ages -- Renaissance -- Prelude to modern mathematics -- Time of Fermat and Descartes -- Transitional period -- Newton and Leibniz -- Bernoulli era -- Age of Euler -- Mathematicians of the French Revolution -- Time of Gauss and Cauchy -- Geometry -- Analysis -- Algebra -- Poincare and Hilbert -- Aspects of the twentieth century -- References -- General bibliography -- Appendix: Chronological table -- Index. 1. Origins -- The concept of number -- Early number bases -- Number language and the origin of counting -- Origin of geometry -- 2. Egypt -- Early records -- Hieroglyphic notation -- Ahmes papyrus -- Unit fractions -- Arithmetic operations -- Algebraic problems -- Geometric problems -- A trigonometric ratio -- Moscow papyrus -- Mathematical weaknesses -- 3. Mesopotamia -- Cuneiform records -- Positional numeration -- Sexagesimal fractions -- Fundamental operations -- Algebraic problems -- Quadratic equations -- Cubic equations -- Pythagorean triads -- Polygonal areas -- Geometry as applied arithmetic -- Mathematical weaknesses -- 4. Ionia and the Pythagoreans -- Greek origins -- Thales of Miletus -- Pythagoras of Samos -- The Pythagorean pentagram -- Number mysticism -- Arithmetic and cosmology -- Figurate numbers -- Proportions -- Attic numeration -- Ionian numeration -- Arithmetic and logistic -- 5. The Heroic Age -- Centers of activity -- Anaxagoras as Clazomenae -- Three famous problems -- Quadrature of lunes -- Continued proportions -- Hippias of Elis -- Philolaus and Archytas of Tarentum -- Duplication of the cube -- Incommensurability -- The golden section -- Paradoxes of Zeno -- Deductive reasoning -- Geometric algebra -- Democritus of A |
| Notes |
Includes index |
| Bibliography |
Bibliography: pages 665-675 |
| Subject |
Mathematics -- History.
|
|
Mathematics -- history.
|
| Author |
Merzbach, Uta C., 1933-
|
| LC no. |
89005325 |
| ISBN |
0471543977 (paperback) |
|
