Author: Glen Van Brummelen
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691175993
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 208
Book Description
"Spherical trigonometry was at the heart of astronomy and ocean-going navigation for two millennia. The discipline was a mainstay of mathematics education for centuries, and it was a standard subject in high schools until the 1950s. Today, however, it is rarely taught. Heavenly Mathematics traces the rich history of this forgotten art, revealing how the cultures of classical Greece, medieval Islam, and the modern West used spherical trigonometry to chart the heavens and the Earth."--Jacket.
Heaven Engine
Author: Albert Clarkson
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1418468517
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 598
Book Description
A future of designer humans, smart machines, protean technology. Our dwindled descendents exiled to large space stations visit Cleansed Earth occasionally for gravity- and sensory-deprivation therapy. Human longevity, at last attained, ironically creates a Great Plague of Suicidal Despair, Disnovelling, born of the intruding longer prospect of bloody Nature and of the impersonal hurtling cosmic vastitudes. Centwen, a resurrected twentieth century archetype joined by elites and archetypes from other centuries, learns from his tour guides, the superbot, Prodigy, and its human creator, Great Psychodor, about a last-chance project to create not a mythical but a secular, dynamic, intelligent Heaven; and, if it succeeds, whether or not transformed humans and/or their intelligent machines can escape to it.
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1418468517
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 598
Book Description
A future of designer humans, smart machines, protean technology. Our dwindled descendents exiled to large space stations visit Cleansed Earth occasionally for gravity- and sensory-deprivation therapy. Human longevity, at last attained, ironically creates a Great Plague of Suicidal Despair, Disnovelling, born of the intruding longer prospect of bloody Nature and of the impersonal hurtling cosmic vastitudes. Centwen, a resurrected twentieth century archetype joined by elites and archetypes from other centuries, learns from his tour guides, the superbot, Prodigy, and its human creator, Great Psychodor, about a last-chance project to create not a mythical but a secular, dynamic, intelligent Heaven; and, if it succeeds, whether or not transformed humans and/or their intelligent machines can escape to it.
The Crossing of Heaven
Author: Karl Gustafson
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642225578
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 187
Book Description
Among the group of physics honors students huddled in 1957 on a Colorado mountain watching Sputnik bisect the heavens, one young scientist was destined, three short years later, to become a key player in America’s own top-secret spy satellite program. One of our era’s most prolific mathematicians, Karl Gustafson was given just two weeks to write the first US spy satellite’s software. The project would fundamentally alter America’s Cold War strategy, and this autobiographical account of a remarkable academic life spent in the top flight tells this fascinating inside story for the first time. Gustafson takes you from his early pioneering work in computing, through fascinating encounters with Nobel laureates and Fields medalists, to his current observations on mathematics, science and life. He tells of brushes with death, being struck by lightning, and the beautiful women who have been a part of his journey.
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642225578
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 187
Book Description
Among the group of physics honors students huddled in 1957 on a Colorado mountain watching Sputnik bisect the heavens, one young scientist was destined, three short years later, to become a key player in America’s own top-secret spy satellite program. One of our era’s most prolific mathematicians, Karl Gustafson was given just two weeks to write the first US spy satellite’s software. The project would fundamentally alter America’s Cold War strategy, and this autobiographical account of a remarkable academic life spent in the top flight tells this fascinating inside story for the first time. Gustafson takes you from his early pioneering work in computing, through fascinating encounters with Nobel laureates and Fields medalists, to his current observations on mathematics, science and life. He tells of brushes with death, being struck by lightning, and the beautiful women who have been a part of his journey.
The History of Mathematics: A Source-Based Approach: Volume 1
Author: June Barrow-Green
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN: 147044352X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 505
Book Description
The History of Mathematics: A Source-Based Approach is a comprehensive history of the development of mathematics. This, the first volume of the two-volume set, takes readers from the beginning of counting in prehistory to 1600 and the threshold of the discovery of calculus. It is notable for the extensive engagement with original—primary and secondary—source material. The coverage is worldwide, and embraces developments, including education, in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, China, India, the Islamic world and Europe. The emphasis on astronomy and its historical relationship to mathematics is new, and the presentation of every topic is informed by the most recent scholarship in the field. The two-volume set was designed as a textbook for the authors' acclaimed year-long course at the Open University. It is, in addition to being an innovative and insightful textbook, an invaluable resource for students and scholars of the history of mathematics. The authors, each among the most distinguished mathematical historians in the world, have produced over fifty books and earned scholarly and expository prizes from the major mathematical societies of the English-speaking world.
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN: 147044352X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 505
Book Description
The History of Mathematics: A Source-Based Approach is a comprehensive history of the development of mathematics. This, the first volume of the two-volume set, takes readers from the beginning of counting in prehistory to 1600 and the threshold of the discovery of calculus. It is notable for the extensive engagement with original—primary and secondary—source material. The coverage is worldwide, and embraces developments, including education, in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, China, India, the Islamic world and Europe. The emphasis on astronomy and its historical relationship to mathematics is new, and the presentation of every topic is informed by the most recent scholarship in the field. The two-volume set was designed as a textbook for the authors' acclaimed year-long course at the Open University. It is, in addition to being an innovative and insightful textbook, an invaluable resource for students and scholars of the history of mathematics. The authors, each among the most distinguished mathematical historians in the world, have produced over fifty books and earned scholarly and expository prizes from the major mathematical societies of the English-speaking world.
Paracelsus
Author: Paracelsus
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691238227
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 365
Book Description
The enigmatic sixteenth-century Swiss physician and natural philosopher Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, called Paracelsus, is known for the almost superhuman energy with which he produced his innumerable writings, for his remarkable achievements in the development of science, and for his reputation as a visionary (not to mention sorcerer) and alchemist. Little is known of his biography beyond his legendary achievements, and the details of his life have been filled in over the centuries by his admirers. This richly illustrated anthology presents in modernized language a selection of the moral thought of a man who was not only a self-willed genius charged with the dynamism of an impetuous and turbulent age but also in many ways a humble seeker after truth, who deeply influenced C. G. Jung and his followers.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691238227
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 365
Book Description
The enigmatic sixteenth-century Swiss physician and natural philosopher Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, called Paracelsus, is known for the almost superhuman energy with which he produced his innumerable writings, for his remarkable achievements in the development of science, and for his reputation as a visionary (not to mention sorcerer) and alchemist. Little is known of his biography beyond his legendary achievements, and the details of his life have been filled in over the centuries by his admirers. This richly illustrated anthology presents in modernized language a selection of the moral thought of a man who was not only a self-willed genius charged with the dynamism of an impetuous and turbulent age but also in many ways a humble seeker after truth, who deeply influenced C. G. Jung and his followers.
Plato’s Heaven: A User’s Guide
Author: Howard Burton
Publisher: Open Agenda Publishing
ISBN: 1771700327
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 40
Book Description
This book is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and James Robert Brown, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. This wide-ranging conversation addresses a central theme in current philosophy: Platonism vs. Naturalism and provides accounts of both approaches to mathematics. The Platonist-Naturalist debate over mathematics is explored in a comprehensive fashion and also sheds light on non-mathematical aspects of a dispute that is central to contemporary philosophy. Thought experiments stand as a fascinating challenge to the necessity of data in the empirical sciences. Are these experiments, conducted uniquely in our imagination, simply rhetorical devices or communication tools or are they an essential part of scientific practice? This book also surveys the current state of this debate and explores new avenues of research into the epistemology of thought experiments. This carefully-edited book includes an introduction, Mathematical Metaphysics, and questions for discussion at the end of each chapter: I. Introducing Platonism - An explanation for what mathematics really is II. Attacks and Defenses - Platonism under fire III. Seeing With the Mind’s Eye - Two revealing examples IV. Platonism Bounces Back - From quantum physics to the mind-body problem V. The Philosophical Life - On sociological divides and being a team player About Ideas Roadshow Conversations: This book is part of an expanding series of 100+ Ideas Roadshow conversations, each one presenting a wealth of candid insights from a leading expert through a focused yet informal setting to give non-specialists a uniquely accessible window into frontline research and scholarship that wouldn't otherwise be encountered through standard lectures and textbooks.
Publisher: Open Agenda Publishing
ISBN: 1771700327
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 40
Book Description
This book is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and James Robert Brown, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. This wide-ranging conversation addresses a central theme in current philosophy: Platonism vs. Naturalism and provides accounts of both approaches to mathematics. The Platonist-Naturalist debate over mathematics is explored in a comprehensive fashion and also sheds light on non-mathematical aspects of a dispute that is central to contemporary philosophy. Thought experiments stand as a fascinating challenge to the necessity of data in the empirical sciences. Are these experiments, conducted uniquely in our imagination, simply rhetorical devices or communication tools or are they an essential part of scientific practice? This book also surveys the current state of this debate and explores new avenues of research into the epistemology of thought experiments. This carefully-edited book includes an introduction, Mathematical Metaphysics, and questions for discussion at the end of each chapter: I. Introducing Platonism - An explanation for what mathematics really is II. Attacks and Defenses - Platonism under fire III. Seeing With the Mind’s Eye - Two revealing examples IV. Platonism Bounces Back - From quantum physics to the mind-body problem V. The Philosophical Life - On sociological divides and being a team player About Ideas Roadshow Conversations: This book is part of an expanding series of 100+ Ideas Roadshow conversations, each one presenting a wealth of candid insights from a leading expert through a focused yet informal setting to give non-specialists a uniquely accessible window into frontline research and scholarship that wouldn't otherwise be encountered through standard lectures and textbooks.