See how math's infinite mysteries and beauty unfold in this captivating educational book! Discover more than 85 of the most important mathematical ideas, theorems, and proofs ever devised with this beautifully illustrated book. Get to know the great minds whose revolutionary discoveries changed our world today. You don't have to be a math genius to follow along with this book! This brilliant book is packed with short, easy-to-grasp explanations, step-by-step diagrams, and witty illustrations that play with our ideas about numbers. What is an imaginary number? Can two parallel lines ever meet? How can math help us predict the future? All will be revealed and explained in this encyclopedia of mathematics. It's as easy as 1-2-3! The Math Book tells the exciting story of how mathematical thought advanced through history. This diverse and inclusive account will have something for everybody, including the math behind world economies and espionage. This book charts the development of math around the world, from ancient mathematical ideas and inventions like prehistoric tally bones through developments in medieval and Renaissance Europe. Fast forward to today and gain insight into the recent rise of game and group theory. Delve in deeper into the history of math: - Ancient and Classical Periods 6000 BCE - 500 CE - The Middle Ages 500 - 1500 - The Renaissance 1500 - 1680 - The Enlightenment 1680 - 1800 - The 19th Century 1800 - 1900 - Modern Mathematics 1900 - Present The Series Simply Explained With over 7 million copies sold worldwide to date, The Math Book is part of the award-winning Big Ideas Simply Explained series from DK Books. It uses innovative graphics along with engaging writing to make complex subjects easier to understand.

Is mathematics a highly sophisticated intellectual game in which the adepts display their skill by tackling invented problems, or are mathematicians engaged in acts of discovery as they explore an independent realm of mathematical reality? Why does this seemingly abstract discipline provide the key to unlocking the deep secrets of the physical universe? How one answers these questions will significantly influence metaphysical thinking about reality. This book is intended to fill a gap between popular 'wonders of mathematics' books and the technical writings of the philosophers of mathematics. The chapters are written by some of the world's finest mathematicians, mathematical physicists and philosophers of mathematics, each giving their perspective on this fascinating debate. Every chapter is followed by a short response from another member of the author team, reinforcing the main theme and raising further questions. Accessible to anyone interested in what mathematics really means, and useful for mathematicians and philosophers of science at all levels, Meaning in Mathematics offers deep new insights into a subject many people take for granted.

This volume examines mathematics as a product of the human mind and analyzes the language of "pure mathematics" from various advanced-level sources. Through analysis of the foundational texts of mathematics, it is demonstrated that math is a complex literary creation, containing objects, actors, actions, projection, prediction, planning, explanation, evaluation, roles, image schemas, metonymy, conceptual blending, and, of course, (natural) language. The book follows the narrative of mathematics in a typical order of presentation for a standard university-level algebra course, beginning with analysis of set theory and mappings and continuing along a path of increasing complexity. At each stage, primary concepts, axioms, definitions, and proofs will be examined in an effort to unfold the tell-tale traces of the basic human cognitive patterns of story and conceptual blending. This book will be of interest to mathematicians, teachers of mathematics, cognitive scientists, cognitive linguists, and anyone interested in the engaging question of how mathematics works and why it works so well.

In the four decades since Imre Lakatos declared mathematics a "quasi-empirical science," increasing attention has been paid to the process of proof and argumentation in the field -- a development paralleled by the rise of computer technology and the mounting interest in the logical underpinnings of mathematics. Explanantion and Proof in Mathematics assembles perspectives from mathematics education and from the philosophy and history of mathematics to strengthen mutual awareness and share recent findings and advances in their interrelated fields. With examples ranging from the geometrists of the 17th century and ancient Chinese algorithms to cognitive psychology and current educational practice, contributors explore the role of refutation in generating proofs, the varied links between experiment and deduction, the use of diagrammatic thinking in addition to pure logic, and the uses of proof in mathematics education (including a critique of "authoritative" versus "authoritarian" teaching styles). A sampling of the coverage: The conjoint origins of proof and theoretical physics in ancient Greece. Proof as bearers of mathematical knowledge. Bridging knowing and proving in mathematical reasoning. The role of mathematics in long-term cognitive development of reasoning. Proof as experiment in the work of Wittgenstein. Relationships between mathematical proof, problem-solving, and explanation. Explanation and Proof in Mathematics is certain to attract a wide range of readers, including mathematicians, mathematics education professionals, researchers, students, and philosophers and historians of mathematics.

The teaching and learning of mathematics has degenerated into the realm of rote memorization, the outcome of which leads to satisfactory formal ability but not real understanding or greater intellectual independence. The new edition of this classic work seeks to address this problem. Its goal is to put the meaning back into mathematics. "Lucid . . . easily understandable".--Albert Einstein. 301 linecuts.

In the 20th century philosophy of mathematics has to a great extent been dominated by views developed during the so-called foundational crisis in the beginning of that century. These views have primarily focused on questions pertaining to the logical structure of mathematics and questions regarding the justi?cation and consistency of mathematics. Paradigmatic in this - spect is Hilbert’s program which inherits from Frege and Russell the project to formalize all areas of ordinary mathematics and then adds the requi- ment of a proof, by epistemically privileged means (?nitistic reasoning), of the consistency of such formalized theories. While interest in modi?ed v- sions of the original foundational programs is still thriving, in the second part of the twentieth century several philosophers and historians of mat- matics have questioned whether such foundational programs could exhaust the realm of important philosophical problems to be raised about the nature of mathematics. Some have done so in open confrontation (and hostility) to the logically based analysis of mathematics which characterized the cl- sical foundational programs, while others (and many of the contributors to this book belong to this tradition) have only called for an extension of the range of questions and problems that should be raised in connection with an understanding of mathematics. The focus has turned thus to a consideration of what mathematicians are actually doing when they produce mathematics. Questions concerning concept-formation, understanding, heuristics, changes instyle of reasoning, the role of analogies and diagrams etc.

A brilliant tour of mathematical thought and a guide to becoming a better thinker, How Not to Be Wrong shows that math is not just a long list of rules to be learned and carried out by rote. Math touches everything we do; It's what makes the world make sense. Using the mathematician's methods and hard-won insights-minus the jargon-professor and popular columnist Jordan Ellenberg guides general readers through his ideas with rigor and lively irreverence, infusing everything from election results to baseball to the existence of God and the psychology of slime molds with a heightened sense of clarity and wonder. Armed with the tools of mathematics, we can see the hidden structures beneath the messy and chaotic surface of our daily lives. How Not to Be Wrong shows us how--Publisher's description.

Learn about the most important mathematical ideas, theorems, and movements in The Maths Book. Part of the fascinating Big Ideas series, this book tackles tricky topics and themes in a simple and easy to follow format. Learn about Maths in this overview guide to the subject, great for novices looking to find out more and experts wishing to refresh their knowledge alike! The Maths Book brings a fresh and vibrant take on the topic through eye-catching graphics and diagrams to immerse yourself in. This captivating book will broaden your understanding of Maths, with: - More than 85 ideas and events key to the development of mathematics - Packed with facts, charts, timelines and graphs to help explain core concepts - A visual approach to big subjects with striking illustrations and graphics throughout - Easy to follow text makes topics accessible for people at any level of understanding The Maths Book is a captivating introduction to the world's most famous theorems, mathematicians and movements, aimed at adults with an interest in the subject and students wanting to gain more of an overview. Charting the development of maths around the world from Babylon to Bletchley Park, this book explains how maths help us understand everything from patterns in nature to artificial intelligence. Your Maths Questions, Simply Explained What is an imaginary number? Can two parallel lines ever meet? How can maths help us predict the future? This engaging overview explores answers to big questions like these and how they contribute to our understanding of maths. If you thought it was difficult to learn about topics like algebra and statistics, The Maths Book presents key information in an easy to follow layout. Learn about the history of maths, from ancient ideas such as magic squares and the abacus to modern cryptography, fractals, and the final proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. The Big Ideas Series With millions of copies sold worldwide, The Maths Book is part of the award-winning Big Ideas series from DK. The series uses striking graphics along with engaging writing, making big topics easy to understand. r to understand.

Mathematics plays a central role in much of contemporary science, but philosophers have struggled to understand what this role is or how significant it might be for mathematics and science. In this book Christopher Pincock tackles this perennial question in a new way by asking how mathematics contributes to the success of our best scientific representations. In the first part of the book this question is posed and sharpened using a proposal for how we can determine the content of a scientific representation. Several different sorts of contributions from mathematics are then articulated. Pincock argues that each contribution can be understood as broadly epistemic, so that what mathematics ultimately contributes to science is best connected with our scientific knowledge. In the second part of the book, Pincock critically evaluates alternative approaches to the role of mathematics in science. These include the potential benefits for scientific discovery and scientific explanation. A major focus of this part of the book is the indispensability argument for mathematical platonism. Using the results of part one, Pincock argues that this argument can at best support a weak form of realism about the truth-value of the statements of mathematics. The book concludes with a chapter on pure mathematics and the remaining options for making sense of its interpretation and epistemology. Thoroughly grounded in case studies drawn from scientific practice, this book aims to bring together current debates in both the philosophy of mathematics and the philosophy of science and to demonstrate the philosophical importance of applications of mathematics.