This text presents the classical theory of conics in a modern form. It includes many novel results that are not easily accessible elsewhere. The approach combines synthetic and analytic methods to derive projective, affine and metrical properties, covering both Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometries. With more than two thousand years of history, conic sections play a fundamental role in numerous fields of mathematics and physics, with applications to mechanical engineering, architecture, astronomy, design and computer graphics. This text will be invaluable to undergraduate mathematics students, those in adjacent fields of study, and anyone with an interest in classical geometry. Augmented with more than three hundred fifty figures and photographs, this innovative text will enhance your understanding of projective geometry, linear algebra, mechanics, and differential geometry, with careful exposition and many illustrative exercises.

This book engages the reader in a journey of discovery through a spirited discussion among three characters: philosopher, teacher, and student. Throughout the book, philosopher pursues his dream of a unified theory of conics, where exceptions are banished. With a helpful teacher and examplehungry student, the trio soon finds that conics reveal much of their beauty when viewed over the complex numbers. It is profusely illustrated with pictures, workedout examples, and a CD containing 36 applets. Conics is written in an easy, conversational style, and many historical tidbits and other points of interest are scattered throughout the text. Many students can selfstudy the book without outside help. This book is ideal for anyone having a little exposure to linear algebra and complex numbers.

The Universe of Quadrics This text presents the theory of quadrics in a modern form. It builds on the previously published book "The Universe of Conics", including many novel results that are not easily accessible elsewhere. As in the conics book, the approach combines synthetic and analytic methods to derive projective, affine, and metrical properties, covering both Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometries. While the history of conics is more than two thousand years old, the theory of quadrics began to develop approximately three hundred years ago. Quadrics play a fundamental role in numerous fields of mathematics and physics, their applications ranging from mechanical engineering, architecture, astronomy, and design to computer graphics. This text will be invaluable to undergraduate and graduate mathematics students, those in adjacent fields of study, and anyone with a deeper interest in geometry. Complemented with about three hundred fifty figures and photographs, this innovative text will enhance your understanding of projective geometry, linear algebra, mechanics, and differential geometry, with careful exposition and many illustrative exercises.

An insightful reflection on the mathematical soul What do pure mathematicians do, and why do they do it? Looking beyond the conventional answers—for the sake of truth, beauty, and practical applications—this book offers an eclectic panorama of the lives and values and hopes and fears of mathematicians in the twenty-first century, assembling material from a startlingly diverse assortment of scholarly, journalistic, and pop culture sources. Drawing on his personal experiences and obsessions as well as the thoughts and opinions of mathematicians from Archimedes and Omar Khayyám to such contemporary giants as Alexander Grothendieck and Robert Langlands, Michael Harris reveals the charisma and romance of mathematics as well as its darker side. In this portrait of mathematics as a community united around a set of common intellectual, ethical, and existential challenges, he touches on a wide variety of questions, such as: Are mathematicians to blame for the 2008 financial crisis? How can we talk about the ideas we were born too soon to understand? And how should you react if you are asked to explain number theory at a dinner party? Disarmingly candid, relentlessly intelligent, and richly entertaining, Mathematics without Apologies takes readers on an unapologetic guided tour of the mathematical life, from the philosophy and sociology of mathematics to its reflections in film and popular music, with detours through the mathematical and mystical traditions of Russia, India, medieval Islam, the Bronx, and beyond.

The usefulness of matrix theory as a tool in disciplines ranging from quantum mechanics to psychometrics is widely recognized, and courses in matrix theory are increasingly a standard part of the undergraduate curriculum. This outstanding text offers an unusual introduction to matrix theory at the undergraduate level. Unlike most texts dealing with the topic, which tend to remain on an abstract level, Dr. Eves' book employs a concrete elementary approach, avoiding abstraction until the final chapter. This practical method renders the text especially accessible to students of physics, engineering, business and the social sciences, as well as math majors. Although the treatment is fundamental — no previous courses in abstract algebra are required — it is also flexible: each chapter includes special material for advanced students interested in deeper study or application of the theory. The book begins with preliminary remarks that set the stage for the author's concrete approach to matrix theory and the consideration of matrices as hypercomplex numbers. Dr. Eves then goes on to cover fundamental concepts and operations, equivalence, determinants, matrices with polynomial elements, similarity and congruence. A final optional chapter considers matrix theory from a generalized or abstract viewpoint, extending it to arbitrary number rings and fields, vector spaces and linear transformations of vector spaces. The author's concluding remarks direct the interested student to possible avenues of further study in matrix theory, while an extensive bibliography rounds out the book. Students of matrix theory will especially appreciate the many excellent problems (solutions not provided) included in each chapter, which are not just routine calculation exercises, but involve proof and extension of the concepts and material of the text. Scientists, engineers, economists and others whose work involves this important area of mathematics, will welcome the variety of special types of matrices and determinants discussed, which make the book not only a comprehensive introduction to the field, but a valuable resource and reference work.

This introduction to modern geometry differs from other books in the field due to its emphasis on applications and its discussion of special relativity as a major example of a non-Euclidean geometry. Additionally, it covers the two important areas of non-Euclidean geometry, spherical geometry and projective geometry, as well as emphasising transformations, and conics and planetary orbits. Much emphasis is placed on applications throughout the book, which motivate the topics, and many additional applications are given in the exercises. It makes an excellent introduction for those who need to know how geometry is used in addition to its formal theory.

Based on Stanford University's well-known competitive exam, this excellent mathematics workbook offers students at both high school and college levels a complete set of problems, hints, and solutions. 1974 edition.

Greek ideas about geometry, straight-edge and compass constructions, and the nature of mathematical proof dominated mathematical thought for about 2,000 years.