Math Is Fun Forum

iman

Member

Registered: 2005-11-05

Posts: 8

a history of mathematics

hi my good friends!
I need a downloadable version of CARL.B.BOYER's book, it's title is "a history of mathematics"!
please help me!

Jai Ganesh

Administrator

Registered: 2005-06-28

Posts: 50,431

Re: a history of mathematics

Go here. The book is quite interesting. I'd love to read it. I saw the table of contents and I am impressed. $26.37 --- worth it! I am not sure whether any free downloadable version is available on the net. My guess - there isn't!

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It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics, one should study the masters and not the pupils. - Niels Henrik Abel.

Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge - Stephen William Hawking.

mikau

Member

Registered: 2005-08-22

Posts: 1,504

Re: a history of mathematics

I was wondering if there was any sort of book like this. Sure would be an interesting read. I always like when my mathbook lessons briefly talk about famous mathematicians, what they discovered, proved, etc. I'd like to know how it all started.

Another thing I'd like to know is where the names "algebra" and "calculus" came from. Trigonometry is obvious but algebra and calculus, dunno. While we're on the subject, how do we define "algebra" and "calculus"? Algebra might be called the study of equations? Calculus, studying magic? :-D

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A logarithm is just a misspelled algorithm.

ryos

Member

Registered: 2005-08-04

Posts: 394

Re: a history of mathematics

Calculus seems to be the study of "everything we couldn't figure out until Newton and Leibnitz."

The word calculus once meant "stone." I guess whoever named it thought it was heavy, too!

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El que pega primero pega dos veces.

MathsIsFun

Administrator

Registered: 2005-01-21

Posts: 7,713

Re: a history of mathematics

... but only *very small* stones.

In Medicine a calculus is, for example, a kidney stone!

And on the subject of proofs, I remember some mathamatician, on being asked how he developed his special proof, said (and I can't remember his actual words but they were something like:)

"well, really I had this sudden idea while travelling on the bus ... it then took me months to work backwards from that idea ... then I had to make it look like I had worked it all out forwards"

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"The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God ..."  - Leon M. Lederman

mikau

Member

Registered: 2005-08-22

Posts: 1,504

Re: a history of mathematics

Calculus is a kidney stone?

Ok, I never thought I'd say this but KIDNEY STONES ROXXOR TEH BIG ONEZ!!!111

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A logarithm is just a misspelled algorithm.