|
Books > Science & Mathematics > Mathematics > History of mathematics
When Sir Cyril Burt died in 1971, he was widely recognized as
Britain's most eminent educational psychologist whose studies of
gifted and delinquent children, contributions to the development of
factor analysis, and research on the inheritance of intelligence
brought widespread acclaim. Within five years of his death,
however, he was publicly denounced as a fraud who had fabricated
data to conclude that intelligence is genetically determined.
Examiners of the published data found serious inconsistencies that
raised questions about their authenticity; the case has divided the
scientific community ever since. Were the charges justified, or was
he a victim of critics fearful of validating such a politically
unacceptable scientific theory? This is an up-to-date and unbiased
analysis of one of the most notorious scandals in science, now more
timely and widely discussed than ever with the publication of The
Bell Curve, the best-selling polemic that raises arguments
comparable to Burt's. The distinguished contributors examine the
controversial areas of Burt's work and argue that his defenders
have sometimes, but by no means always, been correct, and that his
critics have often jumped to hasty conclusions. In their haste,
however, these critics have missed crucial evidence that is not
easily reconciled with Burt's total innocence, leaving the
perception that both cases are seriously flawed. An introductory
chapter lays the background to the case, followed by an examination
of Burt's work that relates to the controversy. The book concludes
with a chapter on Burt's character, other cases of apparent
scientific fraud, and the impact of Burt's alleged fabrications.
These findings have profound implications not only for the study of
psychology, but for the wider issues relating to integrity in
scientific research, and the impact of intelligence testing on
social policy.
Please note that this Floris Books edition has been revised for UK
and European notation, language and metric systems. From the early
peoples who marvelled at the geometry of nature -- the beehive and
bird's nest -- to ancient civilisations who questioned beautiful
geometric forms and asked 'why?', the story of geometry spans
thousands of years. Using only three simple tools -- the string,
the straight-edge and the shadow -- human beings revealed the basic
principles and constructions of elementary geometry. Weaving
history and legend, this fascinating book reconstructs the
discoveries of mathematics's most famous figures. Through
illustrations and diagrams, readers are able to follow the
reasoning that lead to an ingenious proof of the Pythagorean
theorem, an appreciation of the significance of the Golden Mean in
art and architecture, or the construction of the five regular
solids. This insightful and engaging book makes geometry accessible
to everyone. Readers will be fascinated with how the knowledge and
wisdom of so many cultures helped shape our civilisation today.
String, Straight-edge and Shadow is also a useful and inspiring
book for those teaching geometry in Steiner-Waldorf classrooms.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
This volume contains eighteen papers that have been collected by
the Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Mathematics. It
showcases rigorously-reviewed contemporary scholarship on an
interesting variety of topics in the history and philosophy of
mathematics, as well as the teaching of the history of
mathematics.  Some of the topics explored include
Arabic editions of Euclid’s Elements from the thirteenth century
and their role in the assimilation of Euclidean geometry into the
Islamic intellectual tradition Portuguese sixteenth century
recreational mathematics as found in the Tratado de Prática
Darysmetica A Cambridge correspondence course in arithmetic
for women in England in the late nineteenth century The
mathematical interests of the famous Egyptologist Thomas Eric (T.
E.) Peet The history of Zentralblatt für Mathematik and
Mathematical Reviews and their role in creating a publishing
infrastructure for a global mathematical literature The use of
Latin squares for agricultural crop experiments at the Rothamsted
Experimental Station The many contributions of women to the
advancement of computing techniques at the Cavendish Laboratory at
the University of Cambridge in the 1960s The volume concludes with
two short plays, one set in Ancient Mesopotamia and the other in
Ancient Egypt, that are well suited for use in the mathematics
classroom. Written by leading scholars in the field, these papers
are accessible not only to mathematicians and students of the
history and philosophy of mathematics, but also to anyone with a
general interest in mathematics.
A History of Mathematics, Third Edition, provides students with a
solid background in the history of mathematics and focuses on the
most important topics for today's elementary, high school, and
college curricula. Students will gain a deeper understanding of
mathematical concepts in their historical context, and future
teachers will find this book a valuable resource in developing
lesson plans based on the history of each topic. This book is ideal
for a junior or senior level course in the history of mathematics
for mathematics majors intending to become teachers.
This unique two-part discussion of foxglove--the herb from which
digitalis is derived--features a facsimile of William Withering's
classic "An Account of Foxglove and Some of its Medical Uses,"
complete with explanatory notes interpreting this eighteenth
century text for the modern reader. The second part of the book,
written by J.K. Aronson, co-author of the Oxford Textbook of
Clinical Pharmacology, includes an introduction to the botany and
pharmacology of foxgloves, their therapeutic uses before Withering,
a short biography of Withering, an account of 18th century medical
practices, and finally a review of the uses of digitalis in modern
medicine.
Since its original appearance in 1997, Numerical Linear Algebra has
been a leading textbook in its field, used in universities around
the world. It is noted for its 40 lecture-sized short chapters and
its clear and inviting style. It is reissued here with a new
foreword by James Nagy and a new afterword by Yuji Nakatsukasa
about subsequent developments.
The book explores Peirce's non standard thoughts on a synthetic
continuum, topological logics, existential graphs, and relational
semiotics, offering full mathematical developments on these areas.
More precisely, the following new advances are offered: (1) two
extensions of Peirce's existential graphs, to intuitionistic logics
(a new symbol for implication), and other non-classical logics (new
actions on nonplanar surfaces); (2) a complete formalization of
Peirce's continuum, capturing all Peirce's original demands
(genericity, supermultitudeness, reflexivity, modality), thanks to
an inverse ordinally iterated sheaf of real lines; (3) an array of
subformalizations and proofs of Peirce's pragmaticist maxim,
through methods in category theory, HoTT techniques, and modal
logics. The book will be relevant to Peirce scholars,
mathematicians, and philosophers alike, thanks to thorough
assessments of Peirce's mathematical heritage, compact surveys of
the literature, and new perspectives offered through formal and
modern mathematizations of the topics studied.
Optimization is the act of obtaining the "best" result under given
circumstances. In design, construction, and maintenance of any
engineering system, engineers must make technological and
managerial decisions to minimize either the effort or cost required
or to maximize benefits. There is no single method available for
solving all optimization problems efficiently. Several optimization
methods have been developed for different types of problems. The
optimum-seeking methods are mathematical programming techniques
(specifically, nonlinear programming techniques). Nonlinear
Optimization: Models and Applications presents the concepts in
several ways to foster understanding. Geometric interpretation: is
used to re-enforce the concepts and to foster understanding of the
mathematical procedures. The student sees that many problems can be
analyzed, and approximate solutions found before analytical
solutions techniques are applied. Numerical approximations: early
on, the student is exposed to numerical techniques. These numerical
procedures are algorithmic and iterative. Worksheets are provided
in Excel, MATLAB(R), and Maple(TM) to facilitate the procedure.
Algorithms: all algorithms are provided with a step-by-step format.
Examples follow the summary to illustrate its use and application.
Nonlinear Optimization: Models and Applications: Emphasizes process
and interpretation throughout Presents a general classification of
optimization problems Addresses situations that lead to models
illustrating many types of optimization problems Emphasizes model
formulations Addresses a special class of problems that can be
solved using only elementary calculus Emphasizes model solution and
model sensitivity analysis About the author: William P. Fox is an
emeritus professor in the Department of Defense Analysis at the
Naval Postgraduate School. He received his Ph.D. at Clemson
University and has taught at the United States Military Academy and
at Francis Marion University where he was the chair of mathematics.
He has written many publications, including over 20 books and over
150 journal articles. Currently, he is an adjunct professor in the
Department of Mathematics at the College of William and Mary. He is
the emeritus director of both the High School Mathematical Contest
in Modeling and the Mathematical Contest in Modeling.
Until recently, the marquise Du Chatelet (1706-1749) was more
remembered as the companion of Voltaire than as an intellectual in
her own right. While much has been written about his extraordinary
output during the years he spent in her company, her own work has
often been overshadowed. This volume brings renewed attention to Du
Chatelet's intellectual achievements, including her free
translation of selections from Bernard Mandeville's Fable of the
bees; her dissertation on the nature and propagation of fire for
the 1738 prize competition of the Academie des sciences; the 1740
Institutions de physique and ensuing exchange with the perpetual
secretary of the Academie, Dortous de Mairan; her two-volume
exegesis of the Bible; the translation of and commentary on Isaac
Newton's Principia; and her semi-autobiographical Discours sur le
bonheur. It is a measure of the breadth of her interests that the
contributions to this volume come from experts in a wide range of
disciplines: comparative literature, art history, the history of
mathematics and science, philosophy, the history of publishing and
translation studies. Du Chatelet's partnership with Voltaire is
reflected in a number of the essays; they borrowed from each
other's writings, from the discussions they had together, and from
their shared readings. Essays examine representations of her by her
contemporaries and posterity that range from her inclusion in a
German portrait gallery of learned men and women, to the scathing
portrait in Francoise de Graffigny's correspondence, and
nineteenth-century accounts coloured by conflicted views of the
ancien regime. Other essays offer close readings of her work, and
set her activities and writings in their intellectual and social
contexts. Finally, they speculate on the ways in which she
presented herself and what that might tell us about the challenges
and possibilities facing an exceptional woman of rank and privilege
in eighteenth-century society.
|
|