The Finnish mathematician and astronomer Anders Johan Lexell (1740-1784) was a long-time close collaborator as well as the academic successor of Leonhard Euler at the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg. Lexell was initially invited by Euler from his native town of Abo (Turku) in Finland to Saint Petersburg to assist in the mathematical processing of the astronomical data of the forthcoming transit of Venus of 1769. A few years later he became an ordinary member of the Academy. This is the first-ever full-length biography devoted to Lexell and his prolific scientific output. His rich correspondence especially from his grand tour to Germany, France and England reveals him as a lucid observer of the intellectual landscape of enlightened Europe. In the skies, a comet, a minor planet and a crater on the Moon named after Lexell also perpetuate his memory.

Vladimir Maz'ya (born 1937) is an outstanding mathematician who systematically made fundamental contributions to a wide array of areas in mathematical analysis and in the theory of partial differential equations. In this fascinating book he describes the first thirty years of his life. He starts with the story of his family, speaks about his childhood, high school and university years, describe his formative years as a mathematician. Behind the author's personal recollections, with his own joys, sorrows and hopes, one sees a vivid picture of the time. He speaks warmly about his friends, both outside and inside mathematics. The author describes the awakening of his passion for mathematics and his early achievements. He mentions a number of mathematicians who influenced his professional life. The book is written in a readable and inviting way sometimes with a touch of humor. It can be of interest for a very broad readership.

This book presents new insights into Leibniz's research on planetary theory and his system of pre-established harmony. Although some aspects of this theory have been explored in the literature, others are less well known. In particular, the book offers new contributions on the connection between the planetary theory and the theory of gravitation. It also provides an in-depth discussion of Kepler's influence on Leibniz's planetary theory and more generally, on Leibniz's concept of pre-established harmony. Three initial chapters presenting the mathematical and physical details of Leibniz's works provide a frame of reference. The book then goes on to discuss research on Leibniz's conception of gravity and the connection between Leibniz and Kepler.

The book aims to provide an overview of the state of the art on the mechanics of arches and masonry structures. It is addressed to an international audience, arising from the international context in which the Associazione Edoardo Benvenuto has carried out its activities in recent years, under the honorary presidency of Jacques Heyman. The book belongs to the collection Between Mechanics and Architecture, born in 1995 from the collaboration of several renowned scholars, including Edoardo Benvenuto (P. Radelet-de Grave, E. Benvenuto (eds.), Entre Mecanique et Architecture / Between Mechanics and Architecture, Birkhauser, Basel 1995).

This book presents the classical theory of curves in the plane and three-dimensional space, and the classical theory of surfaces in three-dimensional space. It pays particular attention to the historical development of the theory and the preliminary approaches that support contemporary geometrical notions. It includes a chapter that lists a very wide scope of plane curves and their properties. The book approaches the threshold of algebraic topology, providing an integrated presentation fully accessible to undergraduate-level students. At the end of the 17th century, Newton and Leibniz developed differential calculus, thus making available the very wide range of differentiable functions, not just those constructed from polynomials. During the 18th century, Euler applied these ideas to establish what is still today the classical theory of most general curves and surfaces, largely used in engineering. Enter this fascinating world through amazing theorems and a wide supply of surprising examples. Reach the doors of algebraic topology by discovering just how an integer (= the Euler-Poincare characteristics) associated with a surface gives you a lot of interesting information on the shape of the surface. And penetrate the intriguing world of Riemannian geometry, the geometry that underlies the theory of relativity. The book is of interest to all those who teach classical differential geometry up to quite an advanced level. The chapter on Riemannian geometry is of great interest to those who have to "intuitively" introduce students to the highly technical nature of this branch of mathematics, in particular when preparing students for courses on relativity.

The Almagest, by the Greek astronomer and mathematician Ptolemy, is the most important surviving treatise on early mathematical astronomy, offering historians valuable insight into the astronomy and mathematics of the ancient world. Pedersen's 1974 publication, A Survey of the Almagest, is the most recent in a long tradition of companions to the Almagest. Part paraphrase and part commentary, Pedersen's work has earned the universal praise of historians and serves as the definitive introductory text for students interested in studying the Almagest. In this revised edition, Alexander Jones, a distinguished authority on the history of early astronomy, provides supplementary information and commentary to the original text to account for scholarship that has appeared since 1974. This revision also incorporates various corrections to Pedersen's original text that have been identified since its publication. This volume is intended to provide students of the history of astronomy with a self-contained introduction to the Almagest, helping them to understand and appreciate Ptolemy's great and classical work.

The discovery of a gradual acceleration in the moon's mean motion by Edmond Halley in the last decade of the seventeenth century led to a revival of interest in reports of astronomical observations from antiquity. These observations provided the only means to study the moon's 'secular acceleration', as this newly-discovered acceleration became known. This book contains the first detailed study of the use of ancient and medieval astronomical observations in order to investigate the moon's secular acceleration from its discovery by Halley to the establishment of the magnitude of the acceleration by Richard Dunthorne, Tobias Mayer and Jerome Lalande in the 1740s and 1750s. Making extensive use of previously unstudied manuscripts, this work shows how different astronomers used the same small body of preserved ancient observations in different ways in their work on the secular acceleration. In addition, this work looks at the wider context of the study of the moon's secular acceleration, including its use in debates of biblical chronology, whether the heavens were made up of aether, and the use of astronomy in determining geographical longitude. It also discusses wider issues of the perceptions and knowledge of ancient and medieval astronomy in the early-modern period. This book will be of interest to historians of astronomy, astronomers and historians of the ancient world.

This book presents a historical and scientific analysis as historical epistemology of the science of weights and mechanics in the sixteenth century, particularly as developed by Tartaglia in his Quesiti et inventioni diverse, Book VII and Book VIII (1546; 1554). In the early 16th century mechanics was concerned mainly with what is now called statics and was referred to as the Scientia de ponderibus, generally pursued by two very different approaches. The first was usually referred to as Aristotelian, where the equilibrium of bodies was set as a balance of opposite tendencies to motion. The second, usually referred to as Archimedean, identified statics with centrobarica, the theory of centres of gravity based on symmetry considerations. In between the two traditions the Italian scholar Niccolo Fontana, better known as Tartaglia (1500?-1557), wrote the treatise Quesiti et inventioni diverse (1546). This volume consists of three main parts. In the first, a historical excursus regarding Tartaglia's lifetime, his scientific production and the Scientia de ponderibus in the Arabic-Islamic culture, and from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, is presented. Secondly, all the propositions of Books VII and VIII, by relating them with the Problemata mechanica by the Aristotelian school and Iordani opvsculvm de ponderositate by Jordanus de Nemore are examined within the history and historical epistemology of science. The last part is relative to the original texts and critical transcriptions into Italian and Latin and an English translation. This work gathers and re-evaluates the current thinking on this subject. It brings together contributions from two distinguished experts in the history and historical epistemology of science, within the fields of physics, mathematics and engineering. It also gives much-needed insight into the subject from historical and scientific points of view. The volume composition makes for absorbing reading for historians, epistemologists, philosophers and scientists.

A companion publication to the international exhibition "Transcending Tradition: Jewish Mathematicians in German-Speaking Academic Culture", the catalogue explores the working lives and activities of Jewish mathematicians in German-speaking countries during the period between the legal and political emancipation of the Jews in the 19th century and their persecution in Nazi Germany. It highlights the important role Jewish mathematicians played in all areas of mathematical culture during the Wilhelmine Empire and the Weimar Republic, and recalls their emigration, flight or death after 1933.

This book honors the career of historian of mathematics J.L. Berggren, his scholarship, and service to the broader community. The first part, of value to scholars, graduate students, and interested readers, is a survey of scholarship in the mathematical sciences in ancient Greece and medieval Islam. It consists of six articles (three by Berggren himself) covering research from the middle of the 20th century to the present. The remainder of the book contains studies by eminent scholars of the ancient and medieval mathematical sciences. They serve both as examples of the breadth of current approaches and topics, and as tributes to Berggren's interests by his friends and colleagues.

This volume of selected academic papers demonstrates the significance of the contribution to mathematics made by Manfredo P. do Carmo. Twice a Guggenheim Fellow and the winner of many prestigious national and international awards, the professor at the institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics in Rio de Janeiro is well known as the author of influential textbooks such as Differential Geometry of Curves and Surfaces. The area of differential geometry is the main focus of this selection, though it also contains do Carmo's own commentaries on his life as a scientist as well as assessment of the impact of his researches and a complete list of his publications. Aspects covered in the featured papers include relations between curvature and topology, convexity and rigidity, minimal surfaces, and conformal immersions, among others. Offering more than just a retrospective focus, the volume deals with subjects of current interest to researchers, including a paper co-authored with Frank Warner on the convexity of hypersurfaces in space forms. It also presents the basic stability results for minimal surfaces in the Euclidean space obtained by the author and his collaborators. Edited by do Carmo's first student, now a celebrated academic in her own right, this collection pays tribute to one of the most distinguished mathematicians.

Originally published in 1938, this book provides a series of exercises in arithmetic intended to take pupils ten minutes to complete. The text was created to train pupils in speed and accuracy in the fundamentals of arithmetic, avoiding unnecessary written work. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in arithmetic, mathematics and the history of education.

Goesta Mittag-Leffler (1846-1927) played a significant role as both a scientist and entrepreneur. Regarded as the father of Swedish mathematics, his influence extended far beyond his chosen field because of his extensive network of international contacts in science, business, and the arts. He was instrumental in seeing to it that Marie Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize twice. One of Mittag-Leffler's major accomplishments was the founding of the journal Acta Mathematica , published by Institut Mittag-Leffler and Sweden's Royal Academy of Sciences. Arild Stubhaug's research for this monumental biography relied on a wealth of primary and secondary resources, including more than 30000 letters that are part of the Mittag-Leffler archives. Written in a lucid and compelling manner, the biography contains many hitherto unknown facts about Mittag-Leffler's personal life and professional endeavors. It will be of great interest to both mathematicians and general readers interested in science and culture.

The Theory of the Top was originally presented by Felix Klein as an 1895 lecture at Goettingen University that was broadened in scope and clarified as a result of collaboration with Arnold Sommerfeld. The Theory of the Top: Volume IV. Technical Applications of the Theory of the Top is the fourth and final installment in a series of self-contained English translations that provide insights into kinetic theory and kinematics.

Originally published in 1934, this informative textbook was written by renowned mathematician and astronomer Duncan Sommerville (1879-1934). Primarily aimed at undergraduates, the book carefully starts from the very beginning of the subject, but also engages with concepts which are considered profoundly more specialist in the field of geometry. Following on from a renewed and flourishing interest in geometry at the time, this textbook was 'written more in accordance with the tendencies of the present', placing a different emphasis on the subject's cornerstone principles and illuminating new developments in the field. Chapters are detailed and contain material often required for examinations; topics covered include the Cartesian coordinate system and tangential equations. Well planned, with a scholarly treatment of the subject and capturing a unified knowledge of geometry, this book will be a considerably valuable source to scholars of mathematics as well as to anyone with an interest in the history of education.

The difficulty of solving the non-linear equations of motion for compressible fluids has caused the linear approximations to these equations to be used extensively in applications to aeronautics. Originally published in 1955, this book is the first permanent work devoted exclusively to the problems involved in this important and rapidly developing subject. The first part of the book gives the derivation and interpretation of the linear equations for steady motion, the solution of these equations and a discussion of the boundary conditions and aerodynamic forces. The remainder examines various specific boundary value problems and the methods, which have been developed for their solution. Vectorial notation is used extensively throughout and an elementary familiarity with the theory and practice of compressible fluid flow is required. This book will be of considerable value to scholars of physics and mathematics as well as to anyone with an interest in the history of education.

This study of graded rings includes the first systematic account of the graded Grothendieck group, a powerful and crucial invariant in algebra which has recently been adopted to classify the Leavitt path algebras. The book begins with a concise introduction to the theory of graded rings and then focuses in more detail on Grothendieck groups, Morita theory, Picard groups and K-theory. The author extends known results in the ungraded case to the graded setting and gathers together important results which are currently scattered throughout the literature. The book is suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, as well as researchers in ring theory.

Originally published in 1946, this book was prepared by the Committee for the Calculation of Mathematical Tables. The text contains a series of tables of Legendre polynomials, created to meet the needs of researchers in various branches of mathematics and physics. The tables were largely designed by Leslie John Comrie (1893-1950), an astronomer who was integral to the development of mechanical computation. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in Legendre polynomials and mathematical tables.

Originally published in 1948, this book was written to provide students with an accessible guide to various elements of mathematics. The text was created for individual working rather than group learning situations. Numerous exercises are included. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in mathematics and the history of education.

Abraham Adrian Albert (1905-72) was an American mathematician primarily known for his groundbreaking work on algebra. In this book, which was originally published in 1938, Albert provides a detailed exposition of 'modern abstract algebra', taking into account numerous discoveries in the field during the preceding ten years. A glossary is included. This is a highly informative book that will be of value to anyone with an interest in the development of algebra and the history of mathematics.

This textbook provides an accessible account of the history of abstract algebra, tracing a range of topics in modern algebra and number theory back to their modest presence in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and exploring the impact of ideas on the development of the subject. Beginning with Gauss's theory of numbers and Galois's ideas, the book progresses to Dedekind and Kronecker, Jordan and Klein, Steinitz, Hilbert, and Emmy Noether. Approaching mathematical topics from a historical perspective, the author explores quadratic forms, quadratic reciprocity, Fermat's Last Theorem, cyclotomy, quintic equations, Galois theory, commutative rings, abstract fields, ideal theory, invariant theory, and group theory. Readers will learn what Galois accomplished, how difficult the proofs of his theorems were, and how important Camille Jordan and Felix Klein were in the eventual acceptance of Galois's approach to the solution of equations. The book also describes the relationship between Kummer's ideal numbers and Dedekind's ideals, and discusses why Dedekind felt his solution to the divisor problem was better than Kummer's. Designed for a course in the history of modern algebra, this book is aimed at undergraduate students with an introductory background in algebra but will also appeal to researchers with a general interest in the topic. With exercises at the end of each chapter and appendices providing material difficult to find elsewhere, this book is self-contained and therefore suitable for self-study.

Originally published in 1938, this book focuses on the area of elliptic and hyperelliptic integrals and allied theory. The text was a posthumous publication by William Westropp Roberts (1850-1935), who held the position of Vice-Provost at Trinity College, Dublin from 1927 until shortly before his death. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in the history of mathematics.

Originally published in 1911, this practical textbook of exercises was primarily aimed at school students and was intended to provide an accessible yet challenging 'informal course' on solid geometry for classwork, homework and revision. The book is divided into three principal sections: chapters 1-6 discuss the main properties of lines and planes, chapters 7-13 examine properties of the principal solid figures, including mensuration, whilst chapters 14-16 consider coordinates in three dimensions, plan, elevation and perspective, also known as descriptive geometry. The book covers key theorems, whilst cataloguing useful geometry questions focused on developing a broad understanding of the subject. Intended as educational rather than technical material and a practical, systematic supplement to school lessons, this book will be of great value to scholars of mathematics as well as to anyone with an interest in the history of education.

In 2013, a little known mathematician in his late 50s stunned the mathematical community with a breakthrough on an age-old problem about prime numbers. Since then, there has been further dramatic progress on the problem, thanks to the efforts of a large-scale online collaborative effort of a type that would have been unthinkable in mathematics a couple of decades ago, and the insight and creativity of a young mathematician at the start of his career. Prime numbers have intrigued, inspired and infuriated mathematicians for millennia. Every school student studies prime numbers and can appreciate their beauty, and yet mathematicians' difficulty with answering some seemingly simple questions about them reveals the depth and subtlety of prime numbers. Vicky Neale charts the recent progress towards proving the famous Twin Primes Conjecture, and the very different ways in which the breakthroughs have been made: a solo mathematician working in isolation and obscurity, and a large collaboration that is more public than any previous collaborative effort in mathematics and that reveals much about how mathematicians go about their work. Interleaved with this story are highlights from a significantly older tale, going back two thousand years and more, of mathematicians' efforts to comprehend the beauty and unlock the mysteries of the prime numbers.