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Magnificent Mistakes in Mathematics (Hardcover, New)
Price: R351
Discovery Miles 3 510
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Magnificent Mistakes in Mathematics (Hardcover, New)
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Price R351
Discovery Miles 3 510
Expected to ship within 2 - 4 working days
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Two veteran math educators demonstrate how some "magnificent
mistakes" had profound consequences for our understanding of
mathematics' key concepts.
In the nineteenth century, English mathematician William Shanks
spent fifteen years calculating the value of pi, setting a record
for the number of decimal places. Later, his calculation was
reproduced using large wooden numerals to decorate the cupola of a
hall in the Palais de la Decouverte in Paris. However, in 1946,
with the aid of a mechanical desk calculator that ran for seventy
hours, it was discovered that there was a mistake in the 528th
decimal place. Today, supercomputers have determined the value of
pi to trillions of decimal places.
This is just one of the amusing and intriguing stories about
mistakes in mathematics in this layperson's guide to mathematical
principles. In another example, the authors show that when we
"prove" that every triangle is isosceles, we are violating a
concept not even known to Euclid - that of "betweenness." And if we
disregard the time-honored Pythagorean theorem, this is a misuse of
the concept of infinity. Even using correct procedures can
sometimes lead to absurd - but enlightening - results.
Requiring no more than high-school-level math competency, this
playful excursion through the nuances of math will give you a
better grasp of this fundamental, all-important science.
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