417 results for "Mathematics"

Uncountable: a philosophical history of number and humanity from antiquity to the present

Nirenberg, David,Nirenberg, Ricardo L.
"From the time of Pythagoras, we have been tempted to treat numbers as the ultimate or only truth. This book tells the history of that habit of thought. But more, it argues that the logic of counting sacrifices much of what makes us human, and that we have a responsibility to match the objects of our attention to the forms of knowledge that do them justice. Humans have extended the insights and methods of number and mathematics to more and more aspects of the world, even to their gods and their religions.Today those powers are greater than ever, as computation is applied to virtually every aspect of human activity.But the rules of mathematics do not strictly apply to many things-from elementary particles to people-in the world.By subjecting such things to the laws of logic and mathematics, we gain some kinds of knowledge, but we also lose others. How do our choices about what parts of the world to subject to the logics of mathematics affect how we live and how we die?This question is rarely asked, but it is urgent, because the sciences built upon those laws now govern so much of our knowledge, from physics to psychology.Number and Knowledge sets out to ask it. In chapters proceeding chronologically from Ancient Greek philosophy and the rise of monotheistic religions to the emergence of modern physics and economics, the book traces how ideals, practices, and habits of thought formed over millennia have turned number into the foundation-stone of human claims to knowledge and certainty.But the book is also a philosophical and poetic exhortation to take responsibility for that history, for the knowledge it has produced, and for the many aspects of the world and of humanity that it ignores or endangers.To understand what can be counted and what can't is to embrace the ethics of purposeful knowing"--
University of Chicago Press 2021-10-20 420 pages

The Mathematician's Shiva: a novel

Rojstaczer, Stuart
" A comic, bittersweet tale of family evocative of The Yiddish Policemen's Union and Everything Is Illuminated Alexander "Sasha" Karnokovitch and his family would like to mourn the passing of his mother, Rachela, with modesty and dignity. But Rachela, a famous Polish e;migre; mathematician and professor at the University of Wisconsin, is rumored to have solved the million-dollar, Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize Problem. Rumor also has it that she spitefully took the solution to her grave. To Sasha's chagrin, a ragtag group of socially challenged mathematicians arrives in Madison and crashes the shiva, vowing to do whatever it takes to find the solution-even if it means prying up the floorboards for Rachela's notes. Written by a trained geophysicist, this hilarious and multi-layered debut novel brims with colorful characters and brilliantly captures humanity's drive not just to survive, but to solve the impossible"--
Penguin Books 2014 366 pages

Introduction to topology

Lefschetz, Solomon
In this book, which may be used as a self-contained text for a beginning course, Professor Lefschetz aims to give the reader a concrete working knowledge of the central concepts of modern combinatorial topology: complexes, homology groups, mappings in spheres, homotopy, transformations and their fixed points, manifolds and duality theorems. Each chapter ends with a group of problems. Originally published in 1949. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Princeton University Pres 2017 228 pages

Probability, Statistics and Truth

Mises, Richard von
The science of probability - the systematic study of mass phenomena and repetitive events - was not fully established as such until about 1919. Nine years later, Richard von Mises, one of its pioneers, brought out the first edition of this book - what has become the classic treatment of the foundations of probability theory. The present text reproduces the most authoritative translation of the definitive 1951 German edition, which was fully revised in the light of over two decades of developments in the field. Step by step, in clear, simple language and with exceptionally well chosen examples, the author unfolds what in all likelihood is still the most comprehensive investigation ever undertaken of probablity, its relation to statistics, and its truth-finding value. Professor Richard von Mises (1883-1953) was a world-renowned mathematician, aeronautical scientist and positivist philosopher. Like all of his books, this one is rigorously logical and systematic, and at the same time thoroughly grounded in empirical evidence and practical situations.
George Allen & Unwin 1957 258 pages

Handbook of Mathematical Economics

M.D. Intriligator,Kenneth J. Arrow
The Handbook of Mathematical Economics aims to provide a definitive source, reference, and teaching supplement for the field of mathematical economics. It surveys, as of the late 1970's the state of the art of mathematical economics. This is a constantly developing field and all authors were invited to review and to appraise the current status and recent developments in their presentations. In addition to its use as a reference, it is intended that this Handbook will assist researchers and students working in one branch of mathematical economics to become acquainted with other branches of this field. Volume 2 elaborates on Mathematical Approaches to Microeconomic Theory , including consumer, producer, oligopoly, and duality theory, as well as Mathematical Approaches to Competitive Equilibrium including such aspects of competitive equilibrium as existence, stability, uncertainty, the computation of equilibrium prices, and the core of an economy. For more information on the Handbooks in Economics series, please see our home page on http://www.elsevier.nl/locate/hes
Elsevier Science 1982-03-15 689 pages

Nonnegative matrices

Minc, Henryk
This text/reference is the most up-to-date volume on nonnegative matrices in print and presents much material that was previously available only in research papers. It is the only book to cover the van der Waerden conjecture on permanents. There is also coverage of doubly stochastic matrices and inverse problems. The material has abundant connections to graph theory, incidence geometry, stochastic processes, functional analysis, and quadratic forms. Each chapter contains a comprehensive set of problems and a substantial list of references.
Wiley 1988-02-04 206 pages

Topics from the Theory of Numbers.

Emil Grosswald
Introduction, Historical Background, and Notations.- and Historical Background.- Introductory Remarks and Notations.- Elementary Number Theory.- Divisibility.- Congruences.- Quadratic Residues.- Arithmetical Functions.- The Theory of Partitions.- Topics from Analytic and Algebraic Number Theory.- The Distribution of Primes and the Riemann Zeta Function.- The Prime Number Theorem.- The Arithmetic of Number Fields.- Ideal Theory.- Primes in Arithmetic Progressions.- Diophantine Equations.- Fermat's Equation.
MACMILLAN 1966-01-01

Topics from the Theory of Numbers

Grosswald, Emil
Introduction, Historical Background, and Notations.- and Historical Background.- Introductory Remarks and Notations.- Elementary Number Theory.- Divisibility.- Congruences.- Quadratic Residues.- Arithmetical Functions.- The Theory of Partitions.- Topics from Analytic and Algebraic Number Theory.- The Distribution of Primes and the Riemann Zeta Function.- The Prime Number Theorem.- The Arithmetic of Number Fields.- Ideal Theory.- Primes in Arithmetic Progressions.- Diophantine Equations.- Fermat's Equation.
Macmillan 1966 299 pages

Chance A Guide to Gambling, Love,

Amir D. Aczel
CHANCE is an accessible study of Probability, Randomness, Coincidences, Uncertainty and Games. Mathematician Amir D Aczel leads you through simple explanations of each of these forces in life, and explains how you can use your new-found knowledge of these mathematical paradoxes to succeed (or at least have the best CHANCE of succeeding) in gambling, poker, love, who will win the next election and how to choose a housemate or puppy. Each of the chapters is short, self-contained and simple so readers can drop in and out, look up a problem or a theory and then go ahead and use it. For all the maths nerds, gamblers and curious people in your life.
Random House 2004 161 pages

Elementary cryptanalysis: a mathematical approach

Sinkov, Abraham
Originally published in the New Mathematical Library almost half a century ago, this charming book explains how to solve cryptograms based on elementary mathematical principles, starting with the Caesar cipher and building up to progressively more sophisticated substitution methods. Todd Feil has updated the book for the technological age by adding two new chapters covering RSA public-key cryptography, one-time pads, and pseudo-random-number generators. Exercises are given throughout the text that will help the reader understand the concepts and practice the techniques presented. Software to ease the drudgery of making the necessary calculations is made available. The book assumes minimal mathematical prerequisites and therefore explains from scratch such concepts as summation notation, matrix multiplication, and modular arithmetic. Even the mathematically sophisticated reader, however, will find some of the exercises challenging.
Mathematical Association of America 2009-08-06 212 pages

Metaphysics, mathematics, and meaning

Salmon, Nathan U.
"Metaphysics, Mathematics, and Meaning brings together Nathan Salmon's influential papers on topics in the metaphysics of existence, non-existence, and fiction; modality and its logic; strict identity, including personal identity; numbers and numerical quantifiers; the philosophical significance of Godel's Incompleteness theorems; and semantic content and designation." "Including a previously unpublished essay and a helpful new introduction to orient the reader, the volume offers rich and varied sustenance for philosophers and logicians."--BOOK JACKET
Clarendon Press 2005 419 pages

Metaphysics, mathematics, and meaning

Salmon, Nathan U.
"Metaphysics, Mathematics, and Meaning brings together Nathan Salmon's influential papers on topics in the metaphysics of existence, non-existence, and fiction; modality and its logic; strict identity, including personal identity; numbers and numerical quantifiers; the philosophical significance of Godel's Incompleteness theorems; and semantic content and designation." "Including a previously unpublished essay and a helpful new introduction to orient the reader, the volume offers rich and varied sustenance for philosophers and logicians."--BOOK JACKET
Clarendon Press 2005 419 pages