The Story of Mathematics: From Creating the Pyraminds to Exploring Infinity

Author Anne Rooney weaves strands from every age and culture into a fascinating narrative, which coincidentally tells the story of how mankind moved on from cave dwelling to the life of today. Topics include the development of counting and numbers systems, the emergence of zero, cultures that don't have numbers, algebra, solid geometry, symmetry and beauty, perspective, riddles and problems, calculus, mathematical logic, friction force and displacement, subatomic particles, and the expansion of the universe. Great mathematical thinkers covered include Napier, Liu Hui, Aryabhata, Galileo, Newton, Russell, Einstein, Riemann, Euclid, Carl Friedrich Gauss, Charles Babbage, Montmort, Wittgenstein, and many more. The book is beautifully illustrated throughout in full color. In order to understand the universe you must know the language in which it is written. And that language is mathematics.'Galileo (1564-1642) For hundreds of thousands of years, we have sought order in the apparent chaos of the universe. Mathematics has been our most valuable tool in that search, uncovering the patterns and rules that govern our world and beyond. The Story of Mathematics traces humankind's greatest achievements, plotting a journey from innumerate cave-dwellers, through the towering mathematical intellects of the last 4,000 years, to where we stand today. Topics include:. Counting and measuring from the earliest times.The Ancient Egyptians and geometry.Working out the movement of the planets.Algebra, solid geometry and the trigonometric tables. The first computers.How statistics came to rule our finances.Impossible shapes and extra dimensions.Measuring and mapping the world.Chaos theory and fuzzy logic Set theory and the death of numbers The fascinating personalities behind world-changing discoveries in mathematics are profiled, including Euclid, Apollonius, Pythagoras, Brahmagupta, Aryabhata, Liu Hui, Omar Khayyam, al-Khwarizmi, Napier, Galileo, Pascal, Newton, Leibniz, Gauss, Riemann, Russell and many more. Long ago, the earliest human civilizations discovered the strange and fascinating quality of particular numbers and wove them into their superstitions and religions. Numbers have entranced people ever since. This book tells the story of mankind through mathematics from cave dwelling to modern life Introduction : the magic of numbers Starting with numbers Numbers put to work The shape of things In the round The magic formula Grasping the infinite Numbers at work and play The death of numbers Proving it.