History of Mathematics, Volume 2

Front Cover
Courier Corporation, Jun 1, 1958 - Mathematics - 736 pages

Within this two-volume edition, Professor Smith covers the entire history of mathematics in the Near and Far East and the West, from primitive number concepts to the calculus. His account is distinguished by impeccable scholarship combined with unusual clarity and readability. Footnotes add many technical points outside the book's actual line of development and direct the reader to disputed matters and source readings. Hundreds of illustrations from Egyptian papyri, Hindu, Chinese, and Japanese manuscripts, Greek and Roman texts, Medieval treatises, maps, portraits, etc. are used along with modern graphs and diagrams.
Every major figure from Euclid to Descartes, Gauss, and Riemann and hundreds of lesser-known figures — Theon of Smyrna, Rabbi ben Ezra, Radulph of Laon, Mersenns, Benedetti, and more — are considered both with respect to specific problems and with an awareness of their overall influence on mathematics.
Volume II: Special Topics, considering mathematics in terms of arithmetic geometry, algebra, trig, calculus, calculating machines, and other specific fields and problems. 192 Topics for Discussion. 195 illustrations. Index.

 

Contents

cHAPTER
1
3
71
2
172
32
215
2
270
Axioms AND POSTULATES
280
THE THREE FAMOUS PROBLEMs
297
ANALYTIC GEOMETRY
316
THE PROBLEM OF EARTH MEASURE
466
ELEMENTARY PROBLEMS
532
VIII TRIGONOMETRY
600
MEASURES
634
CHAPTER PAGE
645
THE CALCULUS
676
156
704
196
711

TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION
377
36
391
88
402
CHAPTER PAGE
418

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