This new edition brings the fascinating and intriguing history of mathematics to life The Second Edition of this internationally acclaimed text has been thoroughly revised, updated, and reorganized to give readers a fresh perspective on the evolution of mathematics. Written by one of the world's leading experts on the history of mathematics, the book details the key historical developments in the field, providing an understanding and appreciation of how mathematics influences today's science, art, music, literature, and society. In the first edition, each chapter was devoted to a single culture. This Second Edition is organized by subject matter: a general survey of mathematics in many cultures, arithmetic, geometry, algebra, analysis, and mathematical inference. This new organization enables students to focus on one complete topic and, at the same time, compare how different cultures approached each topic. Many new photographs and diagrams have been added to this edition to enhance the presentation. The text is divided into seven parts: The World of Mathematics and the Mathematics of the World, including the origin and prehistory of mathematics, cultural surveys, and women mathematicians Numbers, including counting, calculation, ancient number theory, and numbers and number theory in modern mathematics Color Plates, illustrating the impact of mathematics on civilizations from Egypt to Japan to Mexico to modern Europe Space, including measurement, Euclidean geometry, post-Euclidean geometry, and modern geometrics Algebra, including problems leading to algebra, equations and methods, and modern algebra Analysis, including the calculus, real, and complex analysis Mathematical Inference, including probability and statistics, and logic and set theory As readers progress through the text, they learn about the evolution of each topic, how different cultures devised their own solutions, and how these solutions enabled the cultures to develop and progress. In addition, readers will meet some of the greatest mathematicians of the ages, who helped lay the groundwork for today's science and technology. The book's lively approach makes it appropriate for anyone interested in learning how the field of mathematics came to be what it is today. It can also serve as a textbook for undergraduate or graduate-level courses. An Instructor's Manual presenting detailed solutions to all the problems in the book is available upon request from the Wiley editorial department.

Discover essays by leading scholars on the history of mathematics from ancient to modern times in European and non-European cultures.

This book explores some of the major turning points in the history of mathematics, ranging from ancient Greece to the present, demonstrating the drama that has often been a part of its evolution. Studying these breakthroughs, transitions, and revolutions, their stumbling-blocks and their triumphs, can help illuminate the importance of the history of mathematics for its teaching, learning, and appreciation. Some of the turning points considered are the rise of the axiomatic method (most famously in Euclid), and the subsequent major changes in it (for example, by David Hilbert); the “wedding,” via analytic geometry, of algebra and geometry; the “taming” of the infinitely small and the infinitely large; the passages from algebra to algebras, from geometry to geometries, and from arithmetic to arithmetics; and the revolutions in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that resulted from Georg Cantor’s creation of transfinite set theory. The origin of each turning point is discussed, along with the mathematicians involved and some of the mathematics that resulted. Problems and projects are included in each chapter to extend and increase understanding of the material. Substantial reference lists are also provided. Turning Points in the History of Mathematics will be a valuable resource for teachers of, and students in, courses in mathematics or its history. The book should also be of interest to anyone with a background in mathematics who wishes to learn more about the important moments in its development.

The History of Mathematics: A Source-Based Approach is a comprehensive history of the development of mathematics. This, the first volume of the two-volume set, takes readers from the beginning of counting in prehistory to 1600 and the threshold of the discovery of calculus. It is notable for the extensive engagement with original—primary and secondary—source material. The coverage is worldwide, and embraces developments, including education, in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, China, India, the Islamic world and Europe. The emphasis on astronomy and its historical relationship to mathematics is new, and the presentation of every topic is informed by the most recent scholarship in the field. The two-volume set was designed as a textbook for the authors' acclaimed year-long course at the Open University. It is, in addition to being an innovative and insightful textbook, an invaluable resource for students and scholars of the history of mathematics. The authors, each among the most distinguished mathematical historians in the world, have produced over fifty books and earned scholarly and expository prizes from the major mathematical societies of the English-speaking world.

A History of Mathematics: From Mesopotamia to Modernity covers the evolution of mathematics through time and across the major Eastern and Western civilizations. It begins in Babylon, then describes the trials and tribulations of the Greek mathematicians. The important, and often neglected, influence of both Chinese and Islamic mathematics is covered in detail, placing the description of early Western mathematics in a global context. The book concludes with modern mathematics, covering recent developments such as the advent of the computer, chaos theory, topology, mathematical physics, and the solution of Fermat's Last Theorem. Containing more than 100 illustrations and figures, this text, aimed at advanced undergraduates and postgraduates, addresses the methods and challenges associated with studying the history of mathematics. The reader is introduced to the leading figures in the history of mathematics (including Archimedes, Ptolemy, Qin Jiushao, al-Kashi, al-Khwarizmi, Galileo, Newton, Leibniz, Helmholtz, Hilbert, Alan Turing, and Andrew Wiles) and their fields. An extensive bibliography with cross-references to key texts will provide invaluable resource to students and exercises (with solutions) will stretch the more advanced reader.

This classic study notes the first appearance of a mathematical symbol and its origin, the competition it encountered, its spread among writers in different countries, its rise to popularity, and its eventual decline or ultimate survival. Originally published in 1929 in a two-volume edition, this monumental work is presented here in a single volume.

This ground-breaking book investigates how the learning and teaching of mathematics can be improved through integrating the history of mathematics into all aspects of mathematics education: lessons, homework, texts, lectures, projects, assessment, and curricula. It draws upon evidence from the experience of teachers as well as national curricula, textbooks, teacher education practices, and research perspectives across the world. It includes a 300-item annotated bibliography of recent work in the field in eight languages.

Henry O. Pollak Chairman of the International Program Committee Bell Laboratories Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA The Fourth International Congress on Mathematics Education was held in Berkeley, California, USA, August 10-16, 1980. Previous Congresses were held in Lyons in 1969, Exeter in 1972, and Karlsruhe in 1976. Attendance at Berkeley was about 1800 full and 500 associate members from about 90 countries; at least half of these come from outside of North America. About 450 persons participated in the program either as speakers or as presiders; approximately 40 percent of these came from the U.S. or Canada. There were four plenary addresses; they were delivered by Hans Freudenthal on major problems of mathematics education, Hermina Sinclair on the relationship between the learning of language and of mathematics, Seymour Papert on the computer as carrier of mathematical culture, and Hua Loo-Keng on popularising and applying mathematical methods. Gearge Polya was the honorary president of the Congress; illness prevented his planned attendence but he sent a brief presentation entitled, "Mathematics Improves the Mind". There was a full program of speakers, panelists, debates, miniconferences, and meetings of working and study groups. In addition, 18 major projects from around the world were invited to make presentations, and various groups representing special areas of concern had the opportunity to meet and to plan their future activities.

This single-volume reference is designed for readers and researchers investigating national and international aspects of mathematics education at the elementary, secondary, and post-secondary levels. It contains more than 400 entries, arranged alphabetically by headings of greatest pertinence to mathematics education. The scope is comprehensive, encompassing all major areas of mathematics education, including assessment, content and instructional procedures, curriculum, enrichment, international comparisons, and psychology of learning and instruction.