[PDF] Math That Changed The World eBook

Author : Ian Stewart
Publisher : Basic Books
Page : 225 pages
File Size : 46,68 MB
Release : 2012-03-13
Category : Mathematics
ISBN : 0465029744

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The seventeen equations that form the basis for life as we know it. Most people are familiar with history's great equations: Newton's Law of Gravity, for instance, or Einstein's theory of relativity. But the way these mathematical breakthroughs have contributed to human progress is seldom appreciated. In In Pursuit of the Unknown, celebrated mathematician Ian Stewart untangles the roots of our most important mathematical statements to show that equations have long been a driving force behind nearly every aspect of our lives. Using seventeen of our most crucial equations -- including the Wave Equation that allowed engineers to measure a building's response to earthquakes, saving countless lives, and the Black-Scholes model, used by bankers to track the price of financial derivatives over time -- Stewart illustrates that many of the advances we now take for granted were made possible by mathematical discoveries. An approachable, lively, and informative guide to the mathematical building blocks of modern life, In Pursuit of the Unknown is a penetrating exploration of how we have also used equations to make sense of, and in turn influence, our world.

Author : Dr. Michael Guillen
Publisher : Hachette Books
Page : 239 pages
File Size : 17,45 MB
Release : 2012-06-05
Category : Mathematics
ISBN : 1401304915

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A Publishers Weekly best book of 1995! Dr. Michael Guillen, known to millions as the science editor of ABC's Good Morning America, tells the fascinating stories behind five mathematical equations. As a regular contributor to daytime's most popular morning news show and an instructor at Harvard University, Dr. Michael Guillen has earned the respect of millions as a clear and entertaining guide to the exhilarating world of science and mathematics. Now Dr. Guillen unravels the equations that have led to the inventions and events that characterize the modern world, one of which -- Albert Einstein's famous energy equation, E=mc2 -- enabled the creation of the nuclear bomb. Also revealed are the mathematical foundations for the moon landing, airplane travel, the electric generator -- and even life itself. Praised by Publishers Weekly as "a wholly accessible, beautifully written exploration of the potent mathematical imagination," and named a Best Nonfiction Book of 1995, the stories behind The Five Equations That Changed the World, as told by Dr. Guillen, are not only chronicles of science, but also gripping dramas of jealousy, fame, war, and discovery.

Author : David Sumpter
Publisher : Flatiron Books
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 14,21 MB
Release : 2021-08-24
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 1250246970

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Is there a secret formula for getting rich? For going viral? For deciding how long to stick with your current job, Netflix series, or even relationship? This book is all about the equations that make our world go round. Ten of them, in fact. They are integral to everything from investment banking to betting companies and social media giants. And they can help you to increase your chance of success, guard against financial loss, live more healthfully, and see through scaremongering. They are known by only the privileged few - until now. With wit and clarity, mathematician David Sumpter shows that it isn't the technical details that make these formulas so successful. It is the way they allow mathematicians to view problems from a different angle - a way of seeing the world that anyone can learn. Empowering and illuminating, The Ten Equations shows how math really can change your life.

Author : Idan Segev
Publisher : Frontiers Media SA
Page : 54 pages
File Size : 21,57 MB
Release : 2024-05-31
Category : Science
ISBN : 2832549527

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Mathematics is as old as civilization. The Maya developed sophisticated arithmetic to study the stars and the weather, the ancient Greeks used geometry to estimate the size of the earth with remarkable accuracy, and the Chinese mathematician Liu Hui calculated pi to five decimal places two millennia before computers had been invented. And mathematics is alive and well today, with new discoveries made every day, sometimes about problems that are easy to understand but surprisingly difficult to solve. Some problems lie around for centuries waiting to be solved: Johannes Kepler made a guess in 1611 about how a pile of spheres could be packed most densely into three-dimensional space; it took four centuries until Thomas Hales proved that Kepler was right. And mathematicians love to expand old problems and turn them into new ones: Marina Viazovska won a Fields Medal in 2022, equivalent to a Nobel Prize, for solving an even harder version of Kepler's problem! Much of the power of mathematics comes from how it enables us to understand things that we can't see or experience directly. And throughout the history of mathematics, abstract ideas have proven to be unexpectedly useful in solving concrete problems. Mathematicians have been playing with prime numbers since antiquity; who would have thought that they would become an essential ingredient of modern cryptography? Who would have thought that complex numbers, first discovered in the 1500s and derided as "imaginary," would turn out to be exactly the right tools to describe real world phenomena like radio signals and electrical circuits? Even infinity, literally the biggest mathematical concept of all, is useful: Georg Cantor's revolutionary discovery that infinity itself comes in different sizes introduced ideas that have become indispensable for the study of computers and computer algorithms. Every year, the Abel Prize, the Gödel Prize and the Turing Award honor far-reaching mathematical discoveries. Sometimes these discoveries are brand new ideas, and sometimes they are applications of mathematics to solve real-world problems. In this collection, recipients of these awards will show you both the beautiful abstract ideas they study, and the amazing power they have to transform the modern world.

Author : Jordan Ellenberg
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 482 pages
File Size : 46,46 MB
Release : 2015-05-26
Category : Mathematics
ISBN : 0143127535

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“Witty, compelling, and just plain fun to read . . ." —Evelyn Lamb, Scientific American The Freakonomics of math—a math-world superstar unveils the hidden beauty and logic of the world and puts its power in our hands The math we learn in school can seem like a dull set of rules, laid down by the ancients and not to be questioned. In How Not to Be Wrong, Jordan Ellenberg shows us how terribly limiting this view is: Math isn’t confined to abstract incidents that never occur in real life, but rather touches everything we do—the whole world is shot through with it. Math allows us to see the hidden structures underneath the messy and chaotic surface of our world. It’s a science of not being wrong, hammered out by centuries of hard work and argument. Armed with the tools of mathematics, we can see through to the true meaning of information we take for granted: How early should you get to the airport? What does “public opinion” really represent? Why do tall parents have shorter children? Who really won Florida in 2000? And how likely are you, really, to develop cancer? How Not to Be Wrong presents the surprising revelations behind all of these questions and many more, using the mathematician’s method of analyzing life and exposing the hard-won insights of the academic community to the layman—minus the jargon. Ellenberg chases mathematical threads through a vast range of time and space, from the everyday to the cosmic, encountering, among other things, baseball, Reaganomics, daring lottery schemes, Voltaire, the replicability crisis in psychology, Italian Renaissance painting, artificial languages, the development of non-Euclidean geometry, the coming obesity apocalypse, Antonin Scalia’s views on crime and punishment, the psychology of slime molds, what Facebook can and can’t figure out about you, and the existence of God. Ellenberg pulls from history as well as from the latest theoretical developments to provide those not trained in math with the knowledge they need. Math, as Ellenberg says, is “an atomic-powered prosthesis that you attach to your common sense, vastly multiplying its reach and strength.” With the tools of mathematics in hand, you can understand the world in a deeper, more meaningful way. How Not to Be Wrong will show you how.

Author : D. Stein
Publisher : Harper Collins
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 10,63 MB
Release : 2009-03-17
Category : Education
ISBN : 0061828688

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In How Math Explains the World, mathematician Stein reveals how seemingly arcane mathematical investigations and discoveries have led to bigger, more world-shaking insights into the nature of our world. In the four main sections of the book, Stein tells the stories of the mathematical thinkers who discerned some of the most fundamental aspects of our universe. From their successes and failures, delusions, and even duels, the trajectories of their innovations—and their impact on society—are traced in this fascinating narrative. Quantum mechanics, space-time, chaos theory and the workings of complex systems, and the impossibility of a "perfect" democracy are all here. Stein's book is both mind-bending and practical, as he explains the best way for a salesman to plan a trip, examines why any thought you could have is imbedded in the number p , and—perhaps most importantly—answers one of the modern world's toughest questions: why the garage can never get your car repaired on time. Friendly, entertaining, and fun, How Math Explains the World is the first book by one of California's most popular math teachers, a veteran of both "math for poets" and Princeton's Institute for Advanced Studies. And it's perfect for any reader wanting to know how math makes both science and the world tick.

Author : Keith Devlin
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 251 pages
File Size : 44,55 MB
Release : 2017-03-07
Category : Mathematics
ISBN : 1400885531

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A compelling firsthand account of Keith Devlin's ten-year quest to tell Fibonacci's story In 2000, Keith Devlin set out to research the life and legacy of the medieval mathematician Leonardo of Pisa, popularly known as Fibonacci, whose book Liber abbaci has quite literally affected the lives of everyone alive today. Although he is most famous for the Fibonacci numbers—which, it so happens, he didn't invent—Fibonacci's greatest contribution was as an expositor of mathematical ideas at a level ordinary people could understand. In 1202, Liber abbaci—the "Book of Calculation"—introduced modern arithmetic to the Western world. Yet Fibonacci was long forgotten after his death, and it was not until the 1960s that his true achievements were finally recognized. Finding Fibonacci is Devlin's compelling firsthand account of his ten-year quest to tell Fibonacci's story. Devlin, a math expositor himself, kept a diary of the undertaking, which he draws on here to describe the project's highs and lows, its false starts and disappointments, the tragedies and unexpected turns, some hilarious episodes, and the occasional lucky breaks. You will also meet the unique individuals Devlin encountered along the way, people who, each for their own reasons, became fascinated by Fibonacci, from the Yale professor who traced modern finance back to Fibonacci to the Italian historian who made the crucial archival discovery that brought together all the threads of Fibonacci's astonishing story. Fibonacci helped to revive the West as the cradle of science, technology, and commerce, yet he vanished from the pages of history. This is Devlin's search to find him.

Author : Samuli Siltanen
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 127 pages
File Size : 31,93 MB
Release : 2021-09-27
Category : Mathematics
ISBN : 3030733432

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Modern life is increasingly relying on digital technology, which in turn runs on mathematics. However, this underlying math is hidden from us. That is mostly a good thing since we do not want to be solving equations and calculating fractions just to get things done in our everyday business. But the mathematical details do matter for anyone who wants to understand how stuff works, or wishes to create something new in the jungle of apps and algorithms. This book takes a look at the mathematical models behind weather forecasting, climate change prediction, artificial intelligence, medical imaging and computer graphics. The reader is expected to have only a curious mind; technical math skills are not needed for enjoying this text.

Author : Barry Cipra
Publisher : American Mathematical Soc.
Page : 108 pages
File Size : 26,52 MB
Release :
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780821890431

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Mathematicians like to point out that mathematics is universal. In spite of this, most people continue to view it as either mundane (balancing a checkbook) or mysterious (cryptography). This fifth volume of the What's Happening series contradicts that view by showing that mathematics is indeed found everywhere-in science, art, history, and our everyday lives. Here is some of what you'll find in this volume: Mathematics and Science Mathematical biology: Mathematics was key tocracking the genetic code. Now, new mathematics is needed to understand the three-dimensional structure of the proteins produced from that code. Celestial mechanics and cosmology: New methods have revealed a multitude of solutions to the three-body problem. And other new work may answer one of cosmology'smost fundamental questions: What is the size and shape of the universe? Mathematics and Everyday Life Traffic jams: New models are helping researchers understand where traffic jams come from-and maybe what to do about them! Small worlds: Researchers have found a short distance from theory to applications in the study of small world networks. Elegance in Mathematics Beyond Fermat's Last Theorem: Number theorists are reaching higher ground after Wiles' astounding 1994 proof: new developments inthe elegant world of elliptic curves and modular functions. The Millennium Prize Problems: The Clay Mathematics Institute has offered a million dollars for solutions to seven important and difficult unsolved problems. These are just some of the topics of current interest that are covered in thislatest volume of What's Happening in the Mathematical Sciences. The book has broad appeal for a wide spectrum of mathematicians and scientists, from high school students through advanced-level graduates and researchers.

Author : Michael Guillen
Publisher :
Page : 169 pages
File Size : 45,39 MB
Release : 2014-07-02
Category : SCIENCE
ISBN : 9780316408790

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From the popular science editor of ABC's Good Morning America, this is the story behind five mathematical equations that have shaped the modern world. As told by Dr. Guillen, the stories behind the creation of these formulas are not only chronicles of science, but also gripping dramas of jealousy, fame, war, and discovery.