Synopses & Reviews
Beginning with the Babylonian and Egyptian mathematicians of antiquity, Ivor Grattan-Guinness charts the growth of mathematics through its refinement by ancient Greeks and then medieval Arabs, to its systematic development by Europeans from the Middle Ages to the early twentieth century. The book describes the evolution of arithmetic and geometry, trigonometry and algebra, the interplay between mathematics, physics, and mathematical astronomy, and "new" branches such as probability and statistics, "succeeding masterfully in viewing the history of mathematics from a new perspective".
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p.[763]-788 ) and index.
About the Author
Ivor Grattan-Guinness is professor of the history of mathematics and logic at Middlesex University, England.
Table of Contents
Pre-viewing the rainbow -- Invisible origins and ancient traditions -- A quiet millennium: from the early Middle Ages into the European Renaissance -- The age of trigonometry: Europe, 1540-1660 -- The calculus and its consequences, 1660-1750 -- Analysis and mechanics at centre stage, 1750-1800 -- Institutions and the profession after the French Revolution -- Mathematical analysis and geometries, 1800-1860 -- The expanding world of algebras, 1800-1860 -- Mechanics and mathematical physics, 1800-1860 -- International mathematics, but the rise of Germany -- The rise of set theory: mathematical analysis, 1860-1900 -- Algebras and geometries: their relations and axioms, 1860-1900 -- An era of stability: mechanics, 1860-1900 -- An era of media: mathematical physics, 1860-1900 -- The new century, to the Great War and beyond -- Re-viewing the rainbow.