[HN Gopher] History of Math
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History of Math
Author : sohkamyung
Score : 30 points
Date : 2023-04-22 09:27 UTC (13 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (maa.tandfonline.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (maa.tandfonline.com)
| timthorn wrote:
| Piers Bursill-hall gives a fantastic lecture course on the
| History of Maths at Cambridge University, now under the auspices
| of the History of Maths Society:
| https://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/~pb112/
| dejv wrote:
| Any recommendations of math history book? Something more on
| popsci side?
|
| Something not really for general public, but also not for math
| PhD.
| JonathanMerklin wrote:
| A math history book about one specific area of study written
| more in a popsci style that I liked: one of my favorite authors
| (David Foster Wallace) wrote "Everything & More: A Compact
| History of Infinity" which I'd call a 7/10 pop math experience
| and a 6/10 DFW experience, which is still a pretty good deal.
|
| If you're no Math PhD but you are mathematically inclined (e.g.
| I studied plenty of math as an undergraduate but left to play
| the software industry game thereafter) you should have the
| errata document handy (I'll link the parent page that has other
| paratext [1]) - the author is a math enthusiast but not a
| mathematician and gets some of the finer details incorrect.
|
| I also read Fermat's Last Theorem by Simon Singh and recall
| liking it, but I can't recall if it holds up under either
| mathematical scrutiny or the scrutiny of a more refined palate.
|
| [1] https://www.thehowlingfantods.com/dfw/everything-and-
| more.ht...
| guyomes wrote:
| Logicomix [1]. It's a nice comic book focusing on the
| formalisation of mathematics, starting at the end of the 19th
| century. This was a foundational quest to solve paradoxes such
| as the Russel paradox [2]. This also rised questions such as
| "can everything be proved"?
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logicomix
|
| [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell%27s_paradox
| kevinwang wrote:
| Oh I would second this recommendation. I really really liked
| logicomix! I hope they make another about computer science!
| version_five wrote:
| "Journey through genius" by William Dunham. It's not
| comprehensive, in the sense that it selectively samples the
| evolution of math from antiquity to about the 20th century, but
| it fits the bill of a pop-sci book that also shows the real
| math (at about a high school level) while covering the history
| and personalities involved. I've read it several times and
| really enjoy it.
|
| Edit: I clicked though and I see that (for me) William Dunham
| is actually the author of the first article in the list.
| onos wrote:
| Men of mathematics, by Bell
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men_of_Mathematics
| Koshkin wrote:
| _Mathematics And Its History_ by Stillwell
| farrelle25 wrote:
| You might enjoy "Excursions in the History of Mathematics" -
| Israel Kleiner.
|
| It's sort of inbetween popsci and Graduate Maths, probably
| undergrad level. Lots of historical "essays" covering Number
| Theory, Calculus/Analysis, Proofs etc..
|
| Has some interesting history - apparently Newton developed
| three versions of his calculus: infinitesimals (geometric
| approach), fluxions (kinematic approach) and 'prime and
| ultimate ratios' (algebraic). He used a mix of all three to
| solve some problems. Never read that before!
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