Knoebel / Laubenbacher / Lodder Mathematical Masterpieces

Further Chronicles by the Explorers
1. Auflage 2007
ISBN: 978-0-387-33062-4
Verlag: Springer US
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 348 Seiten, eBook

Reihe: Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics

In introducing his essays on the study and understanding of nature and e- lution, biologist Stephen J. Gould writes: [W]e acquire a surprising source of rich and apparently limitless novelty from the primary documents of great thinkers throughout our history. But why should any nuggets, or even ?akes, be left for int- lectual miners in such terrain? Hasn’t the Origin of Species been read untold millions of times? Hasn’t every paragraph been subjected to overt scholarly scrutiny and exegesis? Letmeshareasecretrootedingeneralhumanfoibles. . . . Veryfew people, including authors willing to commit to paper, ever really read primary sources—certainly not in necessary depth and completion, and often not at all. . . . I can attest that all major documents of science remain cho- full of distinctive and illuminating novelty, if only people will study them—in full and in the original editions. Why would anyone not yearn to read these works; not hunger for the opportunity? [99, p. 6f] It is in the spirit of Gould’s insights on an approach to science based on p- mary texts that we o?er the present book of annotated mathematical sources, from which our undergraduate students have been learning for more than a decade. Although teaching and learning with primary historical sources require a commitment of study, the investment yields the rewards of a deeper understanding of the subject, an appreciation of its details, and a glimpse into the direction research has taken. Our students read sequences of primary sources.

Zielgruppe

Lower undergraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Knoebel, Art

Laubenbacher, Reinhard

Lodder, Jerry

Pengelley, David

Inhaltsverzeichnis

The Bridge Between Continuous and Discrete.- Solving Equations Numerically: Finding Our Roots.- Curvature and the Notion of Space.- Patterns in Prime Numbers: The Quadratic Reciprocity Law.