The Man of Numbers

The Man of Numbers PDF Author: Keith Devlin
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408824574
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
In 1202, a 32-year old Italian finished one of the most influential books of all time, which introduced modern arithmetic to Western Europe. Devised in India in the seventh and eighth centuries and brought to North Africa by Muslim traders, the Hindu-Arabic system helped transform the West into the dominant force in science, technology, and commerce, leaving behind Muslim cultures which had long known it but had failed to see its potential. The young Italian, Leonardo of Pisa (better known today as Fibonacci), had learned the Hindu number system when he traveled to North Africa with his father, a customs agent. The book he created was Liber abbaci, the 'Book of Calculation', and the revolution that followed its publication was enormous. Arithmetic made it possible for ordinary people to buy and sell goods, convert currencies, and keep accurate records of possessions more readily than ever before. Liber abbaci's publication led directly to large-scale international commerce and the scientific revolution of the Renaissance. Yet despite the ubiquity of his discoveries, Leonardo of Pisa remains an enigma. His name is best known today in association with an exercise in Liber abbaci whose solution gives rise to a sequence of numbers - the Fibonacci sequence - used by some to predict the rise and fall of financial markets, and evident in myriad biological structures. In The Man of Numbers, Keith Devlin recreates the life and enduring legacy of an overlooked genius, and in the process makes clear how central numbers and mathematics are to our daily lives.

The Man of Numbers

The Man of Numbers PDF Author: Keith Devlin
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408824574
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 193

Get Book Here

Book Description
In 1202, a 32-year old Italian finished one of the most influential books of all time, which introduced modern arithmetic to Western Europe. Devised in India in the seventh and eighth centuries and brought to North Africa by Muslim traders, the Hindu-Arabic system helped transform the West into the dominant force in science, technology, and commerce, leaving behind Muslim cultures which had long known it but had failed to see its potential. The young Italian, Leonardo of Pisa (better known today as Fibonacci), had learned the Hindu number system when he traveled to North Africa with his father, a customs agent. The book he created was Liber abbaci, the 'Book of Calculation', and the revolution that followed its publication was enormous. Arithmetic made it possible for ordinary people to buy and sell goods, convert currencies, and keep accurate records of possessions more readily than ever before. Liber abbaci's publication led directly to large-scale international commerce and the scientific revolution of the Renaissance. Yet despite the ubiquity of his discoveries, Leonardo of Pisa remains an enigma. His name is best known today in association with an exercise in Liber abbaci whose solution gives rise to a sequence of numbers - the Fibonacci sequence - used by some to predict the rise and fall of financial markets, and evident in myriad biological structures. In The Man of Numbers, Keith Devlin recreates the life and enduring legacy of an overlooked genius, and in the process makes clear how central numbers and mathematics are to our daily lives.

Fibonacci’s Liber Abaci

Fibonacci’s Liber Abaci PDF Author: Laurence Sigler
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461300797
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 736

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Book Description
First published in 1202, Fibonacci’s Liber Abaci was one of the most important books on mathematics in the Middle Ages, introducing Arabic numerals and methods throughout Europe. This is the first translation into a modern European language, of interest not only to historians of science but also to all mathematicians and mathematics teachers interested in the origins of their methods.

Finding Fibonacci

Finding Fibonacci PDF Author: Keith Devlin
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400885531
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
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.

Thinking In Numbers

Thinking In Numbers PDF Author: Daniel Tammet
Publisher: Little, Brown Spark
ISBN: 0316250805
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
The irresistibly engaging book that "enlarges one's wonder at Tammet's mind and his all-embracing vision of the world as grounded in numbers" (Oliver Sacks, MD). Thinking in Numbers is the book that Daniel Tammet, mathematical savant and bestselling author, was born to write. In Tammet's world, numbers are beautiful and mathematics illuminates our lives and minds. Using anecdotes, everyday examples, and ruminations on history, literature, and more, Tammet allows us to share his unique insights and delight in the way numbers, fractions, and equations underpin all our lives. Inspired variously by the complexity of snowflakes, Anne Boleyn's eleven fingers, and his many siblings, Tammet explores questions such as why time seems to speed up as we age, whether there is such a thing as an average person, and how we can make sense of those we love. His provocative and inspiring new book will change the way you think about math and fire your imagination to view the world with fresh eyes.

Numbers

Numbers PDF Author: Graham Flegg
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486166511
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
Readable, jargon-free book examines the earliest endeavors to count and record numbers, initial attempts to solve problems by using equations, and origins of infinite cardinal arithmetic. "Surprisingly exciting." — Choice.

Charlie Numbers and the Man in the Moon

Charlie Numbers and the Man in the Moon PDF Author: Ben Mezrich
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1481448471
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
When sixth-grade mathematical genius Charlie Lewis is recruited to recover moon rocks taken from NASA's vaults, the Whiz Kids enter a paper airplane contest hosted by the suspect's company in this follow-up to Bringing Down the Mouse. 5 1/2 x 8 5/16.

Nathaniel Bowditch and the Power of Numbers

Nathaniel Bowditch and the Power of Numbers PDF Author: Tamara Plakins Thornton
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469626942
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 417

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Book Description
In this engagingly written biography, Tamara Plakins Thornton delves into the life and work of Nathaniel Bowditch (1773-1838), a man Thomas Jefferson once called a "meteor in the hemisphere." Bowditch was a mathematician, astronomer, navigator, seafarer, and business executive whose Enlightenment-inspired perspectives shaped nineteenth-century capitalism while transforming American life more broadly. Enthralled with the precision and certainty of numbers and the unerring regularity of the physical universe, Bowditch operated and represented some of New England's most powerful institutions—from financial corporations to Harvard College—as clockwork mechanisms. By examining Bowditch's pathbreaking approaches to institutions, as well as the political and social controversies they provoked, Thornton's biography sheds new light on the rise of capitalism, American science, and social elites in the early republic. Fleshing out the multiple careers of Nathaniel Bowditch, this book is at once a lively biography, a window into the birth of bureaucracy, and a portrait of patrician life, giving us a broader, more-nuanced understanding of how powerful capitalists operated during this era and how the emerging quantitative sciences shaped the modern experience.

17 Lectures on Fermat Numbers

17 Lectures on Fermat Numbers PDF Author: Michal Krizek
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387218505
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
The pioneering work of Pierre de Fermat has attracted the attention of mathematicians for over 350 years. This book provides an overview of the many properties of Fermat numbers and demonstrates their applications in areas such as number theory, probability theory, geometry, and signal processing. It is an ideal introduction to the basic mathematical ideas and algebraic methods connected with the Fermat numbers.

Numbers

Numbers PDF Author: Heinz-Dieter Ebbinghaus
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9780387974972
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
This book is about all kinds of numbers, from rationals to octonians, reals to infinitesimals. It is a story about a major thread of mathematics over thousands of years, and it answers everything from why Hamilton was obsessed with quaternions to what the prospect was for quaternionic analysis in the 19th century. It glimpses the mystery surrounding imaginary numbers in the 17th century and views some major developments of the 20th century.

Numbers

Numbers PDF Author: Dana Dane
Publisher: One World
ISBN: 0345506057
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
Even as a young teenager, Dupree “Numbers” Wallace had a keen mind for math. Whether he was getting good grades on his math tests or adding up the change he earned making grocery runs for his mom and neighbors, Numbers came out ahead more times than not. When Crispy Carl, the flyest pimp in the hood, gets wind of the young man’s gift, the old cat takes him under his wing. Numbers quickly finds himself deep in his Brooklyn neighborhood’s numbers racket, as well as dice and card games, gaining a legendary reputation for his hustle. But when his little sister gets cancer, Numbers is forced to bump up his game to the high-stakes world of drugs in order to pay for her treatment. Soon Numbers builds a strong crew and runs the streets as the baddest hustler in Brooklyn. But when his mistress and fellow crew member each take a bullet meant for him, his rivals start taking over his territory, and the Feds begin to close in, Numbers remembers the wise words of his old mentor Crispy Carl: A good hustler knows when to get out. Now that it’s time to ditch the game, he must calculate an exit plan unlike any ever attempted before. . .