The Mind of the Mathematician

The Mind of the Mathematician PDF Author: Michael Fitzgerald
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM
ISBN: 0801896894
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
An intriguing look at the psychology and personality of mathematicians, with profiles of twenty prominent figures in the field. What makes mathematicians tick? How do their minds process formulas and concepts that, for most of the rest of the world’s population, remain mysterious and beyond comprehension? Is there a connection between mathematical creativity and mental illness? In The Mind of the Mathematician, internationally famous mathematician Ioan James and accomplished psychiatrist Michael Fitzgerald look at the complex world of mathematics and the mind. Together they explore the behavior and personality traits that tend to fit the profile of a mathematician. They discuss mathematics and the arts, savants, gender and mathematical ability, and the impact of autism, personality disorders, and mood disorders. These topics, together with a succinct analysis of some of the great mathematical personalities of the past three centuries, combine to form an eclectic and fascinating blend of story and scientific inquiry. “The authors’ careful treatments are an especially welcome addition to a genre riddled with apocryphal anecdotes and shoddy scholarship.” —Nature

The Mind of the Mathematician

The Mind of the Mathematician PDF Author: Michael Fitzgerald
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM
ISBN: 0801896894
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Get Book Here

Book Description
An intriguing look at the psychology and personality of mathematicians, with profiles of twenty prominent figures in the field. What makes mathematicians tick? How do their minds process formulas and concepts that, for most of the rest of the world’s population, remain mysterious and beyond comprehension? Is there a connection between mathematical creativity and mental illness? In The Mind of the Mathematician, internationally famous mathematician Ioan James and accomplished psychiatrist Michael Fitzgerald look at the complex world of mathematics and the mind. Together they explore the behavior and personality traits that tend to fit the profile of a mathematician. They discuss mathematics and the arts, savants, gender and mathematical ability, and the impact of autism, personality disorders, and mood disorders. These topics, together with a succinct analysis of some of the great mathematical personalities of the past three centuries, combine to form an eclectic and fascinating blend of story and scientific inquiry. “The authors’ careful treatments are an especially welcome addition to a genre riddled with apocryphal anecdotes and shoddy scholarship.” —Nature

How Mathematicians Think

How Mathematicians Think PDF Author: William Byers
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691145997
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
To many outsiders, mathematicians appear to think like computers, grimly grinding away with a strict formal logic and moving methodically--even algorithmically--from one black-and-white deduction to another. Yet mathematicians often describe their most important breakthroughs as creative, intuitive responses to ambiguity, contradiction, and paradox. A unique examination of this less-familiar aspect of mathematics, How Mathematicians Think reveals that mathematics is a profoundly creative activity and not just a body of formalized rules and results. Nonlogical qualities, William Byers shows, play an essential role in mathematics. Ambiguities, contradictions, and paradoxes can arise when ideas developed in different contexts come into contact. Uncertainties and conflicts do not impede but rather spur the development of mathematics. Creativity often means bringing apparently incompatible perspectives together as complementary aspects of a new, more subtle theory. The secret of mathematics is not to be found only in its logical structure. The creative dimensions of mathematical work have great implications for our notions of mathematical and scientific truth, and How Mathematicians Think provides a novel approach to many fundamental questions. Is mathematics objectively true? Is it discovered or invented? And is there such a thing as a "final" scientific theory? Ultimately, How Mathematicians Think shows that the nature of mathematical thinking can teach us a great deal about the human condition itself.

A Mind for Numbers

A Mind for Numbers PDF Author: Barbara A. Oakley
Publisher: TarcherPerigee
ISBN: 039916524X
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
Engineering professor Barbara Oakley knows firsthand how it feels to struggle with math. In her book, she offers you the tools needed to get a better grasp of that intimidating but inescapable field.

The Girl with a Mind for Math

The Girl with a Mind for Math PDF Author: Julia Finley Mosca
Publisher: Amazing Scientists
ISBN: 9781943147700
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
After touring a German submarine in the early 1940s, young Raye set her sights on becoming an engineer. Little did she know sexism and racial inequality would challenge that dream every step of the way, even keeping her greatest career accomplishment a secret for decades. Through it all, the gifted mathematician persisted-- finally gaining her well-deserved title in history: a pioneer who changed the course of ship design forever.

Music, Math, and Mind

Music, Math, and Mind PDF Author: David Sulzer
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780231193788
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
This book offers a lively exploration of the mathematics, physics, and neuroscience that underlie music. Written for musicians and music lovers with any level of science and math proficiency, including none, Music, Math, and Mind demystifies how music works while testifying to its beauty and wonder.

The Mathematician's Mind

The Mathematician's Mind PDF Author: Jacques Hadamard
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691212902
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description
Fifty years ago when Jacques Hadamard set out to explore how mathematicians invent new ideas, he considered the creative experiences of some of the greatest thinkers of his generation, such as George Polya, Claude Lévi-Strauss, and Albert Einstein. It appeared that inspiration could strike anytime, particularly after an individual had worked hard on a problem for days and then turned attention to another activity. In exploring this phenomenon, Hadamard produced one of the most famous and cogent cases for the existence of unconscious mental processes in mathematical invention and other forms of creativity. Written before the explosion of research in computers and cognitive science, his book, originally titled The Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field, remains an important tool for exploring the increasingly complex problem of mental life. The roots of creativity for Hadamard lie not in consciousness, but in the long unconscious work of incubation, and in the unconscious aesthetic selection of ideas that thereby pass into consciousness. His discussion of this process comprises a wide range of topics, including the use of mental images or symbols, visualized or auditory words, "meaningless" words, logic, and intuition. Among the important documents collected is a letter from Albert Einstein analyzing his own mechanism of thought.

The Mind of the Mathematician

The Mind of the Mathematician PDF Author: Michael Fitzgerald
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 0801885876
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
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Mind and Matter

Mind and Matter PDF Author: John Urschel
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0735224889
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
A New York Times bestseller John Urschel, mathematician and former offensive lineman for the Baltimore Ravens, tells the story of a life balanced between two passions For John Urschel, what began as an insatiable appetite for puzzles as a child developed into mastery of the elegant systems and rules of mathematics. By the time he was thirteen, Urschel was auditing a college-level calculus course. But when he joined his high school football team, a new interest began to eclipse the thrill he felt in the classroom. Football challenged Urschel in an entirely different way, and he became addicted to the physical contact of the sport. After he accepted a scholarship to play at Penn State, his love of math was rekindled. As a Nittany Lion, he refused to sacrifice one passion for the other. Against the odds, Urschel found a way to manage his double life as a scholar and an athlete. While he was an offensive lineman for the Baltimore Ravens, he simultaneously pursued his PhD in mathematics at MIT. Weaving together two separate narratives, Urschel relives for us the most pivotal moments of his bifurcated life. He explains why, after Penn State was sanctioned for the acts of former coach Jerry Sandusky, he declined offers from prestigious universities and refused to abandon his team. He describes his parents’ different influences and their profound effect on him, and he opens up about the correlation between football and CTE and the risks he took for the game he loves. Equally at home discussing Georg Cantor’s work on infinities and Bill Belichick’s playbook, Urschel reveals how each challenge—whether on the field or in the classroom—has brought him closer to understanding the two different halves of his own life, and how reason and emotion, the mind and the body, are always working together. “So often, people want to divide the world into two,” he observes. “Matter and energy. Wave and particle. Athlete and mathematician. Why can’t something (or someone) be both?”

The Mathematician's Brain

The Mathematician's Brain PDF Author: David Ruelle
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691129822
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
Examines mathematical ideas and the visionary minds behind them. This book provides an account of celebrated mathematicians and their quirks, oddities, personal tragedies, bad behavior, descents into madness, tragic ends, and the beauty of their mathematical discoveries.

Math Charmers

Math Charmers PDF Author: Alfred S. Posamentier
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
A guide to mathematics cover such topics as number patterns, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, probability, and mathematical paradoxes.