Mathematics of the 19th Century


Book Description

The general principles by which the editors and authors of the present edition have been guided were explained in the preface to the first volume of Mathemat ics of the 19th Century, which contains chapters on the history of mathematical logic, algebra, number theory, and probability theory (Nauka, Moscow 1978; En glish translation by Birkhiiuser Verlag, Basel-Boston-Berlin 1992). Circumstances beyond the control of the editors necessitated certain changes in the sequence of historical exposition of individual disciplines. The second volume contains two chapters: history of geometry and history of analytic function theory (including elliptic and Abelian functions); the size of the two chapters naturally entailed di viding them into sections. The history of differential and integral calculus, as well as computational mathematics, which we had planned to include in the second volume, will form part of the third volume. We remind our readers that the appendix of each volume contains a list of the most important literature and an index of names. The names of journals are given in abbreviated form and the volume and year of publication are indicated; if the actual year of publication differs from the nominal year, the latter is given in parentheses. The book History of Mathematics from Ancient Times to the Early Nineteenth Century [in Russian], which was published in the years 1970-1972, is cited in abbreviated form as HM (with volume and page number indicated). The first volume of the present series is cited as Bk. 1 (with page numbers).




Social History of Nineteenth Century Mathematics


Book Description

During the last few decades historians of science have shown a growing interest in science as a cultural activity and have regarded science more and more as part of the gene ral developments that have occurred in society. This trend has been less evident arnong historians of mathematics, who traditionally concentrate primarily on tracing the develop ment of mathematical knowledge itself. To some degree this restriction is connected with the special role of mathematics compared with the other sciences; mathematics typifies the most objective, most coercive type of knowledge, and there fore seems to be least affected by social influences. Nevertheless, biography, institutional history and his tory of national developments have long been elements in the historiography of mathematics. This interest in the social aspects of mathematics has widened recently through the stu dy of other themes, such as the relation of mathematics to the development of the educational system. Some scholars have begun to apply the methods of historical sociology of knowledge to mathematics; others have attempted to give a ix x Marxist analysis of the connection between mathematics and productive forces, and there have been philosophical studies about the communication processes involved in the production of mathematical knowledge. An interest in causal analyses of historical processes has led to the study of other factors influencing the development of mathematics, such as the f- mation of mathematical schools, the changes in the profes- onal situation of the mathematician and the general cultural milieu of the mathematical scientist.




Mr Hopkins' Men


Book Description

A few years ago, in the Wren Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, I came across a remarkable but then little-known album of pencil and watercolour portraits. The artist of most (perhaps all) was Thomas Charles Wageman. Created during 1829–1852, these portraits are of pupils of the famous mat- matical tutor William Hopkins. Though I knew much about several of the subjects, the names of others were then unknown to me. I was prompted to discover more about them all, and gradually this interest evolved into the present book. The project has expanded naturally to describe the Cambridge educational milieu of the time, the work of William Hopkins, and the later achievements of his pupils and their contemporaries. As I have taught applied mathematics in a British university for forty years, during a time of rapid change, the struggles to implement and to resist reform in mid-nineteenth-century Cambridge struck a chord of recognition. So, too, did debates about academic standards of honours degrees. And my own experiences, as a graduate of a Scottish university who proceeded to C- bridge for postgraduate work, gave me a particular interest in those Scots and Irish students who did much the same more than a hundred years earlier. As a mathematician, I sometimes felt frustrated at having to suppress virtually all of the ? ne mathematics associated with this period: but to have included such technical material would have made this a very different book.




Mathematics of the 19th Century


Book Description

This multi-authored effort, Mathematics of the nineteenth century (to be fol lowed by Mathematics of the twentieth century), is a sequel to the History of mathematics fram antiquity to the early nineteenth century, published in three 1 volumes from 1970 to 1972. For reasons explained below, our discussion of twentieth-century mathematics ends with the 1930s. Our general objectives are identical with those stated in the preface to the three-volume edition, i. e. , we consider the development of mathematics not simply as the process of perfecting concepts and techniques for studying real-world spatial forms and quantitative relationships but as a social process as weIl. Mathematical structures, once established, are capable of a certain degree of autonomous development. In the final analysis, however, such immanent mathematical evolution is conditioned by practical activity and is either self-directed or, as is most often the case, is determined by the needs of society. Proceeding from this premise, we intend, first, to unravel the forces that shape mathe matical progress. We examine the interaction of mathematics with the social structure, technology, the natural sciences, and philosophy. Throughan anal ysis of mathematical history proper, we hope to delineate the relationships among the various mathematical disciplines and to evaluate mathematical achievements in the light of the current state and future prospects of the science. The difficulties confronting us considerably exceeded those encountered in preparing the three-volume edition.




Mathematics in Victorian Britain


Book Description

During the Victorian era, industrial and economic growth led to a phenomenal rise in productivity and invention. That spirit of creativity and ingenuity was reflected in the massive expansion in scope and complexity of many scientific disciplines during this time, with subjects evolving rapidly and the creation of many new disciplines. The subject of mathematics was no exception and many of the advances made by mathematicians during the Victorian period are still familiar today; matrices, vectors, Boolean algebra, histograms, and standard deviation were just some of the innovations pioneered by these mathematicians. This book constitutes perhaps the first general survey of the mathematics of the Victorian period. It assembles in a single source research on the history of Victorian mathematics that would otherwise be out of the reach of the general reader. It charts the growth and institutional development of mathematics as a profession through the course of the 19th century in England, Scotland, Ireland, and across the British Empire. It then focuses on developments in specific mathematical areas, with chapters ranging from developments in pure mathematical topics (such as geometry, algebra, and logic) to Victorian work in the applied side of the subject (including statistics, calculating machines, and astronomy). Along the way, we encounter a host of mathematical scholars, some very well known (such as Charles Babbage, James Clerk Maxwell, Florence Nightingale, and Lewis Carroll), others largely forgotten, but who all contributed to the development of Victorian mathematics.




Mathematics of the 19th Century


Book Description

The editors of the present series had originally intended to publish an integrated work on the history of mathematics in the nineteenth century, passing systemati cally from one discipline to another in some natural order. Circumstances beyond their control, mainly difficulties in choosing authors, led to the abandonment of this plan by the time the second volume appeared. Instead of a unified mono graph we now present to the reader a series of books intended to encompass all the mathematics of the nineteenth century, but not in the order of the accepted classification of the component disciplines. In contrast to the first two books of The Mathematics of the Nineteenth Century, which were divided into chapters, this third volume consists of four parts, more in keeping with the nature of the publication. 1 We recall that the first book contained essays on the history of mathemati 2 cal logic, algebra, number theory, and probability, while the second covered the history of geometry and analytic function theory. In the present third volume the reader will find: 1. An essay on the development of Chebyshev's theory of approximation of functions, later called "constructive function theory" by S. N. Bernshtein. This highly original essay is due to the late N. I. Akhiezer (1901-1980), the author of fundamental discoveries in this area. Akhiezer's text will no doubt attract attention not only from historians of mathematics, but also from many specialists in constructive function theory.




The Development of Mathematics


Book Description

Time-honored study by a prominent scholar of mathematics traces decisive epochs from the evolution of mathematical ideas in ancient Egypt and Babylonia to major breakthroughs in the 19th and 20th centuries. 1945 edition.




The Development of Mathematics Throughout the Centuries


Book Description

Throughout the book, readers take a journey throughout time and observe how people around the world have understood these patterns of quantity, structure, and dimension around them. The Development of Mathematics Throughout the Centuries: A Brief History in a Cultural Contex provides a brief overview of the history of mathematics in a very straightforward and understandable manner and also addresses major findings that influenced the development of mathematics as a coherent discipline. This book: Highlights the contributions made by various world cultures including African, Egyptian, Babylonian, Chinese, Indian, Islamic, and pre-Columbian American mathematics Features an approach that is not too rigorous and is ideal for a one-semester course of the history of mathematics. Includes a Resources and Recommended Reading section for further exploration and has been extensively classroom-tested




Writing the History of Mathematics: Its Historical Development


Book Description

As an historiographic monograph, this book offers a detailed survey of the professional evolution and significance of an entire discipline devoted to the history of science. It provides both an intellectual and a social history of the development of the subject from the first such effort written by the ancient Greek author Eudemus in the Fourth Century BC, to the founding of the international journal, Historia Mathematica, by Kenneth O. May in the early 1970s.