From a Geometrical Point of View


Book Description

From a Geometrical Point of View explores historical and philosophical aspects of category theory, trying therewith to expose its significance in the mathematical landscape. The main thesis is that Klein’s Erlangen program in geometry is in fact a particular instance of a general and broad phenomenon revealed by category theory. The volume starts with Eilenberg and Mac Lane’s work in the early 1940’s and follows the major developments of the theory from this perspective. Particular attention is paid to the philosophical elements involved in this development. The book ends with a presentation of categorical logic, some of its results and its significance in the foundations of mathematics. From a Geometrical Point of View aims to provide its readers with a conceptual perspective on category theory and categorical logic, in order to gain insight into their role and nature in contemporary mathematics. It should be of interest to mathematicians, logicians, philosophers of mathematics and science in general, historians of contemporary mathematics, physicists and computer scientists.




Control Theory from the Geometric Viewpoint


Book Description

This book presents some facts and methods of the Mathematical Control Theory treated from the geometric point of view. The book is mainly based on graduate courses given by the first coauthor in the years 2000-2001 at the International School for Advanced Studies, Trieste, Italy. Mathematical prerequisites are reduced to standard courses of Analysis and Linear Algebra plus some basic Real and Functional Analysis. No preliminary knowledge of Control Theory or Differential Geometry is required. What this book is about? The classical deterministic physical world is described by smooth dynamical systems: the future in such a system is com pletely determined by the initial conditions. Moreover, the near future changes smoothly with the initial data. If we leave room for "free will" in this fatalistic world, then we come to control systems. We do so by allowing certain param eters of the dynamical system to change freely at every instant of time. That is what we routinely do in real life with our body, car, cooker, as well as with aircraft, technological processes etc. We try to control all these dynamical systems! Smooth dynamical systems are governed by differential equations. In this book we deal only with finite dimensional systems: they are governed by ordi nary differential equations on finite dimensional smooth manifolds. A control system for us is thus a family of ordinary differential equations. The family is parametrized by control parameters.




The Geometry of an Art


Book Description

This review of literature on perspective constructions from the Renaissance through the 18th century covers 175 authors, emphasizing Peiro della Francesca, Guidobaldo del Monte, Simon Stevin, Brook Taylor, and Johann Heinrich. It treats such topics as the various methods of constructing perspective, the development of theories underlying the constructions, and the communication between mathematicians and artisans in these developments.




Advanced Calculus


Book Description

With a fresh geometric approach that incorporates more than 250 illustrations, this textbook sets itself apart from all others in advanced calculus. Besides the classical capstones--the change of variables formula, implicit and inverse function theorems, the integral theorems of Gauss and Stokes--the text treats other important topics in differential analysis, such as Morse's lemma and the Poincaré lemma. The ideas behind most topics can be understood with just two or three variables. The book incorporates modern computational tools to give visualization real power. Using 2D and 3D graphics, the book offers new insights into fundamental elements of the calculus of differentiable maps. The geometric theme continues with an analysis of the physical meaning of the divergence and the curl at a level of detail not found in other advanced calculus books. This is a textbook for undergraduates and graduate students in mathematics, the physical sciences, and economics. Prerequisites are an introduction to linear algebra and multivariable calculus. There is enough material for a year-long course on advanced calculus and for a variety of semester courses--including topics in geometry. The measured pace of the book, with its extensive examples and illustrations, make it especially suitable for independent study.




Group Theory From A Geometrical Viewpoint


Book Description

This proceedings presents the latest research materials done on group theory from geometrical viewpoint in particular Gromov's theory of hyperbolic groups, Coxeter groups, Tits buildings and actions on real trees. All these are very active subjects.




New Foundations for Physical Geometry


Book Description

Tim Maudlin sets out a completely new method for describing the geometrical structure of spaces, and thus a better mathematical tool for describing and understanding space-time. He presents a historical review of the development of geometry and topology, and then his original Theory of Linear Structures.




The Four Pillars of Geometry


Book Description

This book is unique in that it looks at geometry from 4 different viewpoints - Euclid-style axioms, linear algebra, projective geometry, and groups and their invariants Approach makes the subject accessible to readers of all mathematical tastes, from the visual to the algebraic Abundantly supplemented with figures and exercises




The Geometry of Special Relativity


Book Description

The Geometry of Special Relativity provides an introduction to special relativity that encourages readers to see beyond the formulas to the deeper geometric structure. The text treats the geometry of hyperbolas as the key to understanding special relativity. This approach replaces the ubiquitous γ symbol of most standard treatments with the appropriate hyperbolic trigonometric functions. In most cases, this not only simplifies the appearance of the formulas, but also emphasizes their geometric content in such a way as to make them almost obvious. Furthermore, many important relations, including the famous relativistic addition formula for velocities, follow directly from the appropriate trigonometric addition formulas. The book first describes the basic physics of special relativity to set the stage for the geometric treatment that follows. It then reviews properties of ordinary two-dimensional Euclidean space, expressed in terms of the usual circular trigonometric functions, before presenting a similar treatment of two-dimensional Minkowski space, expressed in terms of hyperbolic trigonometric functions. After covering special relativity again from the geometric point of view, the text discusses standard paradoxes, applications to relativistic mechanics, the relativistic unification of electricity and magnetism, and further steps leading to Einstein’s general theory of relativity. The book also briefly describes the further steps leading to Einstein’s general theory of relativity and then explores applications of hyperbola geometry to non-Euclidean geometry and calculus, including a geometric construction of the derivatives of trigonometric functions and the exponential function.




Multiple View Geometry in Computer Vision


Book Description

A basic problem in computer vision is to understand the structure of a real world scene given several images of it. Techniques for solving this problem are taken from projective geometry and photogrammetry. Here, the authors cover the geometric principles and their algebraic representation in terms of camera projection matrices, the fundamental matrix and the trifocal tensor. The theory and methods of computation of these entities are discussed with real examples, as is their use in the reconstruction of scenes from multiple images. The new edition features an extended introduction covering the key ideas in the book (which itself has been updated with additional examples and appendices) and significant new results which have appeared since the first edition. Comprehensive background material is provided, so readers familiar with linear algebra and basic numerical methods can understand the projective geometry and estimation algorithms presented, and implement the algorithms directly from the book.




Geometry and Billiards


Book Description

Mathematical billiards describe the motion of a mass point in a domain with elastic reflections off the boundary or, equivalently, the behavior of rays of light in a domain with ideally reflecting boundary. From the point of view of differential geometry, the billiard flow is the geodesic flow on a manifold with boundary. This book is devoted to billiards in their relation with differential geometry, classical mechanics, and geometrical optics. Topics covered include variational principles of billiard motion, symplectic geometry of rays of light and integral geometry, existence and nonexistence of caustics, optical properties of conics and quadrics and completely integrable billiards, periodic billiard trajectories, polygonal billiards, mechanisms of chaos in billiard dynamics, and the lesser-known subject of dual (or outer) billiards. The book is based on an advanced undergraduate topics course. Minimum prerequisites are the standard material covered in the first two years of college mathematics (the entire calculus sequence, linear algebra). However, readers should show some mathematical maturity and rely on their mathematical common sense. A unique feature of the book is the coverage of many diverse topics related to billiards, for example, evolutes and involutes of plane curves, the four-vertex theorem, a mathematical theory of rainbows, distribution of first digits in various sequences, Morse theory, the Poincare recurrence theorem, Hilbert's fourth problem, Poncelet porism, and many others. There are approximately 100 illustrations. The book is suitable for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers interested in ergodic theory and geometry. This volume has been copublished with the Mathematics Advanced Study Semesters program at Penn State.