Imagining Numbers

Particularly the Square Root of Minus Fifteen

Barry Mazur (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

288 Seiten

2003
Allen Lane (Verlag)
978-0-7139-9630-2 (ISBN)

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This text considers the range of our imaginative experiences. When we read a line of poetry what is it we experience in the mind's eye? And when we imagine a number, in particular an impossible number such as the square root of a negative quantity, what imaginative object might this bring to mind?

This is a book about the imagination in general and about the mathematical imagination in particular. Barry Mazur considers the range of our imaginative experiences. When we read a line of poetry - "The yellow of the tulip" - what is it we experience in the mind's eye? And when we imagine a number, in particular an impossible number such as the square root of a negative quantity, what imaginative object might this bring to mind?

Barry Mazur is a celebrated pure mathematician. He is University Professor at Harvard, Harvard's most distinguished faculty post. His work has been influential in many fields and proved vital for the solution of Fermat Last Theorem. Known for the technique called "Mazur's Swindle".

Part I: The imagination and square roots; square roots and imagination; looking at numbers; permission and laws; economy of expression; justifying laws. Part II: Bombelli's puzzle; stretching the image; putting geometry into numbers. Part III: The literature of discovery of geometry in numbers; understanding algebra via geometry.

Erscheint lt. Verlag	27.3.2003
Zusatzinfo	bibliography, notes, index
Verlagsort	London
Sprache	englisch
Maße	135 x 200 mm
Gewicht	403 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie
Themenwelt	Mathematik / Informatik ► Mathematik
ISBN-10	0-7139-9630-7 / 0713996307
ISBN-13	978-0-7139-9630-2 / 9780713996302
Zustand	Neuware