Graduate Texts in Mathematics

Ebbinghaus, Heinz-Dieter; Ewing, John H.; Lamotke, K.; Orde, H.L.S.; Hermes, Hans; Hirzebruch, Friedrich; Koecher, Max; Mainzer, Klaus; Neukirch, Jürgen; Prestel, Alexander; Remmert, Reinhold

A book about numbers sounds rather dull. This one is not. Instead it is a lively story about one thread of mathematics-the concept of "number"­ told by eight authors and organized into a historical narrative that leads the reader from ancient Egypt to the late twentieth century. It is a story that begins with some of the simplest ideas of mathematics and ends with some of the most complex. It is a story that mathematicians, both amateur and professional, ought to know. Why write about numbers? Mathematicians have always found it diffi­ cult to develop broad perspective about their subject. While we each view our specialty as having roots in the past, and sometimes having connec­ tions to other specialties in the present, we seldom see the panorama of mathematical development over thousands of years. Numbers attempts to give that broad perspective, from hieroglyphs to K-theory, from Dedekind cuts to nonstandard analysis.

Details

Published by: Springer

Publication Date: 1990-12-19

Format: Paperback

ISBN-13: 9780387974972

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4612-1005-4

Dimensions: 235cm x155cm

Pages: 398