The Norton History of the Mathematical Sciences: The Rainbow of Mathematics

Front Cover
W. W. Norton & Company, 1998 - History - 817 pages
Beginning with the Babylonian and Egyptian mathematicians of antiquity, Ivor Grattan-Guinness charts the growth of mathematics through its refinement by ancient Greeks and then medieval Arabs, to its systematic development by Europeans from the Middle Ages to the early twentieth century. The book describes the evolution of arithmetic and geometry, trigonometry and algebra, the interplay between mathematics, physics, and mathematical astronomy, and "new" branches such as probability and statistics, "succeeding masterfully in viewing the history of mathematics from a new perspective".
 

Contents

Previewing the rainbow
1
Invisible origins and ancient traditions
18
from the early Middle
104
The calculus and its consequences
257
Analysis and mechanics at centre stage
303
Institutions and the profession after
347
Mathematical analysis
364
The expanding world of algebras
413
Mechanics and mathematical physics
439
International mathematics but the rise
479
The new century to the Great
654
Reviewing the rainbow
719
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (1998)

Ivor Grattan-Guinness is professor of the history of mathematics and logic at Middlesex University, England.

Bibliographic information