Encounters with Euclid : how an ancient Greek geometry text shaped the world / / Benjamin Wardhaugh

• Autore: Wardhaugh Benjamin
• Pubblicazione: Princeton, New Jersey : , : Princeton University Press, , [2021]; ©2021
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (416 p.) : 34 b/w illus
• Disciplina: 516.2
• Soggetto topico: Geometry; Mathematics
• Soggetto genere / forma: Early works.
• Soggetto non controllato: Alfred North Whitehead; Baruch Spinoza; Bodleian Library; Copernicus; Edna St. Vincent Millay; Euclidean geometry; Galileo Galilei; Galileo; Hobbes; Johannes Kepler; Kepler; Platonic solids; Proclus; Ptolemaic Egypt; Pythagorean theorem; Spinoza; Thales' theorem; Thomas Hobbes; Vatican Library; book history; geometric algebra; golden ratio; great books; history of math; history of mathematics; history of the book; lemma; logic; mathematical proofs; music theory; parallel postulate; perspective; plane geometry; prime numbers
• Nota di contenuto: Frontmatter -- Contents -- Prologue -- I: AUTHOR -- Alexandria -- Elephantine -- Hypsicles -- Theon of Alexandria -- Stephanos the scribe -- Al-Hajjaj -- Adelard -- Erhard Ratdolt -- Marget Seymer her hand -- Edward Bernard -- Interlude -- II: SAGE -- Plato -- Proclus Diadochus -- Hroswitha of Gandersheim -- Rabbi Levi ben Gershom -- Christoph Clavius -- Xu Guangqi -- Blame not our author -- Baruch Spinoza -- Anne Lister -- Interlude -- III: HERO -- Petechonsis -- Dividing the monochord -- Hyginus -- Muhammad Abu al-Wafa al-Buzjani -- Lady Geometria -- Piero della Francesca -- Euclid Speidell -- Isaac Newton -- Interlude -- IV: SHADOW AND MASK -- Mary Fairfax -- François Peyrard -- Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevskii -- Maggie and Tom -- Simson in Urdu -- His modern rivals -- Thomas Little Heath -- Max Ernst -- Euclidean designs -- Lambda -- Epilogue -- Acknowledgements -- Image Credits -- Notes on Sources -- Select Bibliography -- Index
• Sommario/riassunto: A sweeping cultural history of one of the most influential mathematical books ever writtenEuclid's Elements of Geometry is one of the fountainheads of mathematics—and of culture. Written around 300 BCE, it has traveled widely across the centuries, generating countless new ideas and inspiring such figures as Isaac Newton, Bertrand Russell, Abraham Lincoln, and Albert Einstein. Encounters with Euclid tells the story of this incomparable mathematical masterpiece, taking readers from its origins in the ancient world to its lasting influence today.In this lively and informative book, Benjamin Wardhaugh explains how Euclid’s text journeyed from antiquity to the Renaissance, introducing some of the many readers, copyists, and editors who left their mark on the Elements before handing it on. He shows how some read the book as a work of philosophy, while others viewed it as a practical guide to life. He examines the many different contexts in which Euclid's book and his geometry were put to use, from the Neoplatonic school at Athens and the workshops of Restoration London to the Jesuit mission in China and the artisans' studios of medieval Baghdad. Wardhaugh shows how the Elements inspired ideas in theology, art, and music, and how the book has acquired new relevance to the strange geometries of dark matter and curved space.Encounters with Euclid traces the life and afterlives of one of the most remarkable works of mathematics ever written, revealing its continuing role in the timeless search for order and reason in an unruly world.
• Titolo autorizzato: Encounters with Euclid
• ISBN: 0-691-21981-8
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Record Nr.: 9910554265903321
• Lo trovi qui: Univ. Federico II