Symbols, Impossible Numbers, and Geometric Entanglements: British Algebra through the Commentaries on Newton's Universal Arithmetick - Couverture rigide

Pycior, Helena M.

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0521481244 ISBN 13 : 9780521481243

Editeur : Cambridge University Press, 1997

Synopsis

This is the first history of the development and reception of algebra in early modern England and Scotland.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

Symbols, Impossible Numbers, and Geometric Entanglements is the first history of the development and reception of algebra in early modern England and Scotland. Not primarily a technical history, this book analyses the struggles of a dozen British thinkers to come to terms with early modern algebra, its symbolic style, and negative and imaginary numbers. Professor Pycior uncovers these thinkers as a 'test-group' for the symbolic reasoning that would radically change not only mathematics but also logic, philosophy and language studies. The book furthermore shows how pedagogical and religious concerns shaped the British debate over the relative merits of algebra and geometry. Positioning algebra firmly in the Scientific Revolution and pursue Newton the algebraist, it highlights Newton's role in completing the evolution of algebra from an esoteric subject into a major focus of British mathematics. Other thinkers covered include Oughtred, Harriot, Wallis, Hobbes, Barrow, Berkeley and MacLaurin.

Revue de presse

'... a useful reference work ... this work represents a piece of solid scholarship.' Dennis H. Rouvray, Endeavour

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Cambridge University Press
• Date d'édition: 1997
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0521481244
• ISBN 13: 9780521481243
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 344
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: Avery; https://www.avery.fr/; ; chemin des peupliers 27; Dardilly; France