History of Maths for Beginners
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History of Maths for Beginners
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Re: History of Maths for Beginners
#2If you're interested in this sort of stuff I highly recommend Stillwell's "Mathematics and it's History" (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4419-6053-5) - it's a wonderful mix of quite low level explicit mathematics with contextual history; along with Stewarts "Concept of Mathematics" (https://archive.org/details/ConceptsofmodernmathematicsStewa...).
When you first study mathematics at undergraduate and early post-grad level there is a sense of being overwhelmed with how on earth anyone figured this out. When you read the messy history of maths, and understand it is an organic, growing field, you feel a little less like an imposter struggling to understand how anyone could've come up with this.
Reading these books (primarily as a software engineer), made me feel better about not immediately getting certain concepts, because it's likely the people these theorems are named after didn't get it either, to begin with. They refined it, they collaborated (like a pull request almost) and eventually everything got very neatly packaged up into a set of theorems. Mathematics is rarely taught in that way, I wish more of the "human" aspect was part of the pedagogical process. I think it might temper some of the fear people have.
Re: History of Maths for Beginners
#3If you're interested in this sort of stuff I highly recommend Stillwell's "Mathematics and it's History" ( https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4419-6053-5 ) - it's a wonderful mix of quite low level explicit mathematics with contextual history; along with Stewarts "Concept of Mathematics" ( https://archive.org/details/ConceptsofmodernmathematicsStewa... ). When you first study mathematics at undergraduate an…
Famously, take note of Hilbert asking at a conference, "What is a Hilbert space?"
Re: History of Maths for Beginners
#4Sidenote today (or tomorrow depending where you are), on Friday 14th March the United Nations observes 'International Day of Mathematics'
Re: History of Maths for Beginners
#5If you're interested in this sort of stuff I highly recommend Stillwell's "Mathematics and it's History" ( https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4419-6053-5 ) - it's a wonderful mix of quite low level explicit mathematics with contextual history; along with Stewarts "Concept of Mathematics" ( https://archive.org/details/ConceptsofmodernmathematicsStewa... ). When you first study mathematics at undergraduate an…
An oldie but goldie of the multi-brick/bathroom doorstop variety is Kline's Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Time.
Re: History of Maths for Beginners
#6If you're interested in this sort of stuff I highly recommend Stillwell's "Mathematics and it's History" ( https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4419-6053-5 ) - it's a wonderful mix of quite low level explicit mathematics with contextual history; along with Stewarts "Concept of Mathematics" ( https://archive.org/details/ConceptsofmodernmathematicsStewa... ). When you first study mathematics at undergraduate an…
Also The World of Mathematics (1956) by James R. Newman.
Re: History of Maths for Beginners
#7If you're interested in this sort of stuff I highly recommend Stillwell's "Mathematics and it's History" ( https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4419-6053-5 ) - it's a wonderful mix of quite low level explicit mathematics with contextual history; along with Stewarts "Concept of Mathematics" ( https://archive.org/details/ConceptsofmodernmathematicsStewa... ). When you first study mathematics at undergraduate an…
The Cambridge University History of Maths society is a fantastic resource - almost all the lectures are live streamed:
https://hom.soc.srcf.net/
Re: History of Maths for Beginners
#8If you're interested in this sort of stuff I highly recommend Stillwell's "Mathematics and it's History" ( https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4419-6053-5 ) - it's a wonderful mix of quite low level explicit mathematics with contextual history; along with Stewarts "Concept of Mathematics" ( https://archive.org/details/ConceptsofmodernmathematicsStewa... ). When you first study mathematics at undergraduate an…
An oldie but goldie of the multi-brick/bathroom doorstop variety is Kline's Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Time .
What does multi brick/bathroom variety mean?
Re: History of Maths for Beginners
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
An oldie but goldie of the multi-brick/bathroom doorstop variety is Kline's Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Time .
What does multi brick/bathroom variety mean?
It means it's a big fat book well suited for browsing while on the can. It's a genre.
Re: History of Maths for Beginners
#10When it comes to mathematical concepts- to understand everything broadly, connected to its context, and to understant "what's the point?", nothing tops this book- Mathematics: Its Content, Methods and Meaning (3 Volumes in One) by Aleksandrov, Kolmogorov, and Lavrentev [0].
[0]: https://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Content-Methods-Meaning-V...