Insights and manipulations : what classical geometry looked like at its peak, and how it was transformed - a guidebook / Harvey Flaumenhaft.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Flaumenhaft, Harvey, 1938- author.

Contributor:

Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Geometry.

Geometry--History.

History.

Physical Description:

xx, 1088 pages : illustrations ; 29 cm

Other Title:

Insights & manipulations

Place of Publication:

South Bend, Indiana : St. Augustine's Press, [2020]

Summary:

"The past becomes a source of wisdom when the scientific quest for uncovering the roots of things is combined with the humanistic endeavor to make the dead letter come alive in a thoughtful mind. Vague attempts at being "interdisciplinary," by contrast, merely provide excuses to avoid examining the words set down by the scientific thinkers themselves. If we love wisdom in its wholeness, we must explore the sources of the things that we now take for granted: we must think through the records of the thinking that has demarcated the various fields of study and envisioned what's to be investigated within them and how it's to be done. But where shall we start looking for points of view to help us consider what learning is, and what learning has to do with how we live within our world? We couldn't do better than to climb the two peaks that constitute the subject of this book. these are the classical geometry in which Apollonius presented the conic sections, and that modern transformation over which Descartes presided at its inception. In this effort, a useful link between our two primary texts is provided by examining some work done by Diophantus, by pappus, and by Viète. While the study of these writings is a formidable enterprise indeed, the two volumes of Insights and Manipulations, offering clear guidance and abundant help, greatly alleviate the requisite labor"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

v. 1. Apollonian vistas

v. 2. The way to Cartesian mastery.

Notes:

Two volumes in one.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

1587313901

9781587313905

OCLC:

1103218119

Publisher Number:

99986280529