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B. L. van der Waerden (1903–1996)

Author of Sources of Quantum Mechanics

32 Works 348 Members 2 Reviews

About the Author

Image credit: By Unbekannt - This image is from the collection of the ETH-Bibliothek and has been published on Wikimedia Commons as part of a cooperation with Wikimedia CH. Corrections and additional information are welcome., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59410619

Series

Works by B. L. van der Waerden

Algebra: Volume I (1953) 61 copies
Algebra: Volume II (1940) 50 copies
Algebra (1937) 45 copies
Science awakening (1954) 32 copies
Mathematical Statistics (1969) 8 copies
Science Awakening I (2011) 4 copies
Modern Algebra 2 copies

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Members

Reviews

A fantastic book on Babylonian, Egyptian and Greek math history for mathematically inclined readers, translated from Dutch in 1954. You will learn the odd yet intuitively natural ways in which they performed their calculations. It's chock full of wonderful images of Egyptian, Babylonian and Greek mathematics, including cuneiform, hieroglyphics, hieratics, all thoroughly translated (trans-numerated?) in modern mathematical symbols. Apparently the publisher hired an archaeologist to come up with a host of pictures, which are just stunning as a collection in and of themselves.

The ancient Egyptian command of the mathematics of fractions, using their inverse-heavy symbology, is amazingly impressive. And it turns out the Pythagorean theorem is fundamentally not Pythagorean, but Babylonian, as is evidenced by the lists of 'Pythagorean triples' the Babylonians calculated and kept.

(Also, there is a wonderful picture of a 15th century BC Egyptian sculpture of a humorously happy 15th century BC scribe, the mathematician of the day.)

Great, great book, stuck in the basement of my local library. I'm so glad the librarian said "Here. You might like this."
… (more)
 
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br77rino | Oct 24, 2013 |

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Statistics

Works
32
Members
348
Popularity
#68,679
Rating
½ 3.6
Reviews
2
ISBNs
50
Languages
3

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