Book

Derbyshire, John.

Unknown quantity : a real and imaginary history of algebra / John Derbyshire.

Washington, D.C. : Joseph Henry Press, ©2006.

viii, 374 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cm

Chronicles algebra's history from the days of Abraham to the work of nineteenth-century mathematicians Niels Henrik Abel and Évariste Galois and through the twentieth century, examining the math and showing that the development of algebra was the development of a new way of thinking.

Algebra -- History.

Equations -- History.

Algebra, Universal -- History.

Algebra, Abstract -- History.

Geometry, Algebraic -- History.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Math Primer: Numbers and Polynomials -- The Unknown Quantity -- Four Thousand Years Ago -- The Father of Algebra -- Completion and Reduction -- Math Primer: Cubic and Quartic Equations -- Commerce and Competition -- Relief for the Imagination -- Universal Arithmetic -- The Lions Claw -- Math Primer: Roots of Unity -- The Assault on the Quintic -- Math Primer: Vector Spaces and Algebras -- The Leap into the Fourth Dimension -- An Oblong Arrangement of Terms -- Victoria's Brumous Isles -- Levels of Abstraction Math Primer: Field Theory -- Pistols at Dawn -- Lady of the Rings -- Math Primer: Algebraic Geometry -- Geometry Makes a Comeback -- Algebraic This, Algebraic That -- From Universal Arithmetic to Universal Algebra.

Table of contents

Web Link

2005037018

030909657X

9780309096577

62742568

1

0

1

172997

1

1

512 Derbyshi