Description
Were it not for the calculus, mathematicians would have no way to describe the acceleration of a motorcycle or the effect of gravity on thrown balls and distant planets, or to prove that a man could cross a room and eventually touch the opposite wall. Just how calculus makes these things possible and in doing so finds a correspondence between real numbers and the real world is the subject of this dazzling book by a writer of extraordinary clarity and stylistic brio. Even as he initiates us into the mysteries of real numbers, functions, and limits, Berlinski explores the furthest implications of his subject, revealing how the calculus reconciles the precision of numbers with the fluidity of the changing universe.
"An odd and tantalizing book by a writer who takes immense pleasure in this great mathematical tool, and tries to create it in others."--New York Times Book Review
Author: David Berlinski
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 01/28/1997
Pages: 352
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.53lbs
Size: 8.10h x 5.18w x 0.77d
ISBN13: 9780679747888
ISBN10: 0679747885
BISAC Categories:
- Mathematics | Calculus
- Mathematics | History & Philosophy
- Science | History
"An odd and tantalizing book by a writer who takes immense pleasure in this great mathematical tool, and tries to create it in others."--New York Times Book Review
Author: David Berlinski
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 01/28/1997
Pages: 352
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.53lbs
Size: 8.10h x 5.18w x 0.77d
ISBN13: 9780679747888
ISBN10: 0679747885
BISAC Categories:
- Mathematics | Calculus
- Mathematics | History & Philosophy
- Science | History
About the Author
David Berlinksi was born in New York City. He received a B.A. degree from Columbia College and a Ph.D. from Princeton University. He has taught mathematics and philosophy at universities in the United States and France.