Taming the Unknown: A History of Algebra from Antiquity to the Early Twentieth Century by Katz, Victor J.
Taming the Unknown: A History of Algebra from Antiquity to the Early Twentieth Century by Katz, Victor J.

Taming the Unknown: A History of Algebra from Antiquity to the Early Twentieth Century

What is algebra? For some, it is an abstract language of x's and y's. For mathematics majors...
$143.25 AUD
$143.25 AUD
SKU: 9780691204079
Product Type: Books
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Author: Victor J. Katz
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Subtotal: $143.25
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Taming the Unknown: A History of Algebra from Antiquity to the Early Twentieth Century by Katz, Victor J.

Taming the Unknown: A History of Algebra from Antiquity to the Early Twentieth Century

$143.25
Taming the Unknown: A History of Algebra from Antiquity to the Early Twentieth Century by Katz, Victor J.

Taming the Unknown: A History of Algebra from Antiquity to the Early Twentieth Century

$143.25
Author: Victor J. Katz
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Description

What is algebra? For some, it is an abstract language of x's and y's. For mathematics majors and professional mathematicians, it is a world of axiomatically defined constructs like groups, rings, and fields. Taming the Unknown considers how these two seemingly different types of algebra evolved and how they relate. Victor Katz and Karen Parshall explore the history of algebra, from its roots in the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, China, and India, through its development in the medieval Islamic world and medieval and early modern Europe, to its modern form in the early twentieth century.

Defining algebra originally as a collection of techniques for determining unknowns, the authors trace the development of these techniques from geometric beginnings in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia and classical Greece. They show how similar problems were tackled in Alexandrian Greece, in China, and in India, then look at how medieval Islamic scholars shifted to an algorithmic stage, which was further developed by medieval and early modern European mathematicians. With the introduction of a flexible and operative symbolism in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, algebra entered into a dynamic period characterized by the analytic geometry that could evaluate curves represented by equations in two variables, thereby solving problems in the physics of motion. This new symbolism freed mathematicians to study equations of degrees higher than two and three, ultimately leading to the present abstract era.

Taming the Unknown follows algebra's remarkable growth through different epochs around the globe.

Author: Victor J. Katz, Karen Hunger Parshall
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 04/07/2020
Pages: 504
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.55lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.10w x 1.20d
ISBN: 9780691204079

About the Author
Victor J. Katz is professor of mathematics emeritus at the University of the District of Columbia. Karen Hunger Parshall is professor of history and mathematics at the University of Virginia.
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