Pythagoras Summary
Download Pythagoras Summary PDF/ePub or read online books in Mobi eBooks. Click Download or Read Online button to get Pythagoras Summary book now. This website allows unlimited access to, at the time of writing, more than 1.5 million titles, including hundreds of thousands of titles in various foreign languages.
The Pythagorean Theorem
Author: Eli Maor
language: en
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Release Date: 2019-11-19
An exploration of one of the most celebrated and well-known theorems in mathematics By any measure, the Pythagorean theorem is the most famous statement in all of mathematics. In this book, Eli Maor reveals the full story of this ubiquitous geometric theorem. Although attributed to Pythagoras, the theorem was known to the Babylonians more than a thousand years earlier. Pythagoras may have been the first to prove it, but his proof—if indeed he had one—is lost to us. The theorem itself, however, is central to almost every branch of science, pure or applied. Maor brings to life many of the characters that played a role in its history, providing a fascinating backdrop to perhaps our oldest enduring mathematical legacy.
Pythagoras
First published in 1979, Pythagoras aims to make available to a wide range of readers the events of Pythagoras’s life and his theories, and to present him not primarily as a mathematician and scientific genius nor as a poetical and mystical phenomenon but as a man of his times subject to diverse influences. Today, Pythagoras is best remembered as a mathematician and for his mystical religious beliefs but his seminal influence as a thinker has been largely misunderstood. Peter Gorman considers that the mystical and esoteric interpretations of Pythagoras’ work have now been vindicated and that modern attempt to describe him in terms of more primitive cultures have been based upon mistaken ideas about Greek mentality and the civilization of the sixth century BC. The concise chronological narrative precludes a more comprehensive discussion of this civilization, exemplified by such fascinating figures as Sappho and Ibycus. Mr Gorman’s lucid account, however, allows Pythagoras, his times and influence to emerge more clearly than in many larger works and in a manner comprehensible to the general reader as well as to the classical scholar.
The History and Poetics of Scientific Biography
Biographies of scientists carry an increasingly prominent role in today's publishing climate. Traditional historical and sociological accounts of science are complemented by narratives that emphasize the importance of the scientific subject in the production of science. Not least is the realization that the role of science in culture is much more accessible when presented through the lives of its practitioners. Taken as a genre, such biographies play an important role in the public understanding of science. In recent years there has been an increasing number of monographs and collections about biography in general and literary biography in particular. However, biographies of scientists, engineers and medical doctors have rarely been the topic of scholarly inquiry. As such this volume of essays will be welcomed by those interested in the genre of science biography, and who wish to re-examine its history, foundational problems and theoretical implications. Borrowing approaches and methods from cultural studies and the history, philosophy and sociology of science, the contributions cover a broad range of subjects, periods and locations. By presenting such a rich diversity of essays, the volume is able to chart the reoccurring conceptual problems and devices that have influenced scientific biographies from classical antiquity to the present day. In so doing it provides a compelling overview of the history of the genre, suggesting that the different valuations given scientific biography over time have been largely fuelled by vested professional interests.