In this beautifully illustrated classic reader, Julia E. Diggins masterfully recreates the story of geometry. Using three simple tools — the string, the straightedge, and the shadow — early mathematicians discovered the basic principles and constructions of elementary geometry.This book reveals how these discoveries related to the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Greece. Diggins weaves this story from archeological and historical records, and the le...

From the early peoples who marvelled at the geometry of nature -- the beehive and bird's nest -- to ancient civilisations who questioned beautiful geometric forms and asked 'why?', the story of geometry spans thousands of years. Using only three simple tools -- the string, the straight-edge and the shadow -- human beings revealed the basic principles and constructions of elementary geometry. Weaving history and legend, this fascinating book reconstructs the discoveries of mathematics's mos...

How a quest to crack the mystery of the Megalithic Yard led to the discovery of compelling evidence pointing to the existence of a highly advanced culture predating the earliest known civilizationsThere must have been a “civilization one.” Knight and Butler reveal the secrets of an extraordinary, integrated measuring system which might have been lost to the world for ever. It was a system, far more advanced than anything used today, which forms the basis of both th...

A New York Times Notable Book.The Babylonians invented it, the Greeks banned it, the Hindus worshiped it, and the Church used it to fend off heretics. Now it threatens the foundations of modern physics. For centuries the power of zero savored of the demonic; once harnessed, it became the most important tool in mathematics. For zero, infinity's twin, is not like other numbers. It is both nothing and everything.In Zero, Science Journalist Charles Sei...

Timaeus and Critias is a Socratic dialogue in two parts. A response to an account of an ideal state told by Socrates, it begins with Timaeus’s theoretical exposition of the cosmos and his story describing the creation of the universe, from its very beginning to the coming of man. Timaeus introduces the idea of a creator God and speculates on the structure and composition of the physical world. Critias, the second part of Plato’s dialogue, comprises an account of the rise ...

This is the story of Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans, whose insights transformed the ancient world and still inspire the realms of science, mathematics, philosophy and the arts. Einstein said that the most incredible thing about our universe was that it was comprehensible at all. As Kitty Ferguson explains, Pythagoras had much the same idea - but 2,500 years earlier. Though known by many only for his famous Theorem, in fact the pillars of our scientific tradition - belief that the universe...

The modern world looks back towards Ancient Greece for the start of its philosophy, for the origins of its science and even for the foundations of its excursion into democracy. But is this either correct or fair? Was there something long, long before the City States of Greece flirted with geometry, astronomy and inclusive politics from which Greece itself developed, merely as a pale reflection?Alan Butler has put together his most exhaustive and yet most compelling presentation of ...

In this book, Johnny Ball tells one of the most important stories in world history – the story of mathematics.By introducing us to the major characters and leading us through many historical twists and turns, Johnny slowly unravels the tale of how humanity built up a knowledge and understanding of shapes, numbers and patterns from ancient times, a story that leads directly to the technological wonderland we live in today. As Galileo said, 'Everything in the univers...

Time Travel is the companion book to Mindkind: Math & Physics for the New Millennium. There we are provided with a new math and physics to carry us forward into the future. In Time Travel, we go back in time to take an insightful look at ancient civilizations and the science and mathematics they used.The reader is transported all the way back to the creation of the universe and then bounced forward through a number of leaps to the death of the earth. During the voyage, we discover ...

Readers will travel back in time to ancient Babylonia, Egypt, and Greece. They will meet the world's first astronomers, mathematicians, and physicists and explore the lives and ideas of such famous people as Pythagoras, Archimedes, Brahmagupta, al-Khwarizmi, Fibonacci, Ptolemy, St. Augustine, and St. Thomas Aquinas. Hakim will introduce them to Aristotle—one of the greatest philosophers of all time—whose scientific ideas dominated much of the world for eighteen centuries.In the thr...

From the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Terracotta Army, ancient artifacts have long fascinated the modern world. However, the importance of some discoveries is not always immediately understood. This was the case in 1901 when sponge divers retrieved a lump of corroded bronze from a shipwreck at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea near the Greek island of Antikythera. Little did the divers know they had found the oldest known analog computer in the world, an astonishing device that once simulated...

In the book the author has eloquently presented and explained certain phenomenon and different principles of physics. The writer has managed to give detailed description for not only the principles behind various physical phenomenons but also commented upon how to teach the science.