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E: The Story of A Number (Record no. 43166)

MARC details
000 -LEADER
fixed length control field 04051cam a2200337 a 4500
001 - CONTROL NUMBER
control field 29310868
003 - CONTROL NUMBER IDENTIFIER
control field OCoLC
005 - DATE AND TIME OF LATEST TRANSACTION
control field 20240903143534.0
008 - FIXED-LENGTH DATA ELEMENTS--GENERAL INFORMATION
fixed length control field 931028s1994 njua b 001 0 eng
010 ## - LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CONTROL NUMBER
LC control number 93039003
013 ## - PATENT CONTROL INFORMATION
Date 1994
020 ## - INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BOOK NUMBER
International Standard Book Number 0691033900
020 ## - INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BOOK NUMBER
International Standard Book Number 9780691033907
020 ## - INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BOOK NUMBER
International Standard Book Number 0691058547
020 ## - INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BOOK NUMBER
International Standard Book Number 9780691058542
040 ## - CATALOGING SOURCE
Original cataloging agency DLC
Language of cataloging eng
Transcribing agency DLC
Modifying agency UKM
-- NLGGC
-- BTCTA
-- YDXCP
-- UBC
-- ZCU
-- DEBBG
-- OCLCQ
-- ZWZ
-- OG#
-- GBVCP
-- OCLCF
041 ## - LANGUAGE CODE
Language code of text/sound track or separate title eng
050 00 - LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CALL NUMBER
Classification number QA247.5
Item number .M33 1994
100 1# - MAIN ENTRY--PERSONAL NAME
Personal name Eli Maor
245 10 - TITLE STATEMENT
Title E: The Story of A Number
260 ## - PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC. (IMPRINT)
Place of publication, distribution, etc USA
Name of publisher, distributor, etc Princeton University Press
Date of publication, distribution, etc 1998
300 ## - PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Extent xiv, 227
Other physical details ill.
Dimensions 24 cm
505 0# - FORMATTED CONTENTS NOTE
Formatted contents note 1. John Napier, 1614 -- 2. Recognition -- 3. Financial Matters -- 4. To the Limit, If It Exists -- 5. Forefathers of the Calculus -- 6. Prelude to Breakthrough -- 7. Squaring the Hyperbola -- 8. The Birth of a New Science -- 9. The Great Controversy -- 10. e[superscript x]: The Function That Equals its Own Derivative -- 11. e[superscript theta]: Spira Mirabilis -- 12. (e[superscript x] + e[superscript -x])/2: The Hanging Chain -- 13. e[superscript ix]: "The Most Famous of All Formulas" -- 14. e[superscript x + iy]: The Imaginary Becomes Real -- 15. But What Kind of Number Is It? -- App. 1. Some Additional Remarks on Napier's Logarithms -- App. 2. The Existence of lim (1 + 1/n)[superscript n] as n [approaches] [infinity] -- App. 3. A Heuristic Derivation of the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus -- App. 4. The Inverse Relation between lim (b[superscript h] -- 1)/h = 1 and lim (1 + h)[superscript 1/h] = b as h [approaches] 0 -- App. 5. An Alternative Definition of the Logarithmic Function.
505 0# - FORMATTED CONTENTS NOTE
Formatted contents note App. 6. Two Properties of the Logarithmic Spiral -- App. 7. Interpretation of the Parameter [phi] in the Hyperbolic Functions -- App. 8. e to One Hundred Decimal Places.
520 ## - SUMMARY, ETC.
Summary, etc The story of [pi] has been told many times, both in scholarly works and in popular books. But its close relative, the number e, has fared less well: despite the central role it plays in mathematics, its history has never before been written for a general audience. The present work fills this gap. Geared to the reader with only a modest background in mathematics, the book describes the story of e from a human as well as a mathematical perspective. In a sense, it is the story of an entire period in the history of mathematics, from the early seventeenth to the late nineteenth century, with the invention of calculus at its center. Many of the players who took part in this story are here brought to life. Among them are John Napier, the eccentric religious activist who invented logarithms and - unknowingly - came within a hair's breadth of discovering e; William Oughtred, the inventor of the slide rule, who lived a frugal and unhealthful life and died at the age of 86, reportedly of joy when hearing of the restoration of King Charles II to the throne of England; Newton and his bitter priority dispute with Leibniz over the invention of the calculus, a conflict that impeded British mathematics for more than a century; and Jacob Bernoulli, who asked that a logarithmic spiral be engraved on his tombstone - but a linear spiral was engraved instead! The unifying theme throughout the book is the idea that a single number can tie together so many different aspects of mathematics - from the law of compound interest to the shape of a hanging chain, from the area under a hyperbola to Euler's famous formula e[superscript i[pi]] = -1, from the inner structure of a nautilus shell to Bach's equal-tempered scale and to the art of M.C. Escher. The book ends with an account of the discovery of transcendental numbers, an event that paved the way for Cantor's revolutionary ideas about infinity. No knowledge of calculus is assumed, and the few places where calculus is used are fully explained.
653 ## - INDEX TERM--UNCONTROLLED
Uncontrolled term Natural Sciences العلوم البحتة
630 ## - SUBJECT ADDED ENTRY--UNIFORM TITLE
Language of a work English
650 #0 - SUBJECT ADDED ENTRY--TOPICAL TERM
Topical term or geographic name as entry element e (The number)
650 #0 - SUBJECT ADDED ENTRY--TOPICAL TERM
Topical term or geographic name as entry element General
942 ## - ADDED ENTRY ELEMENTS (KOHA)
Item type Book
Classification part 500
Item part G913
Holdings
Date last seen Full call number Barcode Price effective from Koha item type Withdrawn status Date acquired Current library Home library Not for loan Damaged status Lost status
22/11/2021 500 | G913 57973 22/11/2021 Book   22/11/2021 Central Papal Library Central Papal Library