000			04051cam a2200337 a 4500
653			_aNatural Sciences العلوم البحتة
942			_cBK _h500 _iG913
999			_c43166 _d43165
001			29310868
003			OCoLC
005			20240903143534.0
008			931028s1994 njua b 001 0 eng
010			_a93039003
013			_d1994
020			_a0691033900
020			_a9780691033907
020			_a0691058547
020			_a9780691058542
040			_aDLC _beng _cDLC _dUKM _dNLGGC _dBTCTA _dYDXCP _dUBC _dZCU _dDEBBG _dOCLCQ _dZWZ _dOG# _dGBVCP _dOCLCF
041			_aeng
050	0	0	_aQA247.5 _b.M33 1994
100	1		_aEli Maor
245	1	0	_aE: The Story of A Number
260			_aUSA _bPrinceton University Press _c1998
300			_axiv, 227 _bill. _c24 cm
505	0		_a1. 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		_aApp. 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			_aThe 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.
630			_lEnglish
650		0	_ae (The number)
650		0	_aGeneral