e-book

The mathematics at the edge of the rational universe

---

Mathematics is the art of story-telling. Nobody has ever seen a perfectly round circle or an infinitely long line of zero width. They’re pure figments of the mathematical imagination. As for imaginary square roots of 1, ideal points where parallel lines meet, and 6-dimensional space …! What fantasies can be dreamt up by the fertile mind of a mathematician!

Stories, parables, fables, myths and legends can carry profound truths that have a powerful impact on the lives we lead. Mathematical stories are no exception. This gossamer web we mathematicians spin might be pure fancy. But it’s the best tool we have to understand and predict the material universe. And it reaches far beyond.

In this book we’ll go on a journey to the edge of the rational universe. Our motivation will be that of an explorer. We simply want to know what’s out there. Whether any practical use can be made of what we find there is not our prime concern. This book is not written for the practitioner in logic or mathematics or computing science.

Having said that let me add that the inspiration for the book came from having to teach this material to embryonic mathematicians and computing scientists in several courses at Macquarie University. I began to realise that, stripped of some of the formal technicalities, much of the material I had taught to third year students, to honours students and even to postgraduate students could be made accessible to a wider audience.
Material which had hitherto remained locked up in courses with such intimidating names as Advanced Algebra, Axiomatic Set Theory and Theory of Computation is too fascinating to leave there. All it needs is a little less emphasis on symbolic formality and a little more imaginative presentation.

That’s not to say that having read this book you’ll be on a par with the students who graduate from my courses. I like to think that what I’ve done is to build a road into a national park that has hitherto only been accessible on foot.

I taught this material many years ago as a continuing education course for mathematical laymen (and laywomen) at Macquarie University. I even wrote an earlier, and much less complete, version of this book to give out to the students. And there it lay.

More recently, many years later, I received an email out from one of those students. She had attended the course with her father and said how much she’d enjoyed it. In fact she said, “I was thinking last night, it’s still the best maths class I ever took, and one of the most fun things I ever did with my Dad.” I thought it went well, but surely that must be an exaggeration! However, it inspired me to dust off those old notes and fashion them into this book.

---

Ketersediaan

Tidak ada salinan data

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

-

No. Panggil

-

Penerbit

Amsterdam : Department of Mathematics, Macquarie University., 2013

Deskripsi Fisik

iv, 138 Hlm.

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

-

Klasifikasi

-

Tipe Isi

-

Tipe Media

-

Tipe Pembawa

-

Edisi

4th ed.

Subjek

MATEMATIKA

Info Detail Spesifik

-

Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

agus

Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

Komentar

---

Anda harus masuk sebelum memberikan komentar