Great Feuds in Mathematics : Ten of the Liveliest Disputes Ever

by Hellman, Hal

• ISBN13: 9780471648772
• ISBN10: 0471648779
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-09-11
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

If you thought mathematics was an exact and staid field of endeavor, think again. Following Hellman\'s previous Great Feuds titles that poked into the closets of science, technology, and medicine, this one presents the key debates and little-known history of ten mathematical disputes. From Descartes battling Fermat for the honor of inventing analytic geometry, to Poincar_ wrangling with Russell over the logical foundations of mathematics, to the absolutists fighting the fallibilists today over how mathematics should be taught, this book provides a fascinating and colorful look behind the numbers game.

Author Biography

HAL HELLMAN is the author of Great Feuds in Science, Great Feuds in Medicine, and Great Feuds in Technology, all from Wiley. He has published articles in the New York Times, Omni, Reader's Digest, Psychology Today, and Geo.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments,	v
Introduction,	1	(199)
1 Tartaglia versus Cardano
Solving Cubic Equations,	7	(19)
2 Descartes versus Fermat
Analytic Geometry and Optics,	26	(25)
3 Newton versus Leibniz
Credit for the Calculus,	51	(22)
4 Bernoulli versus Bernoulli
Sibling Rivalry of the Highest Order,	73	(21)
5 Sylvester versus Huxley
Mathematics: Ivory Tower or Real World?,	94	(22)
6 Kronecker versus Cantor
Mathematical Humbug,	116	(26)
7 Borel versus Zermelo
The "Notorious Axiom",	142	(14)
8 Poincarè versus Russell
The Logical Foundations of Mathematics,	156	(23)
9 Hilbert versus Brouwer
Formalism versus Intuitionism,	179	(21)
10 Absolutists/Platonists versus Fallibilists/Constructivists
Are Mathematical Advances Discoveries or Inventions?,	200	(15)
Epilogue,	215	(3)
Notes,	218	(11)
Bibliography,	229	(14)
Index,	243