Calculus and Its Origins (Spectrum)

Calculus and Its Origins (Spectrum)

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<p><i>Calculus & Its Origins</i> is an overview of calculus as an intellectual pursuit having a 2,000-year history.<p> <p>Author David Perkins examines the extent to which mathematicians and scholars from Egypt, Persia, and India absorbed and nourished Greek geometry, and details how the scholars wove their inquiries into a unified theory.</p> <p>Chapters cover the story of Archimedes discovery of the area of a parabolic segment; ibn Al-Haytham s calculation of the volume of a revolved area; Jyesthadeva s explanation of the infinite series for sine and cosine; Wallis s deduction of the link between hyperbolas and logarithms; Newton s generalization of the binomial theorem; Leibniz s discovery of integration by parts--and much more.</p> <p>Each chapter also contains exercises by such mathematical luminaries as Pascal, Maclaurin, Barrow, Cauchy, and Euler. Requiring only a basic knowledge of geometry and algebra--similar triangles, polynomials, factoring--and a willingness to treat the infinite as metaphor--<i>Calculus & Its Origins</i> is a treasure of the human intellect, pearls strung together by mathematicians across cultures and centuries. </p>