An entertaining look at the origins of mathematical symbolsWhile all of us regularly use basic math symbols such as those for plus, minus, and equals, few of us know that many of these symbols weren't available before the sixteenth century. What did mathematicians rely on for their work before then? And how did mathematical notations evolve into what we know today? In Enlightening Symbols, popular math writer Joseph Mazur explains the fascinating history behind the development of our mathematical notation system. He shows how symbols were used initially, how one symbol replaced another over time, and how written math was conveyed before and after symbols became widely adopted.Traversing mathematical history and the foundations of numerals in different cultures, Mazur looks at how historians have disagreed over the origins of the numerical system for the past two centuries. He follows the transfigurations of algebra from a rhetorical style to a symbolic one, demonstrating that most algebra before the sixteenth century was written in prose or in verse employing the written names of numerals. Mazur also investigates the subconscious and psychological effects that mathematical symbols have had on mathematical thought, moods, meaning, communication, and comprehension. He considers how these symbols influence us (through similarity, association, identity, resemblance, and repeated imagery), how they lead to new ideas by subconscious associations, how they make connections between experience and the unknown, and how they contribute to the communication of basic mathematics.From words to abbreviations to symbols, this book shows how math evolved to the familiar forms we use today.

Product Description: Interest in the metaphysics and logic of possible worlds goes back at least as far as Aristotle, but few books address the history of these important concepts. This volume offers new essays on the theories about the logical modalities (necessity and possibility) held by leading philosophers from Aristotle in ancient Greece to Rudolf Carnap in the twentieth century...read more

Product Description: "The book is divided into 8-10 chapters that are each only 2 or 3 pages long … this feels like a nice feature of the book, since you can dip in and just read a short bite before moving on. The author clearly has some interesting ideas and at times I found his writing to be quite engaging...read more

Product Description: This is a systematic and well-paced introduction to mathematical logic. Excellent as a course text, the book presupposes only elementary background and can be used also for self-study by more ambitious students. Starting with the basics of set theory, induction and computability, it covers propositional and first order logic their syntax, reasoning systems and semantics...read more

Product Description: Set theory is a rich and beautiful subject whose fundamental concepts permeate virtually every branch of mathematics. One could say that set theory is a unifying theory for mathematics, since nearly all mathematical concepts and results can be formalized within set theory...read more

Product Description: An introduction to the basic tools of the theory of (partially) ordered sets such as visualization via diagrams, subsets, homomorphisms, important order-theoretical constructions and classes of ordered sets. Using a thematic approach, the author presents open or recently solved problems to motivate the development of constructions and investigations for new classes of ordered sets...read more

Product Description: This book gathers the proceedings of the conference "Cultures of Mathematics and Logic," held in Guangzhou, China. The event was the third in a series of interdisciplinary, international conferences emphasizing the cultural components of philosophy of mathematics and logic...read more

Product Description: This book leads readers from a basic foundation to an advanced level understanding of algebra, logic and combinatorics. Perfect for graduate or PhD mathematical-science students looking for help in understanding the fundamentals of the topic, it also explores more specific areas such as invariant theory of finite groups, model theory, and enumerative combinatorics...read more

Product Description: This book is a sequel to my Beginner's Guide to Mathematical Logic.The previous volume deals with elements of propositional and first-order logic, contains a bit on formal systems and recursion, and concludes with chapters on Gödel's famous incompleteness theorem, along with related results...read more

Product Description: This is the final book written by the late great puzzle master and logician, Dr. Raymond Smullyan. This book is a sequel to my Beginner's Guide to Mathematical Logic. The previous volume deals with elements of propositional and first-order logic, contains a bit on formal systems and recursion, and concludes with chapters on Gödel's famous incompleteness theorem, along with related results...read more

Product Description: The aim of this volume is to collect original contributions by the best specialists from the area of proof theory, constructivity, and computation and discuss recent trends and results in these areas. Some emphasis will be put on ordinal analysis, reductive proof theory, explicit mathematics and type-theoretic formalisms, and abstract computations...read more

Product Description: This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Abstract State Machines, Alloy, B, TLA, VDM, and Z, ABZ 2016, held in Linz, Austria, in May 2016. The 17 full and 15 short papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 61 submissions...read more