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A history in sum
Authors: ---
ISBN: 0674726553 9780674726550 9780674725003 067472500X 0674727894 Year: 2013 Publisher: Cambridge, Massachusetts

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In the twentieth century, American mathematicians began to make critical advances in a field previously dominated by Europeans. Harvard's mathematics department was at the center of these developments. A History in Sum is an inviting account of the pioneers who trailblazed a distinctly American tradition of mathematics--in algebraic geometry, complex analysis, and other esoteric subdisciplines that are rarely written about outside of journal articles or advanced textbooks. The heady mathematical concepts that emerged, and the men and women who shaped them, are described here in lively, accessible prose. The story begins in 1825, when a precocious sixteen-year-old freshman, Benjamin Peirce, arrived at the College. He would become the first American to produce original mathematics--an ambition frowned upon in an era when professors largely limited themselves to teaching. Peirce's successors transformed the math department into a world-class research center, attracting to the faculty such luminaries as George David Birkhoff. Influential figures soon flocked to Harvard, some overcoming great challenges to pursue their elected calling. A History in Sum elucidates the contributions of these extraordinary minds and makes clear why the history of the Harvard mathematics department is an essential part of the history of mathematics in America and beyond.


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The shape of inner space : string theory and the geometry of the universe's hidden dimensions
Authors: --- ---
ISBN: 9780465020232 0465020232 0465028373 9780465028375 Year: 2012 Publisher: New York (N.Y.): Basic books,

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String theory says we live in a ten-dimensional universe, but that only four are accessible to our everyday senses. According to theorists, the missing six are curled up in bizarre structures known as Calabi-Yau manifolds. Here, Shing-Tung Yau, the man who mathematically proved that these manifolds exist, argues that not only is geometry fundamental to string theory, it is also fundamental to the very nature of our universe. Time and again, where Yau has gone, physics has followed. Now for the first time, readers will follow Yau's penetrating thinking on where we've been, and where mathematics will take us next. A fascinating exploration of a world we are only just beginning to grasp, The Shape of Inner Space will change the way we consider the universe on both its grandest and smallest scales.--From publisher description.

Beyond the freeze: the road to nuclear sanity
Authors: --- ---
ISBN: 0807004847 9780807004845 Year: 1982 Publisher: Boston (Mass.): Beacon,

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Essay on the nuclear arms race and plea for a nuclear particularity concerning the USA.


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The gravity of math : how geometry rules the universe
Authors: --- ---
ISBN: 9781541604292 Year: 2024 Publisher: New York : Basic Books,

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On November 25th, 1915, Albert Einstein published his field equations of general relativity and reinvented gravity. Rather than being some mysterious unseen force pulling objects together, gravity, Einstein told the world, is a manifestation of the curvature of space-time caused by the presence of massive objects. But Einstein's theory wasn't born in a vacuum, not even the vacuum of space. Instead, the theory of general relativity relies upon complicated geometry; Einstein worked closely with mathematicians Marcel Grossmann, David Hilbert, Tullio Levi-Civita, and others as he pieced together his theory of gravity. In The Gravity of Math, the writer Steve Nadis and mathematician Shing-Tung Yau tell the story of how our view of the universe has been shaped and informed by mathematics, particularly when it comes to the enigmatic workings of gravity. Mathematicians have played a pivotal role in investigating relativity and gravity, gaining insights on phenomena like black holes, gravitational waves, and the Big Bang - in some cases uncovering key results decades, or even a century, before any experimental or observational data became available. An insightful and comprehensive study, The Gravity of Math explores how our understanding of math has defined our understanding of the universe. Gravity's reach is ostensibly boundless, and so is that of mathematics, which can carry us to the edge of infinity and back.

Energy strategies : toward a solar future
Authors: --- --- --- --- --- et al.
ISBN: 0884106225 Year: 1980 Publisher: Cambridge, Mass. Ballinger

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