The Exact Sciences in Antiquity - Softcover

9780486223322: The Exact Sciences in Antiquity
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 

Based on a series of lectures delivered at Cornell University in the fall of 1949, and since revised, this is the standard non-technical coverage of Egyptian and Babylonian mathematics and astronomy, and their transmission to the Hellenistic world. Entirely modern in its data and conclusions, it reveals the surprising sophistication of certain areas of early science, particularly Babylonian mathematics.
After a discussion of the number systems used in the ancient Near East (contrasting the Egyptian method of additive computations with unit fractions and Babylonian place values), Dr. Neugebauer covers Babylonian tables for numerical computation, approximations of the square root of 2 (with implications that the Pythagorean Theorem was known more than a thousand years before Pythagoras), Pythagorean numbers, quadratic equations with two unknowns, special cases of logarithms and various other algebraic and geometric cases. Babylonian strength in algebraic and numerical work reveals a level of mathematical development in many aspects comparable to the mathematics of the early Renaissance in Europe. This is in contrast to the relatively primitive Egyptian mathematics. In the realm of astronomy, too, Dr. Neugebauer describes an unexpected sophistication, which is interpreted less as the result of millennia of observations (as used to be the interpretation) than as a competent mathematical apparatus. The transmission of this early science and its further development in Hellenistic times is also described. An Appendix discusses certain aspects of Greek astronomy and the indebtedness of the Copernican system to Ptolemaic and Islamic methods.
Dr. Neugebauer has long enjoyed an international reputation as one of the foremost workers in the area of premodern science. Many of his discoveries have revolutionized earlier understandings. In this volume he presents a non-technical survey, with much material unique on this level, which can be read with great profit by all interested in the history of science or history of culture.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

Otto Neugebauer: Exacting History
Neugebauer's The Exact Sciences in Antiquity became an instant unique classic of scientific literature when first published in 1951 in the United States and in Copenhagen where he had lived and worked for some years after having been forced out of Germany because of his opposition to National Socialism. At the start of World War II, Otto Neugebauer (1899–1990) left Europe for Brown University where he founded the History of Mathematics Department. Years later a colleague at Brown recalled Neugebauer's eloquent summary of the dark years in Germany: "If you never heard the sound of Nazi boots below you in the street, you cannot understand the history of the period."

In the 1980s he moved to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He wrote several books and many articles in addition to The Exact Sciences in Antiquity. His monumental three-volume History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy (1975) is the definitive work on the subject. Dover reprinted The Exact Sciences in Antiquity in 1969.

Critical Acclaim for Otto Neugebauer:
"Otto Neugebauer was the most original and productive scholar of the history of the exact sciences, perhaps of the history of science, of our age. He began as a mathematician, turned first to Egyptian and Babylonian mathematics, and then took up the history of mathematical astronomy, to which he afterward devoted the greatest part of his attention. In a career of sixty-five years, he to a great extent created our understanding of mathematical astronomy from Babylon and Egypt, through Greco-Roman antiquity, to India, Islam, and Europe of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Through his colleagues, students, and many readers, his influence on the study of the history of the exact sciences remains profound, even definitive." ― N. M. Swerdlow

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherDover Publications
  • Publication date1969
  • ISBN 10 0486223329
  • ISBN 13 9780486223322
  • BindingPaperback
  • Edition number2
  • Number of pages288
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9781566192699: The exact sciences in antiquity

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9781566192699
Publisher: Barnes & Noble, 1993
Hardcover

  • 9780870570445: Exact Sciences in Antiquity

    Univ P..., 1957
    Hardcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Stock Image

Neugebauer, O.
Published by Dover Publications (1969)
ISBN 10: 0486223329 ISBN 13: 9780486223322
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Lakeside Books
(Benton Harbor, MI, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Brand New! Not Overstocks or Low Quality Book Club Editions! Direct From the Publisher! We're not a giant, faceless warehouse organization! We're a small town bookstore that loves books and loves it's customers! Buy from Lakeside Books!. Seller Inventory # OTF-S-9780486223322

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 9.65
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.99
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Neugebauer, O.
Published by Dover Publications (1969)
ISBN 10: 0486223329 ISBN 13: 9780486223322
New Paperback Quantity: 2
Seller:
Save With Sam
(North Miami, FL, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. Brand New!. Seller Inventory # 0486223329

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 16.20
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Otto Neugebauer
ISBN 10: 0486223329 ISBN 13: 9780486223322
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
Grand Eagle Retail
(Wilmington, DE, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Based on a series of lectures delivered at Cornell University in the fall of 1949, and since revised, this is the standard non-technical coverage of Egyptian and Babylonian mathematics and astronomy, and their transmission to the Hellenistic world. Entirely modern in its data and conclusions, it reveals the surprising sophistication of certain areas of early science, particularly Babylonian mathematics. After a discussion of the number systems used in the ancient Near East (contrasting the Egyptian method of additive computations with unit fractions and Babylonian place values), Dr. Neugebauer covers Babylonian tables for numerical computation, approximations of the square root of 2 (with implications that the Pythagorean Theorem was known more than a thousand years before Pythagoras), Pythagorean numbers, quadratic equations with two unknowns, special cases of logarithms and various other algebraic and geometric cases. Babylonian strength in algebraic and numerical work reveals a level of mathematical development in many aspects comparable to the mathematics of the early Renaissance in Europe. This is in contrast to the relatively primitive Egyptian mathematics. In the realm of astronomy, too, Dr. Neugebauer describes an unexpected sophistication, which is interpreted less as the result of millennia of observations (as used to be the interpretation) than as a competent mathematical apparatus. The transmission of this early science and its further development in Hellenistic times is also described. An Appendix discusses certain aspects of Greek astronomy and the indebtedness of the Copernican system to Ptolemaic and Islamic methods.Dr. Neugebauer has long enjoyed an international reputation as one of the foremost workers in the area of premodern science. Many of his discoveries have revolutionized earlier understandings. In this volume he presents a non-technical survey, with much material unique on this level, which can be read with great profit by all interested in the history of science or history of culture. One of the foremost workers in the area of premodern science presents the standard nontechnical coverage of Egyptian and Babylonian mathematics and astronomy and their transmission into the Hellenistic world. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780486223322

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 17.60
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Neugebauer, O.
Published by Dover Publications (1969)
ISBN 10: 0486223329 ISBN 13: 9780486223322
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Ebooksweb
(Bensalem, PA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. . Seller Inventory # 52GZZZ01ZYU8_ns

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 20.52
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Neugebauer, O.
Published by Dover Publications (1969)
ISBN 10: 0486223329 ISBN 13: 9780486223322
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Ergodebooks
(Houston, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Softcover. Condition: New. 2nd ed. Based on a series of lectures delivered at Cornell University in the fall of 1949, and since revised, this is the standard non-technical coverage of Egyptian and Babylonian mathematics and astronomy, and their transmission to the Hellenistic world. Entirely modern in its data and conclusions, it reveals the surprising sophistication of certain areas of early science, particularly Babylonian mathematics.After a discussion of the number systems used in the ancient Near East (contrasting the Egyptian method of additive computations with unit fractions and Babylonian place values), Dr. Neugebauer covers Babylonian tables for numerical computation, approximations of the square root of 2 (with implications that the Pythagorean Theorem was known more than a thousand years before Pythagoras), Pythagorean numbers, quadratic equations with two unknowns, special cases of logarithms and various other algebraic and geometric cases. Babylonian strength in algebraic and numerical work reveals a level of mathematical development in many aspects comparable to the mathematics of the early Renaissance in Europe. This is in contrast to the relatively primitive Egyptian mathematics. In the realm of astronomy, too, Dr. Neugebauer describes an unexpected sophistication, which is interpreted less as the result of millennia of observations (as used to be the interpretation) than as a competent mathematical apparatus. The transmission of this early science and its further development in Hellenistic times is also described. An Appendix discusses certain aspects of Greek astronomy and the indebtedness of the Copernican system to Ptolemaic and Islamic methods.Dr. Neugebauer has long enjoyed an international reputation as one of the foremost workers in the area of premodern science. Many of his discoveries have revolutionized earlier understandings. In this volume he presents a non-technical survey, with much material unique on this level, which can be read with great profit by all interested in the history of science or history of culture. Seller Inventory # DADAX0486223329

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 20.70
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Otto Neugebauer
Published by Dover Publications Inc. (1969)
ISBN 10: 0486223329 ISBN 13: 9780486223322
New PAP Quantity: 1
Seller:
PBShop.store US
(Wood Dale, IL, U.S.A.)

Book Description PAP. Condition: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. Established seller since 2000. Seller Inventory # IB-9780486223322

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 21.11
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

O. Neugebauer
Published by Dover Publications, Inc. (1969)
ISBN 10: 0486223329 ISBN 13: 9780486223322
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
Strand Book Store, ABAA
(New York, NY, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 3130854

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 14.95
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 7.99
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Neugebauer, O.
Published by Dover Publications (1969)
ISBN 10: 0486223329 ISBN 13: 9780486223322
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
Russell Books
(Victoria, BC, Canada)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. 2nd ed. Special order direct from the distributor. Seller Inventory # ING9780486223322

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 14.95
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 9.99
From Canada to U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Neugebauer, O.
Published by Dover Publications (1969)
ISBN 10: 0486223329 ISBN 13: 9780486223322
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
GF Books, Inc.
(Hawthorne, CA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Book is in NEW condition. Seller Inventory # 0486223329-2-1

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 30.42
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Neugebauer, O.
Published by Dover Publications (1969)
ISBN 10: 0486223329 ISBN 13: 9780486223322
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
GoldenWavesOfBooks
(Fayetteville, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New. Fast Shipping and good customer service. Seller Inventory # Holz_New_0486223329

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 26.44
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 4.00
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds

There are more copies of this book

View all search results for this book