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Synopsis
Essays discuss mathematicians, mathematical history, translation, the steam engine, etymology, and their unexpected connections
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From Publishers Weekly
"Find a thread and follow it," urges Davis ( Thomas Gray, Philosopher Cat ), professor of applied mathematics at Brown, at the outset of these self-indulgent, often coy divagations inspired by an academic quibble about the transliteration of the name of a 19th-century Russian mathematician. Like an encyclopedist run wild, Davis leaps by the merest of associations from one bit of mathematical history to another, and from these into an apparently infinite plane of intellectual and cultural history: 10th-century nun Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim, Sikkimese shamans, Coptic proper nouns all surface. The information is fairly interesting, at times startling. The book itself, however, falls flat. Its theses--that historical events progress only circuitously; that "not the truth, but the search for the truth; the process, the method, that is what matters"--are far from new, and Davis's self-referential ramblings neither electrify his stores of fact nor stimulate the reader. Here is a prodigious mind playing solitaire.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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- PublisherHarcourt
- Publication date1989
- ISBN 10 0156901404
- ISBN 13 9780156901406
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages124
- IllustratorDorian Marguerite
- Rating
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The Thread: A Mathematical Yarn
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ISBN 10: 0156901404
ISBN 13: 9780156901406
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Paperback. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Dorian, Marguerite (illustrator). Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 0.46. Seller Inventory # G0156901404I3N00
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The Thread: A Mathematical Yarn
Published by
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P, 1989
ISBN 10: 0156901404
ISBN 13: 9780156901406
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Paperback. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Dorian, Marguerite (illustrator). Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 0.46. Seller Inventory # G0156901404I3N00
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The Thread: A Mathematical Yarn
Published by
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P, 1989
ISBN 10: 0156901404
ISBN 13: 9780156901406
Used
Paperback
Seller: ThriftBooks-Atlanta, AUSTELL, GA, U.S.A.
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Paperback. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. Dorian, Marguerite (illustrator). May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 0.46. Seller Inventory # G0156901404I4N00
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The Thread: A Mathematical Yarn
Published by
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P, 1989
ISBN 10: 0156901404
ISBN 13: 9780156901406
Used
Paperback
Seller: ThriftBooks-Reno, Reno, NV, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Dorian, Marguerite (illustrator). Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 0.46. Seller Inventory # G0156901404I3N00
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The Thread: A Mathematical Yarn
Published by
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P, 1989
ISBN 10: 0156901404
ISBN 13: 9780156901406
Used
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Paperback. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Dorian, Marguerite (illustrator). Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 0.46. Seller Inventory # G0156901404I3N00
Quantity: 1 available