An Imaginary Tale: The Story of [the square root of minus one] - Hardcover

Nahin, Paul J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0691027951 ISBN 13: 9780691027951

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 1998

Synopsis

Today complex numbers have such widespread practical use--from electrical engineering to aeronautics--that few people would expect the story behind their derivation to be filled with adventure and enigma. In An Imaginary Tale, Paul Nahin tells the 2000-year-old history of one of mathematics' most elusive numbers, the square root of minus one, also known as i. He recreates the baffling mathematical problems that conjured it up, and the colorful characters who tried to solve them.

In 1878, when two brothers stole a mathematical papyrus from the ancient Egyptian burial site in the Valley of Kings, they led scholars to the earliest known occurrence of the square root of a negative number. The papyrus offered a specific numerical example of how to calculate the volume of a truncated square pyramid, which implied the need for i. In the first century, the mathematician-engineer Heron of Alexandria encountered I in a separate project, but fudged the arithmetic; medieval mathematicians stumbled upon the concept while grappling with the meaning of negative numbers, but dismissed their square roots as nonsense. By the time of Descartes, a theoretical use for these elusive square roots--now called "imaginary numbers"--was suspected, but efforts to solve them led to intense, bitter debates. The notorious i finally won acceptance and was put to use in complex analysis and theoretical physics in Napoleonic times.

Addressing readers with both a general and scholarly interest in mathematics, Nahin weaves into this narrative entertaining historical facts and mathematical discussions, including the application of complex numbers and functions to important problems, such as Kepler's laws of planetary motion and ac electrical circuits. This book can be read as an engaging history, almost a biography, of one of the most evasive and pervasive "numbers" in all of mathematics.

About this title

About the Author

Paul J. Nahin is the author of many best-selling popular math books, including Digital Dice, Chases and Escapes, Dr. Euler's Fabulous Formula, When Least Is Best, Duelling Idiots and Other Probability Puzzlers, and Mrs. Perkins's Electric Quilt (all Princeton). He is professor emeritus of electrical engineering at the University of New Hampshire.

From the Back Cover

"Dispelling many common myths about the origin of the mystic 'imaginary' unit, Nahin tells the story ofi from a historic as well as human perspective. His enthusiasm and informal style easily catch on to the reader.An Imaginary Tale is a must for anyone curious about the evolution of our number concept."--Eli Maor, author ofTrigonometric Delights, e: The Story of a Number, and To Infinity and Beyond

From the Inside Flap

"Dispelling many common myths about the origin of the mystic 'imaginary' unit, Nahin tells the story ofi from a historic as well as human perspective. His enthusiasm and informal style easily catch on to the reader.An Imaginary Tale is a must for anyone curious about the evolution of our number concept."--Eli Maor, author ofTrigonometric Delights, e: The Story of a Number, and To Infinity and Beyond

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691027951
• ISBN 13: 9780691027951
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 257