The Language of Mathematics: The Stories behind the Symbols

Rojas, Raul, Aparicio, Eduardo

ISBN 10: 0691201889 / ISBN 13: 9780691201887

Published by Princeton University Press, 2025

About this Item

*Price HAS BEEN REDUCED by 10% until Monday, June 1 (SALE item)* First edition, first printing, 258 pp., hardcover, fine in fine dust jacket . - If you are reading this, this item is actually (physically) in our stock and ready for shipment once ordered. We are not bookjackers. Buyer is responsible for any additional duties, taxes, or fees required by recipient's country.

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Language of Mathematics: The Stories behind the Symbols
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691201889
• ISBN 13: 9780691201887
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Fine

About this title

Synopsis

A marvelous compendium of mathematical symbols and their fascinating histories

Galileo famously wrote that the book of nature is written in mathematical language. The Language of Mathematics is a wide-ranging and beautifully illustrated collection of short, colorful histories of the most commonly used symbols in mathematics, providing readers with an engaging introduction to the origins, evolution, and conceptual meaning of each one.

In dozens of lively and informative entries, Raúl Rojas shows how today’s mathematics stands on the shoulders of giants, mathematicians from around the world who developed mathematical notation through centuries of collective effort. He tells the stories of such figures as al-Khwārizmī, René Descartes, Joseph-Louis Lagrange, Carl Friedrich Gauss, Augustin-Louis Cauchy, Karl Weierstrass, Sofia Kovalevskaya, David Hilbert, and Kenneth Iverson. Topics range from numbers and variables to sets and functions, constants, and combinatorics. Rojas describes the mathematical problems associated with different symbols and reveals how mathematical notation has sometimes been an accidental process. The entries are self-contained and can be read in any order, each one examining one or two symbols, their history, and the variants they may have had over time.

An essential companion for math enthusiasts, The Language of Mathematics shows how mathematics is a living and evolving entity, forever searching for the best symbolism to express relationships between abstract concepts and to convey meaning.

About the Author

Raúl Rojas is professor of mathematics and statistics at the University of Nevada, Reno, and professor emeritus of computer science and mathematics at the Free University of Berlin. A world-renowned expert in artificial intelligence, he is the author of the seminal book Neural Networks and the editor (with Ulf Hashagen) of The First Computers.