Number Theory: An approach through history from Hammurapi to Legendre

Weil, Andre

ISBN 10: 3764331410 / ISBN 13: 9783764331412

Published by Birkhäuser, 1984

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 63J70_79_3764331410

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Number Theory: An approach through history from Hammurapi to Legendre
• Publisher: Birkhäuser
• Publication Date: 1984
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3764331410
• ISBN 13: 9783764331412
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

This book presents a historical overview of number theory. It examines texts that span some thirty-six centuries of arithmetical work, from an Old Babylonian tablet to Legendre’s Essai sur la Théorie des Nombres, written in 1798. Coverage employs a historical approach in the analysis of problems and evolving methods of number theory and their significance within mathematics. The book also takes the reader into the workshops of four major authors of modern number Fermat, Euler, Lagrange and Legendre and presents a detailed and critical examination of their work.

From the Back Cover

Number Theory or arithmetic, as some prefer to call it, is the oldest, purest, liveliest, most elementary yet sophisticated field of mathematics. It is no coincidence that the fundamental science of numbers has come to be known as the "Queen of Mathematics." Indeed some of the most complex conventions of the mathematical mind have evolved from the study of basic problems of number theory.

André Weil, one of the outstanding contributors to number theory, has written an historical exposition of this subject; his study examines texts that span roughly thirty-six centuries of arithmetical work ― from an Old Babylonian tablet, datable to the time of Hammurapi to Legendre’s Essai sur la Théorie des Nombres (1798). Motivated by a desire to present the substance of his field to the educated reader, Weil employs an historical approach in the analysis of problems and evolving methods of number theory and their significance within mathematics. In the course of his study Weil accompanies the reader into the workshops of four major authors of modern number theory (Fermat, Euler, Lagrange and Legendre) and there he conducts a detailed and critical examination of their work. Enriched by a broad coverage of intellectual history, Number Theory represents a major contribution to the understanding of our cultural heritage.

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A very unusual book combining thorough philological exactness, keen observation, apt comments of the essential points, picturesque fantasy, enthusiastic love of the subject, and brilliant literary style: a romantic novel of documents. It is both number theory and its history in an inseparable oneness, helping us understand the very roots and the first big stage of progress of this discipline. The author, one of the most prominent number theorists...chose to give us a broad perspective of the birth of modern number theory.--Periodica Mathematica Hungaria

The volume under review...a discursive, expository, leisurely peek over the shoulders of several great authors in number theory...is perhaps unique in the enthusiasm it has inspired. --Mathematical Reviews