A Tour of the Calculus - Softcover

Berlinski, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0679747885 ISBN 13: 9780679747888

Publisher: Vintage, 1997

Synopsis

Were it not for the calculus, mathematicians would have no way to describe the acceleration of a motorcycle or the effect of gravity on thrown balls and distant planets, or to prove that a man could cross a room and eventually touch the opposite wall. Just how calculus makes these things possible and in doing so finds a correspondence between real numbers and the real world is the subject of this dazzling book by a writer of extraordinary clarity and stylistic brio. Even as he initiates us into the mysteries of real numbers, functions, and limits, Berlinski explores the furthest implications of his subject, revealing how the calculus reconciles the precision of numbers with the fluidity of the changing universe.
"An odd and tantalizing book by a writer who takes immense pleasure in this great mathematical tool, and tries to create it in others."--New York Times Book Review

About this title

About the Author:

David Berlinksi was born in New York City. He received a B.A. degree from Columbia College and a Ph.D. from Princeton University. He has taught mathematics and philosophy at universities in the United States and France.

Review:

Calculus is a remarkable intellectual achievement--and a deeply consequential one, for it has made modern science, and especially modern physics, possible. Its essentials have been refined, over three centuries, into a structure of elegant economy. David Berlinski's Tour walks the general reader through this modern edifice, displaying the logical frame that supports it and the grandeur of the completed whole.

A Tour of the Calculus offers much to admire. It is a popular but honest explanation of beautiful and deep mathematics, refusing to patronize or demoralize readers with winks to reassure them that "getting it" does not matter. Berlinski clearly savors the comedy of teaching, and is consistently full of high spirits, whether he is opinionizing, salting his text with literary jokes, or otherwise cutting up.

Years ago, when a friend asked what need she had of calculus, I blustered, why do you need King Lear? A Tour of the Calculus, despite its idiosyncrasies, is a spirited and welcome attempt at a more adequate reply. -- Commentary Magazine, April 1997, David Guaspari

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0679747885
• ISBN 13: 9780679747888
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352