000			02508cam a22002894a 4500
001			065235
005			20231009193351.0
008			092805s2006 dcuacf b 001 0deng
010			_a2005037018
020			_a9780309096577
042			_apcc
050	0	0	_aQA151 _b.D47 2006
082	0	0	_a512 DER
100	1		_aDerbyshire, John
245	1	0	_aUnknown quantity _b: a real and imaginary history of algebra _c/ John Derbyshire
260			_aWashington, D.C. _b: Joseph Henry Press _c, c2006.
300			_aviii, 374 p., [8] p. of plates _b: ill., ports. _c; 24 cm.
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
505	0		_aMath Primer: Numbers and Polynomials -- The Unknown Quantity -- Four Thousand Years Ago -- The Father of Algebra -- Completion and Reduction -- Math Primer: Cubic and Quartic Equations -- Commerce and Competition -- Relief for the Imagination -- Universal Arithmetic -- The Lions Claw -- Math Primer: Roots of Unity -- The Assault on the Quintic -- Math Primer: Vector Spaces and Algebras -- The Leap into the Fourth Dimension -- An Oblong Arrangement of Terms -- Victoria's Brumous Isles -- Levels of Abstraction Math Primer: Field Theory -- Pistols at Dawn -- Lady of the Rings -- Math Primer: Algebraic Geometry -- Geometry Makes a Comeback -- Algebraic This, Algebraic That -- From Universal Arithmetic to Universal Algebra.
520			_aAlgebra emerged early in recorded history, stepping aside from the declarative to create the interrogative, a process that has led to fascination and even obsession. Derbyshire, a mathematician and linguist by education and systems analyst by profession, starts with the algebra of about 4,000 years ago and works up to Diophantus, whose place as the father of algebra may be disputed but whose contributions nevertheless are universally admired, then through Hypatia, Cardano, Descartes, Newton, von Leibniz, Lagrange, Cauchy, Abel, Galois, Riemann, Lie, Poincaré, Hilbert, NoetherLefschetz, Zariski, MacLane and Grothendieck, along with a host of other luminaries, giving readers accessible descriptions of their discoveries and even providing non-specialists with extra help on basics such as vector spaces, field theory and algebraic geometry. The result is concise, readable, and enjoyable.
650		0	_aAlgebra _x--History
650		0	_aEquations _x--History
650		0	_aAlgebra, Universal _x--History
650		0	_aAlgebra, Abstract _x--History
650		0	_aGeometry, Algebraic _x--History
942			_cMO
999			_c267845 _d267845