Mathematics observed

by Hans Freudenthal

Hardcover, 1967

Status

Available

Call number

510

Library's review

Indeholder "Introduction", "1. Measuring the world", " Surveying", " Triangulation", " The size of the earth", " Astronomical distances", " Life on a curved surface", " The curvature of space", "2. Ad infinitum", " Counting", " Natural numbers", " Prime numbers", " Rational and irrational numbers",
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"3. What computers can do", " Dyadic system", " Nim", " As quickly as you can", " Wait a moment", " Automation", " Controls and memory", " The language of holes", " Processing", " Truth tables", " Machines which play games", " Matching pennies", " Monte Carlo methods", " Causal machines", " What can causal machines do?", " A survey of the class of Turing machines", " A sequence which cannot be produced by any machine", " Universal machine", " Chess automata", " Are thinking machines possible?", "4. The ABC of life", " The genetic code", " Space-free codes", " Solution of a problem", " Conclusions", "5. The art of drawing badly", " Distorting letters", " Geometry and topology", " Maps", " Examples of surfaces", " Surfaces in general", " Manifolds", " Mappings of a circle", " Degree of a mapping", " A second definition of degree", " Mappings of spheres", " A remarkable curve", "6. Give me a place to stand and I will move the earth", " The lever", " The plane", " Barycentric coordinates", " Linear programming", "7. The world in a mirror", " Reflections in the world", " Reflections in the plane", " Composition of reflections in parallel straight lines", " Translations", " Composition of reflections in intersecting straight lines", " Composition of rotations", " Composition of a rotation and a translation", " Arbitrary products of reflections", " Mappings", " Groups", " Congruences", " Displacements", " In three dimensions", " Orientation", "Acknowledgments", "Index".

Ideen er at vise matematik frem som et demonstrationsforsøg i fysik. Uden ønske om at skulle gøre tilskueren til matematiker. Hvert kapitel kan læses for sig selv uden reference til de andre kapitler.

Her er noget om opmåling, topologi, Turing-maskiner, at der er uendeligt mange primtal, også af formen 4n-1 og hvordan man checker ind på Hilberts hotel.
Og der er fine overvejelser om skak og om at de tommelfingerregler, man lærer for tiden, måske faktisk er forkerte. Jeg kommer til at tænke på Alpha Zero og dens måde at spille skak på! Nogle gange fem bønder nede i materiel, men til gengæld kan modstanderen ikke flytte nogle af sine og de spærrer alle officererne inde.
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Publication

London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson [1967]

Language

Original language

German

Physical description

254 p.; 19.7 cm

Local notes

Omslag: Indbundet
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Oversat fra tysk af Stephen Rudolfer, I. N. Baker
Side 111: Chess is quite different. Nim has a completely known theory and chess none at all. What is called chess theory consists simply of rules of thumb and traditions, which may all be false.
Side 111: Until the beginning of this century it was believed essential to open with the king's pawn, whereas the queen's pawn is preferred nowadays: perhaps both are wrong and the correct opening is something which has not yet been seriously tries and would be regarded as quite crazy.
Side 111: No chess theory exists and yet we have to teach it to the machine. This is, of course, impossible. At any rate people play chess, which has no theory, instead of Nim, which has one, and it it precisely the lack of a theory which makes chess enjoyable.

Pages

254

Library's rating

Rating

(1 rating; 4)

DDC/MDS

510
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