The Rainbow of Mathematics: A History of the Mathematical Sciences

by Ivor Grattan-Guinness

Beginning with the Babylonian and Egyptian mathematicians of antiquity, Ivor Grattan-Guinness "succeeds masterfully in viewing the history of mathematics from a new perspective" (Professor Karen Hunger Parshall, editor of Historia Mathematica ). He charts the growth of mathematics through its refinement by ancient Greeks and then medieval Arabs, to its systematic development by Europeans from the Middle Ages to the early twentieth century. This book describes the evolution of arithmetic and geometry, trigonometry and algebra; the interplay between mathematics, physics, and mathematical astronomy; and "new" branches such as probability and statistics. Authoritative and comprehensive, The Rainbow of Mathematics is a unique account of the development of the science that is at the heart of so many other sciences. Originally published under the title The Norton History of the Mathematical Sciences .

Genres: Mathematics, History

830 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2000

Reviews

[Mobill76 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is just awesome! This is exactly what's missing from textbooks. Oh yeah, you get little blurbs about Descartes and Pascal but this is the whole story. This is what makes mathematics interesting. We enforce the study of the corpus without any recognition that our mathematics is an epic human achievement.

It gets pretty advanced. What we teach in high school was really understood by the 18th century so maybe half the book is kinda wasted. It really helped me when students would ask me "why" we had to study this stuff if I could wax poetic about who and how it was figured out.

A good read if your mathematically inclined. Indespensible if you teach the stuff.