Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Mathematics of the Heavens and the Earth: The Early History of Trigonometry
    The Mathematics of the Heavens and the Earth: The Early History of Trigonometry
    The Mathematics of the Heavens and the Earth: The Early History of Trigonometry
    Ebook351 pages7 hours

    The Mathematics of the Heavens and the Earth: The Early History of Trigonometry

    By Glen Van Brummelen

    4.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    The Mathematics of the Heavens and the Earth is the first major history in English of the origins and early development of trigonometry. Glen Van Brummelen identifies the earliest known trigonometric precursors in ancient Egypt, Babylon, and Greece, and he examines the revolutionary discoveries of Hipparchus, the Greek astronomer believed to have been the first to make systematic use of trigonometry in the second century BC while studying the motions of the stars. The book traces trigonometry's development into a full-fledged mathematical discipline in India and Islam; explores its applications to such areas as geography and seafaring navigation in the European Middle Ages and Renaissance; and shows how trigonometry retained its ancient roots at the same time that it became an important part of the foundation of modern mathematics.

    The Mathematics of the Heavens and the Earth looks at the controversies as well, including disputes over whether Hipparchus was indeed the father of trigonometry, whether Indian trigonometry is original or derived from the Greeks, and the extent to which Western science is indebted to Islamic trigonometry and astronomy. The book also features extended excerpts of translations of original texts, and detailed yet accessible explanations of the mathematics in them.

    No other book on trigonometry offers the historical breadth, analytical depth, and coverage of non-Western mathematics that readers will find in The Mathematics of the Heavens and the Earth.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPrinceton University Press
    Release dateAug 10, 2021
    ISBN9781400833313
    The Mathematics of the Heavens and the Earth: The Early History of Trigonometry
    Author

    Glen Van Brummelen

    Glen Van Brummelen is coordinator of mathematics at Quest University Canada and former president of the Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Mathematics. He won the 2016 Haimo Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics, awarded by the Mathematical Association of America, and the 2017 3M National Teaching Fellowship, awarded by the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.

    Read more from Glen Van Brummelen

    Related to The Mathematics of the Heavens and the Earth

    Related ebooks

    Mathematics For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Actually, There Is a Time Like the Present

      Nov 30, 2017

      We’ve all heard it before: There’s no time like the present. Broadly speaking, of course, it means to “seize the opportunity right now,” or maybe in my case, to avoid procrastinating. From a psychological perspective, this makes a lot of sense. As hu

      4 min read

    • Article

      Physics Has Demoted Mass

      Nov 9, 2017

      You’re sitting here, reading this article. Maybe it’s a hard copy, or an e-book on a tablet computer or e-reader. It doesn’t matter. Whatever you’re reading it on, we can be reasonably sure it’s made of some kind of stuff: paper, card, plastic, perha

      10 min read

    • Article

      India Carries The Torch

      Oct 12, 2022

      India Carries The Torch
      2 min read

    • Article

      A Universe Made of Tiny, Random Chunks: The space-time that makes up our universe is inherently uncertain.

      Jun 6, 2013

      One of science’s most crucial yet underappreciated achievements is the description of the physical universe using mathematics—in particular, using continuous, smooth mathematical functions, like how a sine wave describes both light and sound. This is

      6 min read

    • Article

      Governing the Planets

      Jul 10, 2019

      Governing the Planets
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Universe Began With a Big Melt, Not a Big Bang

      Oct 5, 2017

      There are two tantalizing mysteries about our universe, one dealing with its final fate and the other with its beginning, that have intrigued cosmologists for decades. The community has always believed these to be independent problems—but what if the

      10 min read

    • Article

      Keep Your Distance

      Oct 12, 2022

      Keep Your Distance
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Epicycle And The Equant

      Jul 20, 2023

      The Epicycle And The Equant
      3 min read

    • Article

      Captain Cook’s astronomy

      Mar 4, 2020

      Captain Cook’s astronomy
      7 min read

    • Article

      Our Universe’s Missing Link

      Sep 10, 2020

      Our Universe’s Missing Link
      7 min read

    • Article

      Astronomy In Ancient Egypt

      Dec 7, 2022

      Astronomy In Ancient Egypt
      2 min read

    • Article

      Ptolemy’s Winding Path

      Sep 2, 2020

      Ptolemy’s Winding Path
      11 min read

    • Article

      Time Is It An Iilusion?

      Mar 23, 2023

      Time Is It An Iilusion?
      10 min read

    • Article

      Beginning in Babylon

      Jun 8, 2022

      WHO WERE THE FIRST astronomers? Who got the systematic study of the night sky started? To answer those questions, first of all we need to narrow their scope. No doubt our very distant ancestors were looking at the night sky and wondering for many mil

      3 min read

    • Article

      Astronomy And The Afterlife

      Dec 14, 2021

      LINKING SCIENCE AND RELIGION IN ANCIENT EGYPT The problem is that scholars of the last century, many of them former scientists, have often viewed ancient science through our own lens, failing to consider this unity of science and religion. Herodotus

      9 min read

    • Article

      Hipparchus

      Jan 18, 2024

      Three centuries before Ptolemy, Hipparchus (circa 190–120 BC), born in Nicaea, Bithynia (now Iznik, Turkey), was one of antiquity’s greatest astronomers and mathematicians. Based on the island of Rhodes, Greece, from 147 BC he used a surveying instru

      1 min read

    • Article

      Ptolemy

      Jan 18, 2024

      The fundamentals of astronomy for beginners Claudius Ptolemaeus (circa AD 100–170), better known as Ptolemy, was a GrecoRoman astronomer, mathematician, geographer and cartographer. He was a citizen of Alexandria, Egypt, in the 2nd century AD. Althou

      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Mathematics of the Heavens and the Earth

    4.5/5

    3 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Mathematics of the Heavens and the Earth - Glen Van Brummelen

      Mbbook_preview_excerpt.html
      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1