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Trigonometry: A Very Short Introduction

Glen Van Brummelen

23 January 2020

ISBN: 9780198814313

192 pages
Paperback
174x111mm

In Stock

Very Short Introductions

Price: £8.99

Rooted in ancient astronomy, trigonometry is mathematics' powerful toolkit for scientific measurement. It has been at the heart of the study of infinity, complex and imaginary numbers, and the shape of the space itself. Our experience of the universe has been made possible, and deeply challenged, by this surprisingly deep and fruitful subject.

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Description

Rooted in ancient astronomy, trigonometry is mathematics' powerful toolkit for scientific measurement. It has been at the heart of the study of infinity, complex and imaginary numbers, and the shape of the space itself. Our experience of the universe has been made possible, and deeply challenged, by this surprisingly deep and fruitful subject.

  • Draws together the full history of trigonometry, stretching across two millennia and several cultures
  • Introduces the key concepts of trigonometry, drawing readers beyond the basic relationships first encountered in school to ideas such as curved space
  • Explores connections with genuine modern applications, including navigation, the analysis of music, and computer graphics
  • Shows how trigonometry has participated in big questions about the world, including the shape of the universe and the nature of infinity
  • Part of the Very Short Introductions series - over ten million copies sold worldwide

About the Author(s)

Glen Van Brummelen, Coordinator of Mathematics, Quest University

Glen Van Brummelen is Coordinator of mathematics at Quest University. He has served twice as President of the Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Mathematics. His books include The Mathematics of the Heavens and the Earth: The Early History of Trigonometry (Princeton, 2009) and Heavenly Mathematics: The Forgotten Art of Spherical Trigonometry (Princeton, 2013). Van Brummelen won the Haimo Award for Distinguished Teaching in 2016, and the following year won the 3M National Teaching Fellowship, Canada's most prestigious award for educational leadership.

Table of Contents

    1:Why?
    2:Sines, Cosines and their Relatives
    3:Building a Sine Table with Your Bare Hands: The Basic Identities
    4:Identities, and More Identities
    5:To Infinity...
    6:...And Beyond, to Complex Things
    7:Spheres and More
    Further Reading

Reviews

"A pleasure to read" - Andrew Ruddle, Mathematics today

"Non-superficiality, combined with the author's specialised knowledge of historical material and examples not commonly found in other standard trigonometry texts, makes the book a worthwhile read for mathematical readers." - Viktor Blasjo, MathSciNet

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