Lloyd Motz (1909–2004)

يعرض الكتاب قصة الفيزياء عن طريق مزيج من: تراجم علماءها، مع توضيحٍ وشرح لاكتشافاتهم وإسهاماتهم وقوانينهم .. مراعياً في ذلك الترتيب الزمني لنشوء ونمو هذا العلم

جاء الكتاب في عشرين فصلاً في حدود 400 صفحة ، وكل فصل من هؤلاء يصلح أن يكون كتاباً منفصلاً صغيراً

غير المعتاد على القراءة في هذا العلم، قد يشعر بالملل والسآمة، من هذا القدر الكبير من المعلومات والنظريات والمواضيع والأعلام، الذين حفل بهم هذا الكتاب الدسم .. لذلك من الأفضل له أن يقرأ كتاباً صغيراً عن كل موضوع من مواضيع الفصول العشرين على حدة… (més)

"Since all mathematics is essentially arithmetic in various guises..." What? [viii] The book is written both for those attracted to intellectual challenges (puzzles, or bridge games) and for those who must turn to maths as a necessity in their work. Yet the author means to fully develop an understanding drawn from the "aspects" of numbers (ordinal and cardinal) through the categories of them: integers, fractions, irrational (algebraic and transcendental), prime and complex. He concludes the section on maths with a discussion of the different bases (e.g. base 10) and discusses logarithms.

The next two chapters are on algebra, developing the logical steps from abstraction to representation and the function concept. "The graph (the plot of the dependence of one quantity on another) shows the relationship between the two entities being plotted and thus defines a function." [x] "The function leads to the polynomial and the algebraic equation", he explains by illustrating the contour of an imaginary road.

The next three chapters are on geometry--from points on a plane, to triangles, and the angle concept. The trigonometric properties of angles can be deduced from the unit circle. "This method of introducing trigonometry removes all mystery associated with it."

In the penultimate chapter, the authors show how differential calculus arose simultaneously from Newton's study of the instantaneous speed of a body, and Leibnitz's analysis of the rate of change of a function with respect to the entity on which it depends. The Epilogue discusses the role of maths in the sciences: "Physics and mathematics are thus coupled in a never-ending dance which may produce wonders we cannot even dream of now. It is exciting and, in a very abstract sense, beautiful that two intellectual disciplines, one probing the universe and the other constructing pure thought, without reference to the universe, can produce such magical results." Magical.… (més)