To most people, mathematics means working with numbers. But as Keith Devlin shows in Mathematics: The Science of Patterns, this definition has been out of date for nearly 2,500 years. Mathematicians now see their work as the study of patternsreal or imagined, visual or mental, arising from the natural world or from within the human mind. Using this basic definition as his central theme, Devlin explores the patterns of counting, measuring, reasoning, motion, shape, position, and prediction, revealing the powerful influence mathematics has over our perception of reality. Interweaving historical highlights and current developments, and using a minimum of formulas, Devlin celebrates the precision, purity, and elegance of mathematics.
- ISBN10 0805073442
- ISBN13 9780805073447
- Publish Date 15 December 1996 (first published 31 March 1988)
- Publish Status Out of Stock
- Out of Print 11 December 2011
- Publish Country US
- Publisher Henry Holt & Company Inc
- Imprint Owl Books,U.S.
- Format Paperback
- Pages 224
- Language English