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Dark and Bright Mathematics
Was it necessary for a 17th century painter to know principles of optics to hide a skull in one of his masterpieces? Is it possible the violent deaths of Roman emperors obey a statistical law? Are there connections between market trends and geometry? How did Islamic artists draw almost perfectly regular nine-sided polygons, when these cannot be traced with the use of compasses? Dirk Huylebrouk asks these and other exciting questions in this collection of essays, originally written for the science magazine EOS, a Dutch equivalent of Scientific American, distributed in Belgium and in The Netherlands. Every chapter can be read independently, as some subjects are repeated, and not strictly inter...
Africa and Mathematics
This volume on ethnomathematics in Central Africa fills a gap in the current literature, focusing on a region rarely explored by other publications. It highlights the discovery of the Ishango rod, which was found to be the oldest mathematical tool in humanity's history, thereby shifting the origin of mathematics to the heart of Africa, and explores the different scientific hypotheses that emerged as a result. While it contains some high-level mathematics, the non-mathematical reader can easily skip these portions and enjoy the book’s survey of African history, culture, and art.
Wiskunst
De geometrische fout van het Atomium? Een omgekeerde 400 meter? Een Fibonacci-beeld in (De) Panne? Deze onderwerpen komen misschien bekend voor, maar in dit boek staan de échte verhalen uit eerste hand en ‘unplugged’. De wiskunde verruimt er zich van zuiver wiskundige onderwerpen, over een hoofd dat verdween in de Antwerpse Carnotstraat of de wiskundige grens van de waarheid, tot meer kunstzinnige toepassingen, van wiskundige poëzie over Stromae tot de verboden vrucht van het Lam Gods.
The Materiality of Numbers
This is a book about numbers – what they are as concepts and how and why they originate – as viewed through the material devices used to represent and manipulate them. Fingers, tallies, tokens, and written notations, invented in both ancestral and contemporary societies, explain what numbers are, why they are the way they are, and how we get them. Overmann is the first to explore how material devices contribute to numerical thinking, initially by helping us to visualize and manipulate the perceptual experience of quantity that we share with other species. She explores how and why numbers are conceptualized and then elaborated, as well as the central role that material objects play in both processes. Overmann's volume thus offers a view of numerical cognition that is based on an alternative set of assumptions about numbers, their material component, and the nature of the human mind and thinking.
Science, Fables and Chimeras
The history of science provides numerous examples of the way in which imagination, religion and mythology have sometimes helped and sometimes hindered scientific progress. While established ideas and beliefs clearly held back the discoveries of Copernicus, Galileo and Darwin, the intuitive knowledge found in mythology, art and religion has often proved useful in indicating new ways in which to explore or represent new knowledge of the world. Stories, fables and images have contributed to drawing a fuller picture of the past, understanding the present and imagining the future. The essays in this book, written by academics, writers and artists from various fields ranging from La Fontaine’s f...
Mathematics in African History and Cultures
This volume constitutes an updated version of the bibliography published in 2004 by the African Mathematical Union. The African Studies Association attributed the original edition a 'ÂÂspecial mention'ÂÂ in the 2006 Conover-Porter Award competition. The book contains over 1600 bibliographic entries. The appendices contain additional bibliographic information on (1) mathematicians of the Diaspora, (2) publications by Africans on the history of mathematics outside Africa, (3) time-reckoning and astronomy in African history and cultures, (4) string figures in Africa, (5) examples of books published by African mathematicians, (6) board games in Africa, (7) research inspired by geometric aspects of the 'ÂÂsona'ÂÂ tradition. The book concludes with several indices (subject, country, region, author, ethnographic and linguistic, journal, mathematicians). Professor Jan Persens of the University of the Western Cape (South Africa) and president of the African Mathematical Union (2000-2004) wrote the preface.
Architectural and Urban Subsymmetries
This book focuses on symmetries in the analysis and synthesis of architectural designs. Crucial in the history of architecture, principles of symmetry provided the means to achieve balance and harmony of spatial composition in architecture. Less well known is the importance of symmetry principles in the analysis of the distinct constituents in a contemporary architectural design which may, at first glance, appear disorganized or even random. The revelation of different hierarchical levels wherein various types of symmetry or subsymmetry are superimposed provides a key for deciphering the underlying structure of spatial logic. The interaction between local and global subsymmetries is of parti...
Symbol, Pattern and Symmetry
Symbol, Pattern and Symmetry: The Cultural Significance of Structure investigates how pattern and symbol has functioned in visual arts, exploring how connections and comparisons in geometrical pattern can be made across different cultures and how the significance of these designs has influenced craft throughout history. The book features illustrative examples of symbol and pattern from a wide range of historical and cultural contexts, from Byzantine, Persian and Assyrian design, to case studies of Japanese and Chinese patterns. Looking at each culture's specific craft style, Hann shows how the visual arts are underpinned with a strict geometric structure, and argues that understanding these underlying structures enables us to classify and compare data from across cultures and historical periods. Richly illustrated with both colour and black and white images, and with clear, original commentary, the book enables students, practitioners, teachers and researchers to explore the historical and cultural significance of symbol and pattern in craft and design, ultimately displaying how a geometrical dialogue in design can be established through history and culture.
Wene wa Kongo
The history of the interdependent Kongo Realms from the Middle age until 1908
