#246 in Science & math books
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Reddit mentions of A History of Pi
Sentiment score: 5
Reddit mentions: 14
We found 14 Reddit mentions of A History of Pi. Here are the top ones.
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St Martin s Griffin
Specs:
| Height | 8.25 Inches |
| Length | 5.5 Inches |
| Number of items | 1 |
| Release date | July 1976 |
| Weight | 0.50044933474 Pounds |
| Width | 1.15 Inches |
They've been very bad since at least the 1970s, running one ludicrous political article in every issue, the first of the "real" articles. I watched over several years as the Kosta Tsipis group, I think it was, steadily decreased their claims of what was beyond the foreseeable future state of the art. They were so bad, they effectively said the Mount Palomar Hale Telescope's 1948 mirror was ... beyond the foreseeable future state of the art. Someone pointed out that you and I could in an afternoon, using car batteries in a small alley or the like, construct a power system they said that was ... beyond the foreseeable future state of the art (of course, that wouldn't be space rated). Really, utterly sloppy, no wonder he doesn't have a Wikipedia entry.
Someone who I consider to be reliable, Petr Beckmann, perhaps best widely known as the author of A History of pi, was a refugee from Soviet occupied Czechoslovakia (and Nazi occupied, he related getting out from a first run showing of Fantasia to learn that the British and French had sold out his country in Munich). He said in his Access to Energy newsletter that you could predict the topic of this political Scientific American article roughly 6 months in advance based on what another anti-West and science and technology Communist Czech journal published. Can't read the language, but it's a very falsifiable claim, and he didn't make up bullshit.
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I am Mnemosyne 2.1, It is too bad someone less notorious for their complacent attitude towards themselves had not written that link instead. ^^^^/r/botsrights ^^^^Contribute ^^^^message ^^^^me ^^^^suggestions ^^^^at ^^^^any ^^^^time ^^^^Opt ^^^^out ^^^^of ^^^^tracking ^^^^by ^^^^messaging ^^^^me ^^^^"Opt ^^^^Out" ^^^^at ^^^^any ^^^^time
Start with Khan Academy. You start with a test that determines where you're at, and I think it's pretty damn good, if only slightly conservative, and that's the way it should be.
The video lessons are particularly good at teaching you how, and basically why, but most math materials, across the board, don't really do much, if anything, to help you with insight.
"What does it mean?"
There is an answer. You just need to know where to find it.
I recommend books on math history. I find I get a greater intuitive sense of math learning it like this than just learning the pure process and concepts in a math education book.
Journey Through Genius is one of my favorites. It's 26 proofs, the history behind how they were developed or discovered, why, and what they mean, in a sense. And you don't need to know shit about math for this book to make sense. The author really breaks it down for you. Sometimes the raw proof is right there, and he goes over it, sometimes he skips it and explains it by example.
A History of Pi is also fantastic, and follows it's earliest known history to relatively modern day. An anthropologist friend taught me "follow the money" when studying history, to understand the rise and fall of nations and empires. This book taught me "follow the knowledge," and it's equally telling, but in ways following the money won't.
When I was in seventh grade my math teacher lent me some books to read:
I credit these books for sparking my interest in math.
Other books I'd recommend include Imaginary Numbers by William Frucht, Flatland/Sphereland by Edwin A. Abbott/Dionys Burger (and Flatterland by Ian Stewart), The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Numbers by David Wells, A Passion for Mathematics by Clifford A. Pickover, The Mathematical Tourist by Ivars Peterson, and any book by Martin Gardner or Raymond Smullyan. Also most books by Ian Stewart would be good, but he also writes higher-level math textbooks, so watch out for that.
A History of Pi by Petr Beckman is a fun read. There are also several casual math books by Simon Singh that I've heard are pretty good. I also kind of like reviewing old subjects I've already learned about in bed, since I don't need to sit down with a pen and paper to get them.
Reminds me of Petr Beckmann in A History of Pi. He takes a sudden break from discussing the ways pi has been approximated over the centuries to go on a rant about how the USSR and Roman Empire never invented anything of worth.
From pages 21-22 of Petr Beckmann's A History of PI:
> ...and states that the ratio of the perimeter of a regular hexagon to the circumference of the circumscribed circle equals a number which in modern notation is given by 57/60 + 36/(60)^2 (the Babylonians used the sexagesimal system, i.e. their base was 60 rather than 10).
>
> The Babylonians knew, of course, that the perimeter of a hexagon is exactly equal to six times the radius of the circumscribed circle, in fact that was evidently the reason why they chose to divide the circle into 360 degrees (and we are still burdened with that figure to this day).
P.S. May I also recommend:
e: The Story of a Number,
A History of Pi, and
Zero: The Biography of a Dengerous Idea
A History of Pi. Recommended for those who like math and those who don't. Very interesting read.
Archimedes created a method in which you start with 2 shapes (like a square/triangle/hexagon), one drawn on the inside of the circle so its points touch the edge, the other drawn outside of the circle so its edges touch the sides of the circle.
Lets use squares as an example (He actually used hexagons, because they fit a circle better, but anyway). So you have a circle with a square on the inside and another on the outside. You can find the lengths of the edges of the squares, and the average of these two numbers will be close to the circumference of the square. Knowing that Pi is simply the ratio of circumference to diameter, you can solve for Pi.
This will give you a very rough estimate. You can improve the accuracy of this by increasing the number of sides of the shapes you draw inside and outside of the circle. For example, we could double the number of sides, and then we'd have an octagon instead of a square, which fits a circle a lot better. As you add more and more sides the numbers begin to converge to a single value. It takes a polygon with about 96 sides to get a value of Pi accurate to 5 decimal places.
There is a very interesting book on this subject,
A History of Pi
There were two books that got me completely involved in the world of mathematics.
History of Pi
Golden Ration, Phi
These two books were great when I read them when I was 16 and they got me completely wrapped up in mathematics (currently I am a Physics Grad student working on my Ph.d). Well worth reading.
For Geometry
https://www.amazon.com/Mathematical-History-Golden-Number-Mathematics/dp/0486400077
https://www.amazon.com/History-Pi-Petr-Beckmann/dp/0312381859
For trig
https://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Heavens-Earth-History-Trigonometry/dp/0691129738
Edit:
Boyer also has a history of calc only
https://www.amazon.com/History-Calculus-Conceptual-Development-Mathematics/dp/0486605094
And analytic geometry
https://www.amazon.com/History-Analytic-Geometry-Dover-Mathematics/dp/0486438325/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1540239797&sr=1-1&keywords=Boyer+geometry
And more practical for learning how to problem solve for a program is
https://www.amazon.com/Solve-Mathematical-Problems-Dover-Mathematics/dp/0486284336
There's an excellent book, A History of Pi by Petr Beckmann, ^^Check ^^it ^^out ^^from ^^your ^^local ^^library that explains the cross-cultural interest in this specific ratio from the ancient pre-base 10 people to modern times.
I can post a few links from some books about numbers. I haven't read a few of them, but the history of some numbers like phi, pi, zero... all of them are fascinating.
Those six are all the history of the five most important constants in mathematics. If you're looking for the history of some of the most brilliant minds in mathematics, I'm afraid I haven't the resources or expertise to help you out.