Oliver Heaviside: an accidental time traveller Nahin, Paul J.
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences,
10/2018, Letnik:
376, Številka:
2134
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
A little discussed aspect of Heaviside's work in electromagnetics concerned faster-than-light (FTL) charged particles, precursors to the hypothetical tachyon and his discovery that such motion should ...produce a characteristic radiation signature (now called Cherenkov radiation). When Heaviside wrote, the time travel implications of FTL were not known (Einstein was still a teenager), and in this paper some speculations are offered on what Heaviside would have thought of FTL time travel, and of the associated (now classic) time travel paradoxes, including the possibility (or not) of sending information into the past.
This article is part of the theme issue 'Celebrating 125 years of Oliver Heaviside's 'Electromagnetic Theory''.
Chases and escapes Nahin, Paul J; Nahin, Paul J
2007., 20120722, 2012, 2007, 2012-07-22
eBook
We all played tag when we were kids. What most of us don't realize is that this simple chase game is in fact an application of pursuit theory, and that the same principles of games like tag, ...dodgeball, and hide-and-seek are also at play in military strategy, high-seas chases by the Coast Guard, and even romantic pursuits. InChases and Escapes, Paul Nahin gives us the first complete history of this fascinating area of mathematics, from its classical analytical beginnings to the present day.
Drawing on game theory, geometry, linear algebra, target-tracking algorithms, and much more, Nahin also offers an array of challenging puzzles with their historical background and broader applications.Chases and Escapesincludes solutions to all problems and provides computer programs that readers can use for their own cutting-edge analysis.
Now with a gripping new preface on how the Enola Gay escaped the shock wave from the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, this book will appeal to anyone interested in the mathematics that underlie pursuit and evasion.
<!CDATA
Today complex numbers have such widespread practical use--from electrical engineering to aeronautics--that few people would expect the story behind their derivation to be filled with ...adventure and enigma. In An Imaginary Tale , Paul Nahin tells the 2000-year-old history of one of mathematics' most elusive numbers, the square root of minus one, also known as i . He recreates the baffling mathematical problems that conjured it up, and the colorful characters who tried to solve them.
In 1878, when two brothers stole a mathematical papyrus from the ancient Egyptian burial site in the Valley of Kings, they led scholars to the earliest known occurrence of the square root of a negative number. The papyrus offered a specific numerical example of how to calculate the volume of a truncated square pyramid, which implied the need for i . In the first century, the mathematician-engineer Heron of Alexandria encountered I in a separate project, but fudged the arithmetic; medieval mathematicians stumbled upon the concept while grappling with the meaning of negative numbers, but dismissed their square roots as nonsense. By the time of Descartes, a theoretical use for these elusive square roots--now called imaginary numbers--was suspected, but efforts to solve them led to intense, bitter debates. The notorious i finally won acceptance and was put to use in complex analysis and theoretical physics in Napoleonic times.
Addressing readers with both a general and scholarly interest in mathematics, Nahin weaves into this narrative entertaining historical facts and mathematical discussions, including the application of complex numbers and functions to important problems, such as Kepler's laws of planetary motion and ac electrical circuits. This book can be read as an engaging history, almost a biography, of one of the most evasive and pervasive numbers in all of mathematics.
Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions.
>
Boolean algebra, also called Boolean logic, is at the heart of the electronic circuitry in everything we use--from our computers and cars, to our kitchen gadgets and home appliances. How did a system ...of mathematics established in the Victorian era become the basis for such incredible technological achievements a century later? InThe Logician and the Engineer, best-selling popular math writer Paul Nahin combines engaging problems and a colorful historical narrative to tell the remarkable story of how two men in different eras--mathematician and philosopher George Boole (1815-1864) and electrical engineer and pioneering information theorist Claude Shannon (1916-2001)--advanced Boolean logic and became founding fathers of the electronic communications age.
Presenting the dual biographies of Boole and Shannon, Nahin examines the history of Boole's innovative ideas, and considers how they led to Shannon's groundbreaking work on electrical relay circuits and information theory. Along the way, Nahin presents logic problems for readers to solve and talks about the contributions of such key players as Georg Cantor, Tibor Rado, and Marvin Minsky--as well as the crucial role of Alan Turing's "Turing machine"--in the development of mathematical logic and data transmission. Nahin takes readers from fundamental concepts to a deeper and more sophisticated understanding of how a modern digital machine such as the computer is constructed. Nahin also delves into the newest ideas in quantum mechanics and thermodynamics in order to explore computing's possible limitations in the twenty-first century and beyond.
The Logician and the Engineershows how a form of mathematical logic and the innovations of two men paved the way for the digital technology of the modern world.
In the mid-eighteenth century, Swiss-born mathematician Leonhard Euler developed a formula so innovative and complex that it continues to inspire research, discussion, and even the occasional ...limerick.Dr. Euler's Fabulous Formulashares the fascinating story of this groundbreaking formula-long regarded as the gold standard for mathematical beauty-and shows why it still lies at the heart of complex number theory. In some ways a sequel to Nahin'sAn Imaginary Tale, this book examines the many applications of complex numbers alongside intriguing stories from the history of mathematics.Dr. Euler's Fabulous Formulais accessible to any reader familiar with calculus and differential equations, and promises to inspire mathematicians for years to come.
Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions.
The Mysterious Mr. Graham Nahin, Paul J.
The Mathematical intelligencer,
03/2016, Letnik:
38, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Two math puzzle books, published as originals (not reprints) by Dover in 1959 and 1968, were authored by someone named "L. A. Graham." Graham revealed very little of himself in either book, other ...than that he was the founder of a company (location unspecified) called "Graham Transmissions." Although clearly of a strong engineering/physics bent, Graham's math puzzles are astonishingly clever, and not just a few of them would challenge (at least for a while) many professional mathematicians. Here, Nahin details the mysterious life of I. A. Graham and his connection to Charles Mingus, the great jazz artist who died in 1979.
Number-crunching Nahin, Paul J; Nahin, Paul J
2011., 20110808, 2011
eBook
How do technicians repair broken communications cables at the bottom of the ocean without actually seeing them? What's the likelihood of plucking a needle out of a haystack the size of the Earth? And ...is it possible to use computers to create a universal library of everything ever written or every photo ever taken? These are just some of the intriguing questions that best-selling popular math writer Paul Nahin tackles in Number-Crunching. Through brilliant math ideas and entertaining stories, Nahin demonstrates how odd and unusual math problems can be solved by bringing together basic physics ideas and today's powerful computers. Some of the outcomes discussed are so counterintuitive they will leave readers astonished.
What does quilting have to do with electric circuit theory? The answer is just one of the fascinating ways that best-selling popular math writer Paul Nahin illustrates the deep interplay of math and ...physics in the world around us in his latest book of challenging mathematical puzzles, Mrs. Perkins's Electric Quilt. With his trademark combination of intriguing mathematical problems and the historical anecdotes surrounding them, Nahin invites readers on an exciting and informative exploration of some of the many ways math and physics combine to create something vastly more powerful, useful, and interesting than either is by itself.
Oliver Heaviside Nahin, Paul J.
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences,
12/2018, Letnik:
376, Številka:
2134
Journal Article
Recenzirano
A little discussed aspect of Heaviside’s work in electromagnetics concerned faster-than-light (FTL) charged particles, precursors to the hypothetical tachyon and his discovery that such motion should ...produce a characteristic radiation signature (now called Cherenkov radiation). When Heaviside wrote, the time travel implications of FTL were not known (Einstein was still a teenager), and in this paper some speculations are offered on what Heaviside would have thought of FTL time travel, and of the associated (now classic) time travel paradoxes, including the possibility (or not) of sending information into the past.
This article is part of the theme issue ‘Celebrating 125 years of Oliver Heaviside’s ‘Electromagnetic Theory’’.
