Hesiod's Anvil
Falling and Spinning through Heaven and Earth
£38.99
Part of Dolciani Mathematical Expositions
- Author: Andrew J. Simoson, King College, Bristol, TN
- Date Published: July 2007
- availability: This item is not supplied by Cambridge University Press in your region. Please contact Mathematical Association of America for availability.
- format: Hardback
- isbn: 9780883853368
£
38.99
Hardback
Looking for an inspection copy?
This title is not currently available on inspection
-
This book is about how poets, philosophers, storytellers, and scientists have described motion, beginning with Hesiod, who imagined that the expanse of heaven and the depth of hell was the distance that an anvil falls in nine days. The reader will learn that Dante's implicit model of the earth implies a black hole at its core, that Edmond Halley championed a hollow earth, and that Da Vinci knew that the acceleration due to Earth's gravity was a constant. There are chapters modeling Jules Verne's and H.G. Wells' imaginative flights to the moon and back, analyses of Edgar Alan Poe's descending pendulum, and the solution to an old problem perhaps inspired by one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It blends with equal voice romantic whimsy and derived equations, and anyone interested in mathematics will find new and surprising ideas about motion and the people who thought about it.
Read more- Suitable as a supplemental text in calculus II, vector calculus, linear algebra, differential equations, and modelling
- Lots of exercises that may serve as the beginnings of students' projects
- Blends with equal voice romantic whimsy and derived equations
Customer reviews
Not yet reviewed
Be the first to review
Review was not posted due to profanity
×Product details
- Date Published: July 2007
- format: Hardback
- isbn: 9780883853368
- length: 220 pages
- dimensions: 236 x 160 x 24 mm
- weight: 0.604kg
- availability: This item is not supplied by Cambridge University Press in your region. Please contact Mathematical Association of America for availability.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Preamble I. Good to fall
1. Hesiod's muses
Preamble II. Towers crash
2. The gravity of Hades
Preamble III. A great fall
3. Ballistics
Preamble IV. A new leaf
4. Heavenly motion
Preamble V. Falling oars
5. Pendulum variations
Preamble VI. Half to fall
6. Retrieving H.G. Wells from the ocean floor
Preamble VII. Turned round and round
7. Sliding along a chord through a rotating Earth
Preamble VIII. Fallen, fallen, fallen
8. Falling through a rotating Earth
Preamble IX. Falling into naught
9. Shadow lands
Preamble X. Spinning complete
10. The Trochoid family
Preamble XI. The world turned
11. Retrieving H. G. Wells from the moon
Preamble XII. Catch a star
12. Playing ball in space
Preamble XIII. Turn a different hue
13. The rotating beacon
Preamble XIV. Never turning
14. The long count
Preamble XV. What a fall!
15. Hesiod's anvil
Appendix
Cast of characters
Comments on selected exercises
References
Index
About the author.
Related Books
related journals
Sorry, this resource is locked
Please register or sign in to request access. If you are having problems accessing these resources please email lecturers@cambridge.org
Register Sign in» Proceed
You are now leaving the Cambridge University Press website. Your eBook purchase and download will be completed by our partner www.ebooks.com. Please see the permission section of the www.ebooks.com catalogue page for details of the print & copy limits on our eBooks.
Continue ×Are you sure you want to delete your account?
This cannot be undone.
Thank you for your feedback which will help us improve our service.
If you requested a response, we will make sure to get back to you shortly.
×