Description
Book SynopsisIn the title, "[the square root of minus one]" appears as a radical over "-1."
Trade ReviewOne of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 1999 Honorable Mention for the 1998 Award for Best Professional/Scholarly Book in Mathematics, Association of American Publishers "A book-length hymn of praise to the square root of minus one."--Brian Rotman, Times Literary Supplement "An Imaginary Tale is marvelous reading and hard to put down. Readers will find that Nahin has cleared up many of the mysteries surrounding the use of complex numbers."--Victor J. Katz, Science "[An Imaginary Tale] can be read for fun and profit by anyone who has taken courses in introductory calculus, plane geometry and trigonometry."--William Thompson, American Scientist "Someone has finally delivered a definitive history of this 'imaginary' number... A must read for anyone interested in mathematics and its history."--D. S. Larson, Choice "Attempting to explain imaginary numbers to a non-mathematician can be a frustrating experience... On such occasions, it would be most useful to have a copy of Paul Nahin's excellent book at hand."--A. Rice, Mathematical Gazette "Imaginary numbers! Threeve! Ninety-fifteen! No, not those kind of imaginary numbers. If you have any interest in where the concept of imaginary numbers comes from, you will be drawn into the wonderful stories of how i was discovered."--Rebecca Russ, Math Horizons "There will be something of reward in this book for everyone."--R.G. Keesing, Contemporary Physics "Nahin has given us a fine addition to the family of books about particular numbers. It is interesting to speculate what the next member of the family will be about. Zero? The Euler constant? The square root of two? While we are waiting, we can enjoy An Imaginary Tale."--Ed Sandifer, MAA Online "Paul Nahin's book is a delightful romp through the development of imaginary numbers."--Robin J. Wilson, London Mathematical Society Newsletter "You will definitely enjoy it. In fact it clearly reflects the the joy and delight that the author experienced when he was confronted with complex analysis during his engineering studies."--Adhemar Bultheel, European Mathematical Society
Table of Contents*FrontMatter, pg. i*A Note to the Reader, pg. vii*Contents, pg. ix*Illustrations, pg. xi*Preface to the Paperback Edition, pg. xiii*Preface, pg. xxi*Introduction, pg. 1*CHAPTER ONE The Puzzles of Imaginary Numbers, pg. 8*CHAPTER TWO. A First Try at Understanding the Geometry of -1, pg. 31*CHAPTER THREE. The Puzzles Start to Clear, pg. 48*CHAPTER FOUR. Using Complex Numbers, pg. 84*CHAPTER FIVE. More Uses of Complex Numbers, pg. 105*CHAPTER SIX. Wizard Mathematics, pg. 142*CHAPTER SEVEN. The Nineteenth Century, Cauchy, and the Beginning of Complex Function Theory, pg. 187*APPENDIX A. The Fundamental Theorem of Algebra, pg. 227*APPENDIX B. The Complex Roots of a Transcendental Equation, pg. 230*APPENDIX C. ( -1)( -1) to 135 Decimal Places, and How It Was Computed, pg. 235*APPENDIX D. Solving Clausen's Puzzle, pg. 238*APPENDIX E. Deriving the Differential Equation for the Phase-Shift Oscillator, pg. 240*APPENDIX F. The Value of the Gamma Function on the Critical Line, pg. 244*Notes, pg. 247*Name Index, pg. 261*Subject Index, pg. 265*Acknowledgments, pg. 269
