Results by title
209 books match the query 'Mathematics' and 9 start with c
Calculus for the Modern Engineer
Math and Programming at the Scale of LifeJessy Grizzle
Michigan Publishing Services, 2026
In the ever-evolving landscape of engineering education, calculus stands as a foundational pillar, yet its teaching methods have remained largely unchanged for decades. This textbook is born out of a deep-seated need for reform. Traditional calculus courses struggle to incorporate relevant, real-world examples. The disconnect between mathematical theory and its real-world uses hinders the learning process and fails to fully engage students in the practical applications of calculus. A second core issue lies not in the examples used but in the selection of material and the overemphasis on lengthy, manual calculations that lack meaningful context. This book represents a radical departure from conventional approaches, inspired by Prof. Grizzle’s experience developing and teaching the first-semester course ROB 101 Computational Linear Algebra. Its goal is to breathe life into mathematics through programming and realistic examples. It begins by placing integration at the beginning of the learning process, starting with sums and progressing to integration, which is not only more intuitive but also lends itself well to programming applications, such as calculating the change in position of mobile robots from velocity curves. Following integration, the book delves into differentiation (both single-variable and multivariable) and its myriad applications. Traditional methods of computing integrals, such as antiderivatives and substitution methods, are then introduced and framed within the context of both manual calculations and modern symbolic tools. The journey continues through improper integrals, ordinary differential equations (ODEs), Laplace Transforms, and Feedback Control, encompassing a breadth of topics rarely seen in a single calculus course.
Casanova's Lottery
The History of a Revolutionary Game of ChanceStephen M. Stigler
University of Chicago Press, 2022
In the 1750s, at the urging of famed adventurer Giacomo Casanova, the French state began to embrace risk in adopting a new Loterie. The prize amounts paid varied, depending on the number of tickets bought and the amount of the bet, as determined by each individual bettor. The state could lose money on any individual Loterie drawing while being statistically guaranteed to come out on top in the long run. In adopting this framework, the French state took on risk in a way no other has, before or after. At each drawing the state was at risk of losing a large amount; what is more, that risk was precisely calculable, generally well understood, and yet taken on by the state with little more than a mathematical theory to protect it.
Stephen M. Stigler follows the Loterie from its curious inception through its hiatus during the French Revolution, its renewal and expansion in 1797, and finally to its suppression in 1836, examining throughout the wider question of how members of the public came to trust in new financial technologies and believe in their value. Drawing from an extensive collection of rare ephemera, Stigler pieces together the Loterie’s remarkable inner workings, as well as its implications for the nature of risk and the role of lotteries in social life over the period 1700–1950.
Both a fun read and fodder for many fields, Casanova's Lottery shines new light on the conscious introduction of risk into the management of a nation-state and the rationality of playing unfair games.
Climate Games
Experiments on How People Prevent DisasterTalbot M. Andrews, Andrew W. Delton, and Reuben Kline
University of Michigan Press, 2024
Yet real climate change is a complex social dilemma involving the world’s nearly eight billion inhabitants. In the real world, the worst effects of climate change are likely to be felt by developing countries, while most of the decisions will be made by rich, industrialized countries. And while the world as a whole would be better off if all nations reduced their greenhouse gas emissions, any given nation could decide it would be even better off if it continued emitting and let other nations take care of the problem. These disaster experiments test how real people respond to climate change’s unique constellation of challenges and deliver a positive message: People will prevent disaster.
Code of the Quipu
A Study in Media, Mathematics, and CultureMarcia Ascher and Robert Ascher
University of Michigan Press, 0
This book explores Inca use of knotted cords to transmit information and the problem of interpreting artifacts from distant cultures.
Commutative Semigroup Rings
Robert Gilmer
University of Chicago Press, 1984
Computers in Education
A Half-Century of InnovationRobert Smith
CSLI, 2015
Contributions to the History of Science
Part I. Robert of Chester's Latin Translation of the Algebra of Al-KhowarizmiWith an introduction, critical notes, and an English version by Louis Charles Karpinski
University of Michigan Press, 1915
Creatively Undecided
Toward a History and Philosophy of Scientific AgencyMenachem Fisch
University of Chicago Press, 2017
By turning our attention to ambiguity and indecision in science, Menachem Fisch, in Creatively Undecided, offers a new way to look at how scientific understandings change. Following Kuhn, Fisch argues that scientific practice depends on the framework in which it is conducted, but he also shows that those frameworks can be understood as the possible outcomes of the rational deliberation that Popper viewed as central to theory change. How can a scientist subject her standards to rational appraisal if that very act requires the use of those standards? The way out, Fisch argues, is by looking at the incentives scientists have to create alternative frameworks in the first place. Fisch argues that while science can only be transformed from within, by people who have standing in the field, criticism from the outside is essential. We may not be able to be sufficiently self-critical on our own, but trusted criticism from outside, even if resisted, can begin to change our perspective—at which point transformative self-criticism becomes a real option.
Criteria for Divisibility
N. N. Vorob'ev
University of Chicago Press, 1980
All this is done comprehensively with the help of a unique plan for study which encourages the student to skip large sections of the book on first reading and return to them later. The more general and conceptually challenging material appears in small print, so that the student must have a good grasp of the number-theoretic concepts on which the generalizations are based before making the step to generalization. The booklet provides both specific knowledge in a particular field of mathematical investigation and a fine basis on which to continue studies in mathematics.