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Archimedes lived in the third century BC, and died in the siege of Syracuse. Together with Euclid and Apollonius, he was one of the three great mathematicians of the ancient world, credited with astonishing breadth of thought and brilliance of insight. His practical inventions included the water-screw for irrigation, catapults and grappling devices for military defence on land and sea, compound pulley systems for moving large masses, and a model for explaining solar eclipses. According to Plutarch however, Archimedes viewed his mechanical inventions merely as 'diversions of geometry at play'. His principal focus lay in mathematics, where his achievements in geometry, arithmetic and mechanics included work on spheres, cylinders and floating objects. This classic 1897 text celebrates Archimedes' achievements. Part 1 places Archimedes in his historical context and presents his mathematical methods and discoveries, while Part 2 contains translations of his complete known writings. ... Read more

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This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A classic on the field
This book is a classic on History of Mathematics.All books translated by Heath worth be purchased by everybody that is seriously interested on History of Mathematics, but isn`t a book for beginners. ... Read more

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Subjects: Christian saints -- Juvenile literatureNotes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be numerous typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

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Originally published in 1920, this volume contains book one of Euclid's Elements in Greek, together with an introduction and notes section written in English. It was created to provide young students with a contextual understanding of geometry and the development of geometrical principles, one which was increasingly neglected in the standard school textbooks of the time. By returning to the Elements in their original form it was hoped that students would gain a fundamental understanding of the ideas put forward in the text, one which would increase their knowledge and enthusiasm. It was also hoped that the dual process of learning Greek and geometry would be an effective way of impressing content on the mind of the learner. This volume will be of value to anyone with an interest in geometry and the development of pedagogy. ... Read more

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The Sand Reckoner of Archimedes
By Thomas Heath

"This short treatise of Archimedes on the amount of sand grains which could be contained in the ancient model of the universe is remarkable. It uses some extremely large numbers, given that this was antiquity and Europeans did not yet have the benefit of decimal notation. It also anticipates the method of Calculus: measuring by subdivision into very small quanta, in this case grains of sand. Also of interest are Archimedes' (incorrect but informed) estimates of the relative size of the sun, moon and earth. The argument can be followed by anyone who has mastered basic algebra."

About the Author

"Plato (wide, broad-browed) (428/427 BC - 348/347 BC), was a Classical Greek philosopher. Together with his teacher, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the philosophical foundations of Western culture. Plato was also a mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world. Plato was originally a student of Socrates, and was much influenced by his thinking as by what he saw as his teacher's unjust death.

Plato's brilliance as a writer and thinker can be witnessed by reading his Socratic dialogues. Some of the dialogues, letters, and other works that are ascribed to him are considered spurious. Interestingly, although there is little question that Plato lectured at the Academy that he founded, the pedagogical function of his dialogues, if any, is not known with certainty. The dialogues have since Plato's time been used to teach a range of subjects, mostly including philosophy, logic, rhetoric, mathematics, and other subjects about which he wrote." ... Read more

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EARLY HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY & SPACE. Imagine holding history in your hands. Now you can. Digitally preserved and previously accessible only through libraries as Early English Books Online, this rare material is now available in single print editions. Thousands of books written between 1475 and 1700 can be delivered to your doorstep in individual volumes of high quality historical reproductions. Humankind has studied the skies for centuries, seeking to find our place in the universe. Some of the most important discoveries in the field of astronomy were made in these texts recorded by ancient stargazers, but almost as impactful were the perspectives of those who considered their discoveries to be heresy. Any independent astronomer will find this an invaluable collection of titles arguing the truth of the cosmic system.

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The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification:
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A manifest and apparent confutation of an astrological discourse, lately published to the discomfort of the weake and simple sort. by Thomas Heth, Master of Art.
Confutation of an astrologicall discourse
Astrological discourse upon the great and notable conjunction of the two superiour planets, Saturne & Jupiter, which shall happen the 28. day of April, 1583.Heath, Thomas, astronomer.
A reply to: Harvey, Richard. An astrological discourse upon the great and notable conjunction of the two superiour planets, Saturne & Jupiter, which shall happen the 28. day of April, 1583.
Signatures: [A] B-E F2.
The first leaf is blank except for signature-mark "A".
This edition has B1r catchword: Lastly,.
Quire [A] and B1r are reimposed from STC 13255.
Identified as STC 13255 on UMI microfilm reel 345.
Appears at reel 345 and at reel 1960 (same copy filmed twice).
[84] p. :
[London] : Printed by Robert Walde-graue, dwelling in Foster Lane, ouer against Gold-smiths Hal, at the signe of the George. By the assent of Richard VVatkins, [1583]
STC (2nd ed.) / 13255.3
English
Reproduction of the original in the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery ... Read more

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There are two guiding purposes for this book. THe first is theoretical, to explain Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan to the average reader. The second is more practical, todescribe the author's theory of how a resolution should be analyzed, and to describe how Hobbes can be considered in debaters' terms. ... Read more

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Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch was a Cornish writer, who published under the pen name of Q. He published his Dead Man's Rock (a romance in the vein of Stevenson's Treasure Island) in 1887, and he followed this up with Troy Town (1888) and The Splendid Spur (1889). After some journalistic experience in London, mainly as a contributor to the Speaker, in 1891 he settled at Fowey in Cornwall. He published in 1896 a series of critical articles, Adventures in Criticism, and in 1898 he completed Robert Louis Stevenson's unfinished novel, St Ives. With the exception of the parodies entitled Green Bays: Verses and Parodies (1893), his poetical work is contained in Poems and Ballads (1896). In 1895 he published an anthology from the sixteenth and seventeenth-century English lyrists, The Golden Pomp, followed in 1900 by an equally successful Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900 (1900). He was made a Bard of Gorseth Kernow in 1928, taking the Bardic name Marghak Cough ('Red Knight'). ... Read more

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This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Focus on Thomas NOT Blake
I've praised it before and I'll praise it again but one of the more interesting books in my library is J.B. Post's Atlas of Fantasy, wherein I first came across Thomas Williams Malkin (1795-1802). At the time, I myself was only 13 or 14 years old. My initial interest was in the fact that this 5-year-old prodigy had created and written stories sent in his imaginary world of Allestone, and I was interested in reading them. And not only stories, Thomas had drawn maps, written chronologies and almanacs, and had even made notes on Allestone's language - all activities my geeky self was engaging in in my own imaginary worlds. But in those pre-Internet days I had little chance to find his father's book, originally published in 1806.

As to the book - I'm a bit at a loss as how to describe it. It's certainly not a "biography" in the usual sense of the word. And the father writes in such a discursive and elliptical style that it's awfully difficult for the modern reader to persevere. There's a grueling 68-page preface, much of which is devoted to an essay on William Blake. Yes, that William Blake - he was a family friend. And the memoir is full of rambling sentences stuffed with clauses and prepositional phrases and "high falutin" language, e.g., "It may indeed be affirmed, without danger of a paradoxical deviation from the sobriety of truth, that he excited more admiration under circumstances, from which human nature is apt to revolt, than had fallen to his share in the full career of mental and bodily improvement." One of the tamer sentences. If there is any interest in reading it today, it's in seeing how a well educated, upper class British gentleman of the early 19th century found a way to rise above the somewhat repressive nature of his society to express the profound sense of loss and grief he felt when Thomas died. For despite the purple prose, Benjamin Malkin's immense pride and deep love for his son leaks through despite all. The very existence of this testament is proof enough of that.

At an early age Thomas displayed a remarkable mind. By his death, he had mastered English and Latin, and was learning Greek and French. Beyond that, he had written his Allestone stories and was progressing in his drawing/illustrating talents. So that you don't think he was too much the "superboy," he wasn't very good at poetry or mathematics. His brief attempts at poetry caused him much mental anguish and effort; his parents were relieved when he gave it up because they felt that it put him in a morbid and unhealthy frame of mind. As to math, Thomas was competent enough but it was simply not a subject he enjoyed or had much interest in (his brother, Benjamin, was the mathematical genius in the family).

Regarding his disposition, Thomas was an angel. I don't know how objective Mr. Malkin can be but there's never an instance when the boy seriously misbehaves. The author remarks only that Thomas took correction well, perhaps sulking for a short time but rapidly returning to his usual cheerful, curious and helpful self.

I include below a few things that struck me as particularly interesting:

Typical Malkin family dinner conversation?:

When he was little more than five years old, Thomas, sitting at dinner with a knife in his hand, asked the following question. "Pray, Mother, what is the opposite to sharp?" He was answered, "Blunt, my dear." On this he immediately observed, "Then my knife is very blunt; for I cannot cut with it." His little brother Benjamin, two years younger, wished to have some share in the conversation, yet without perceiving thoroughly the drift of what had passed. He therefore enquired, "What is the opposite of a door?" His mother replied, "I know of no opposite to a door. The qualities or circumstances of persons or things, by which their resemblance or opposition is marked out, are usually expressed by adjectives. The noun substantive simply represents the person or thing itself." Thomas without hesitation interposed with this remark. "But there are opposites among nouns, you know; at least in nouns of behaviour. Guilt is a noun, and it is the opposite of innocence."

A typical Allestone story:

The Family

Once upon a time, in a pleasant street in Countib, that was about a mile off from the palace, there lived a young lady, who had before rather an unfortunate life. Now I intend to relate all that happened in her life; which was well worth describing, after she grew up. As soon as ever she grew up old enough to be able to look for a house by herself, she settled a plan of doing it, and began to look out for one as fast as she could. She got that with much ado, after taking a great deal of necessary trouble for one, and after searching all over a great many towns for one, till at last she got to Countib, and went into a house from fatigue, to see if it was empty. She looked all about the house and found it so. Nobody can think how glad she was that she did find it, having taken so much trouble before. As soon as ever she had searched the house, she went to the parlour in great sorrow, took place of a great-chair that was there about, and began to reflect on her offences before to her parents, whom she lost when she was only a little after eleven years old; and after she had reflected about a quarter of an hour, she began to think of one, that in a few moments was so deeply impressed upon her mind, that she was almost ready to faint. She began, in a few days, to think she chose to look out for a husband, and presently set about it; and though this was with a great deal of trouble, it was with less than her house. She took her husband with her to the house which she had with so much trouble chosen for herself before. "Do you know, Sir," says the lady, "that a few days before this I have been reflecting on my offences to my parents, whom I have long ago lost; and one was so deeply impressed upon my mind, that I was almost ready to faint?" "Ah!" replied he, surprised. Some children were presently born to them, at first two at a time, and a few hours after that one more. Their name was Malysbeg.

From Thomas' notes, he conceived of Allestone as a utopian society; its citizens were renowned for their manners and good works, and lived as exemplars to others.

He even tried his hand at comic opera:

I wander till I find my love,
And oh! She looks for me. (repeated)
I cannot think (diminuendo)
I cannot think where she does go;
Tho' oh! She looks for me: (2nd time adagio)
Till I find her, I roam about, (allegro)
Oh! Till I find my love! (concluding adagio and pianissimo)

Thomas was also an avid letter writer:

A letter from December 1798, when he was three, to a Miss _____: "Thomas has been reading Tit for Tat in the Evenings at Home, and Thomas has laughed at "The fellow tried, and tried, and tried." I wish you would come to see Tom."

Another letter dated October 30, 1801, to his mother on the occasion of his sixth birthday: "Next time you go to Cambridge, if you will allow it, I should be very glad to accompany you there, for the sake of having a ride.... As you one day said you hoped I would hear Benjamin read and spell to me, I promise to do it some times when I have leisure to hear him, and when he is in a humour for it: and I shall teach him as near as I can to the manner in which you do.... I hope you will trust that the great and good God will make us both better still, though I assure you I have this morning had very serious thoughts of being much better now I am six. However, I still think there is much room for improvement in us both, especially me, if God spares our lives, that we improve in them still more....

Finally, there's the painful, day-by-day description of Thomas' final days. He died after suffering from an inflamed bowel and peritonitis, an uncommonly painful illness, about which he almost never complained:

The principle of life seemed still, if I may so express myself, to struggle for the mastery, under the banner of a vigorous intellect and a happy organization. The field was indeed lost, but the power, which had hitherto supported the conflict, maintained its self-possession in the crisis of defeat.

Soon after eleven o'clock, an evident alteration took place. The languor and debility increased. His breathing became much more difficult than it had ever been; and his voice, which through his illness had been strong and clear, began to falter. Under this serious change of circumstances, when the hand of death was even now upon him, he remained firm and collected, without the slightest indication of displeasure or alarm. He spoke at intervals, deliberately and coherently, with his accustomed felicity of expression, and with his usual kindness to those who were around his bed, till he could no longer utter a sound. In a few minutes after he had ceased to articulate, and a little before twelve o'clock, he sunk in the arms of his mother without a struggle or a groan. There was no expression of agony upon his features. His frame was neither agitated by convulsion, nor his faculties stupefied by the drowsy tendency of his dropsical affection. ... Read more

Product Description
THE first edition of this book, which was the first English
Diophantus, appeared in 1885, and has long been out of
print. Inquiries made for it at different times suggested to me
that it was a pity that a treatise so unique and in many respects
so attractive as the Arithmetica should once more have become
practically inaccessible to the English reader. At the same time
I could not but recognise that, after twenty-five years in which so
much has been done for the history of mathematics, the book
needed to be brought up to date, Some matters which in 1885
were still subject of controversy, such as the date of Diophantus,
may be regarded as settled, and some points which then had to
be laboured can now be dismissed more briefly. Practically the
whole of the Introduction, except the chapters on the editions of
Diophantus, his methods of solution, and the porisms and other
assumptions found in his work, has been entirely rewritten and
much shortened, while the chapters on the methods and on the
porisms etc., have been made fuller than before.

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Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology.

Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historically important writings. Careful attention has been made to accurately preserve the original format of each page whilst digitally enhancing the difficult to read text. Read books online for free at www.forgottenbooks.org ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

excellent
euclid knew how to express the true beauty inherrent in mathmatics with a simple logical progression. Definatly a good contrast for anyone too taken up in the numbers and rules of math, who need to really step back andunderstand it. Propositions1.47, 2.9, 2.10, 3.35, and 3.36 areincredibly elegant and simple.the translation itself seems to be accurateenough, and while all of the notes seem to drag a bit in pedantry, they areuseful and do not detract from Euclid's work ... Read more

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The Summa Theologiae ranks among the greatest documents of the Christian Church, and is a landmark of medieval western thought. It provides the framework for Catholic studies in systematic theology and for a classical Christian philosophy, and is regularly consulted by scholars of all faiths and none, across a range of academic disciplines. This paperback reissue of the classic Latin/English edition first published by the English Dominicans in the 1960s and 1970s, in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, has been undertaken in response to regular requests from readers and librarians around the world for the entire series of 61 volumes to be made available again. The original text is unchanged, except for the correction of a small number of typographical errors. ... Read more