Mathematics - Simply Brilliant! : Remarkable Ideas and Stories from Pythagoras to Peano

This book invites you to marvel: discover how, for example, Archimedes was able to determine the area of a parabolic segment 1,800 years before the invention of “classical” integral calculus, derive a summation formula for square numbers with Ibn al-Haitham, or explore quaternions with Hamilton. The 21 selected ideas are vividly developed with the help of numerous colour illustrations - you will be astonished by the thought processes of mathematicians long since passed!Many ingenious approaches have been almost entirely forgotten by posterity - for instance, the polymaths from the Islamic cultural sphere are scarcely known in Europe today, despite their significant contributions to the development of mathematics.Each chapter therefore also provides information about the lives of these individuals and the eras in which they lived, notes and explanations on further questions they addressed, as well as extensive references to additional literature that is generally accessible. The chapter