Number Theory - An approach through history from Hammurapi to Legendre

Number Theory or arithmetic, as some prefer to call it, is the oldest, purest, liveliest, most elementary yet sophisticated field of mathematics. It is no coincidence that the fundamental science of numbers has come to be known as the "Queen of Mathematics." Indeed some of the most complex conventions of the mathematical mind have evolved from the study of basic problems of number theory.
André Weil, one of the outstanding contributors to number theory, has written an historical exposition of this subject; his study examines texts that span roughly thirty-six centuries of arithmetical work - from an Old Babylonian tablet, datable to the time of Hammurapi to Legendre's Essai sur la Théorie des Nombres (1798). Motivated by a desire to present the substance of his field to the educated reader, Weil employs an historical approach in the analysis of problems and evolving methods of number theory and their significance within mathematics. In the course of his study Weil accompanies the reader into the workshops of four major authors of modern number theory (Fermat, Euler, Lagrange and Legendre) and there he conducts a detailed and critical examination of their work. Enriched by a broad coverage of intellectual history, Number Theory represents a major contribution to the understanding of our cultural heritage.

List of contents

Preface.- Table of illustrations.- Abbreviations, basic references and notations.- Protohistory.- Fermat and his Correspondents.- Euler.- An Age of Transition: Lagrange and Legendre.- Additional bibliography and references.- Index nominum.- Index rerum.

About the author

André Weil was born on May 6, 1906 in Paris. After studying mathematics at the École Normale Supérieure and receiving a doctoral degree from the University of Paris in 1928, he held professorial positions in India, France, the United States and Brazil before being appointed to the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton in 1958, where he remained until he died on August 6, 1998. André Weil's work laid the foundation for abstract algebraic geometry and the modern theory of abelian varieties. A great deal of his work was directed towards establishing the links between number theory and algebraic geometry and devising modern methods in analytic number theory. Weil was one of the founders, around 1934, of the group that published, under the collective name of N. Bourbaki, the highly influential multi-volume treatise Eléments de mathématique.

Summary

Number Theory or arithmetic, as some prefer to call it, is the oldest, purest, liveliest, most elementary yet sophisticated field of mathematics. It is no coincidence that the fundamental science of numbers has come to be known as the "Queen of Mathematics." Indeed some of the most complex conventions of the mathematical mind have evolved from the study of basic problems of number theory.

André Weil, one of the outstanding contributors to number theory, has written an historical exposition of this subject; his study examines texts that span roughly thirty-six centuries of arithmetical work – from an Old Babylonian tablet, datable to the time of Hammurapi to Legendre’s Essai sur la Théorie des Nombres (1798). Motivated by a desire to present the substance of his field to the educated reader, Weil employs an historical approach in the analysis of problems and evolving methods of number theory and their significance within mathematics. In the course of his study Weil accompanies the reader into the workshops of four major authors of modern number theory (Fermat, Euler, Lagrange and Legendre) and there he conducts a detailed and critical examination of their work. Enriched by a broad coverage of intellectual history, Number Theory represents a major contribution to the understanding of our cultural heritage.

Additional text

"The book makes a fascinating reading, permitting to perceive the birth of new ideas, and to understand why they should have been born... There are four chapters: Protohistory, Fermat and his correspondents, Euler and An age of transition: Lagrange and Legendre, and also several appendices, which introduce a modern point of view and provide proofs for many mentioned results. The book is strongly recommended to anybody interested in the history of mathematics and should be on the shelf of every number-theorist."

--Zentralblatt Math

"As the author says, this is a historical treatment of that oldest and purest field of mathematics, the theory of numbers; his presentation is meticulous and scholarly... The volume under review...is a discursive, expository, leisurely peek over the shoulders of several great authors in number theory, a subject "conspicuous for the quality rather than for the number of its devotees; at the same time it is perhaps unique in the enthusiasm it has inspired", as Professor Weil says in his preface."

--Mathematical Reviews

A very unusual book combining thorough philological exactness, keen observation, apt comments of the essential points, picturesque fantasy, enthusiastic love of the subject, and brilliant literary style: a romantic novel of documents. It is both number theory and its history in an inseparable oneness, helping us understand the very roots and the first big stage of progress of this discipline. The author, one of the most prominent number theorists…chose to give us a broad perspective of the birth of modern number theory.

--Periodica Mathematica Hungaria

Report

"The book makes a fascinating reading, permitting to perceive the birth of new ideas, and to understand why they should have been born... There are four chapters: Protohistory, Fermat and his correspondents, Euler and An age of transition: Lagrange and Legendre, and also several appendices, which introduce a modern point of view and provide proofs for many mentioned results. The book is strongly recommended to anybody interested in the history of mathematics and should be on the shelf of every number-theorist."
--Zentralblatt Math
"As the author says, this is a historical treatment of that oldest and purest field of mathematics, the theory of numbers; his presentation is meticulous and scholarly... The volume under review...is a discursive, expository, leisurely peek over the shoulders of several great authors in number theory, a subject "conspicuous for the quality rather than for the number of its devotees; at the same time it is perhaps unique in the enthusiasm it has inspired", as Professor Weil says in his preface."
--Mathematical Reviews
A very unusual book combining thorough philological exactness, keen observation, apt comments of the essential points, picturesque fantasy, enthusiastic love of the subject, and brilliant literary style: a romantic novel of documents. It is both number theory and its history in an inseparable oneness, helping us understand the very roots and the first big stage of progress of this discipline. The author, one of the most prominent number theorists...chose to give us a broad perspective of the birth of modern number theory.
--Periodica Mathematica Hungaria

Product details

• Authors: Andre Weil, André Weil
• Publisher: Springer, Basel
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 24.08.2007
• EAN: 9780817645656
• ISBN: 978-0-8176-4565-6
• No. of pages: 377
• Dimensions: 156 mm x 236 mm x 23 mm
• Weight: 645 g
• Illustrations: XXI, 377 p. 19 illus.
• Series: Modern Birkhäuser Classics; Modern Birkhäuser Classics
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Mathematics > Arithmetic, algebra; A, History, popular science, Life Sciences, Mathematics, History of Science, Humanities and Social Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics, Number Theory, History of mathematics, History of Mathematical Sciences, Technology and Engineering, Mathematical logic, Mathematical Logic and Foundations, Mathematical foundations, Popular works, Popular Science, general, history of mathematics;mathematics;number theory