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An Imaginary Tale: The Story of "i" (the Square Root of Minus One)
 
 
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An Imaginary Tale: The Story of "i" (the Square Root of Minus One) (Hardcover)

by Paul J. Nahin (Author) "At the end of his 1494 book Summa de Arithmetical, Geometria, Proportioni et Proportionalita, summarizing all the knowledge of that time on arithmetic, algebra (including..." (more)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
RRP: £31.95
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Frequently Bought Together

An Imaginary Tale: The Story of "i" (the Square Root of Minus One) + "e": The Story of a Number (Princeton Science Library) + Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea
Price For All Three: £34.97

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 257 pages
  • Publisher: Princeton University Press; illustrated edition edition (24 Aug 1998)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0691027951
  • ISBN-13: 978-0691027951
  • Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.2 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 350,910 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #86 in  Books > Science & Nature > Mathematics > Mathematical Theory > Number Theory

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  • See Complete Table of Contents

Product Description

Review
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 )

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 )

Review
Dispelling many common myths about the origin of the mystic 'imaginary' unit, Nahin tells the story of i from a historic as well as human perspective. His enthusiasm and informal style easily catch on to the reader. An Imaginary Tale is a must for anyone curious about the evolution of our number concept.
(Eli Maor, author of "Trigonometric Delights", "e: The Story of a Number", and "To Infinity and Beyond" )

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Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
At the end of his 1494 book Summa de Arithmetical, Geometria, Proportioni et Proportionalita, summarizing all the knowledge of that time on arithmetic, algebra (including quadratic equations), and trigonometry, the Franciscan friar Luca Pacioli (circa 1445-1514) made a bold assertion. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

An Imaginary Tale: The Story of "i" (the Square Root of Minus One)
62% buy the item featured on this page:
An Imaginary Tale: The Story of "i" (the Square Root of Minus One) 4.0 out of 5 stars (5)
£18.49
"e": The Story of a Number (Princeton Science Library)
17% buy
"e": The Story of a Number (Princeton Science Library) 4.8 out of 5 stars (5)
£8.99
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea
9% buy
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea 4.7 out of 5 stars (6)
£7.49
Fermat's Last Theorem
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Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
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 (2)
4 star:
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3 star:    (0)
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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic! Thorough, scholarly, interesting!, 5 Mar 1999
By A Customer
This is an excellent, beautiful book! Just the section on Kepler's laws is worth the price of the book (hardcover to boot!)

If you like math, if you are willing to spend a bit of time understanding the wonderful results -- get it! Some calculus background needed -- nothing beyond high school.

The book goes well beyond providing a narrative on the history of "square root of -1". It actually shows in complete detail how to use "i" to do wonderful things. Along the way the author provides the important historical events and plenty of notes and references for anyone interested in getting some more. It is clear the author took his time to research and study the subject. He has presented it well, thouroghly, and in an interesting way -- without sacrificing detail!

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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing presentation of the material, 14 Oct 2002
By A Customer
I read this book on the back of having just finished Eli Maor's excellent "To infinity and beyond". Unlike Maor's book, "An imaginary tale" is poorly written and presented. While Maor has a fluid and engrossing writing style, Nahin is much less convincing. The material is all there, but it's the presentation with which I have a problem. It's not all bad -- the chapter on the geometry of i is well done, for example, but that's the exception rather than the rule. Another problem is the poor quality of the diagrams. Cubic curves are hastily drawn freehand. Right angled triangles don't always have right angles, and so on. On the whole, I came away with an impression of a book with lots of potential, but most of it left unrealised.
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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Eulogy, 23 Aug 1999
By A Customer
I rate this book as one of the three best general mathematical books that I have ever bought. Its style is clear and light and the scope of the mathematics is breathtaking; I learnt a great deal from it and saw explained some hard ideas in a very readable way. Not every question is answered but as the author says it isn't a text book. If you want to get into complex analysis and learn about its development and the geniuses who have been involved in it I can think of no better path to take-but you will need to work at some bits! The author avoids actually defining complex numbers in a rigorous way and I would have liked to have seen them defined somewhere as ordered pairs of reals with a reasonable definition of addition and a funny definition of multiplication, with i simply a change of notation. Not easy to fit into the historical development but worth an appendix.

Buy the book. If you don't like it I reckon the problem's with you!

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars just get past the geometry
I imagine that quite a few people who try to read this will be put off by the first section of geometry (unless you're one of the two people into geometry). Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mitt

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but you have to work at reading it
If I had never read any of Eli Maor's excellent books I would have scored this book as 5 stars. It is a very good book that guides you through a series of difficult mathematical... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Suffolk Cyclist

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