Imaginary Vol 1

Download or read book An Imaginary Tale written by Paul Nahin and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2010-02-22 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today complex numbers have such widespread practical use--from electrical engineering to aeronautics--that few people would expect the story behind their derivation to be filled with adventure and enigma. In An Imaginary Tale, Paul Nahin tells the 2000-year-old history of one of mathematics' most elusive numbers, the square root of minus one, also known as i. He recreates the baffling mathematical problems that conjured it up, and the colorful characters who tried to solve them. In 1878, when two brothers stole a mathematical papyrus from the ancient Egyptian burial site in the Valley of Kings, they led scholars to the earliest known occurrence of the square root of a negative number. The papyrus offered a specific numerical example of how to calculate the volume of a truncated square pyramid, which implied the need for i. In the first century, the mathematician-engineer Heron of Alexandria encountered I in a separate project, but fudged the arithmetic; medieval mathematicians stumbled upon the concept while grappling with the meaning of negative numbers, but dismissed their square roots as nonsense. By the time of Descartes, a theoretical use for these elusive square roots--now called "imaginary numbers"--was suspected, but efforts to solve them led to intense, bitter debates. The notorious i finally won acceptance and was put to use in complex analysis and theoretical physics in Napoleonic times. Addressing readers with both a general and scholarly interest in mathematics, Nahin weaves into this narrative entertaining historical facts and mathematical discussions, including the application of complex numbers and functions to important problems, such as Kepler's laws of planetary motion and ac electrical circuits. This book can be read as an engaging history, almost a biography, of one of the most evasive and pervasive "numbers" in all of mathematics. Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions.

Download or read book The Sasquatch Escape written by Suzanne Selfors and published by Hachette+ORM. This book was released on 2013-04-02 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What started out as an ordinary summer becomes the story of a lifetime in this exciting series opener packed with magic and monsters! When Ben Silverstein is sent to the rundown town of Buttonville to spend the summer with his grandfather, he's certain it will be the most boring vacation ever. That is, until his grandfather's cat brings home what looks like . . . a baby dragon? Amazed, Ben enlists the help of Pearl Petal, a local girl with an eye for adventure. They take the wounded dragon to the only veterinarian's office in town—Dr. Woo's Worm Hospital. But as Ben and Pearl discover once they are inside, Dr. Woo's isn't a worm hospital at all—it's actually a secret hospital for imaginary creatures. After Ben accidentally leaves the hospital's front door unlocked, a rather large, rather stinky, and very hairy beast escapes into Buttonville. Now Ben and Pearl are tasked with retrieving the runaway creature. Suzanne Selfors delivers a wild journey filled with mythical creatures and zany adventures that are anything but imaginary. This book includes bonus writing, art, and science activities that will help readers discover more about the mythological creatures featured in The Sasquatch Escape. These activities are designed for the home and the classroom. Enjoy doing them on your own or with friends!

Download or read book My Imaginary Ex written by Mina V. Esguerra and published by Bright Girl Books. This book was released on with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Zack and Jasmine never dated, but no one else knows that. That story started in college, because she was being a good friend, and he needed help with something. The friendship and affection that followed were very real, but the lie kept causing trouble. Years later, after a falling out and real relationships with other people, the lie resurfaces to bother Jasmine one more time—when Zack's exes ask her to stop him from marrying someone they think is totally wrong for him. She's the only one who can help him, they say, because she's his best friend. They also believe that Zack loved Jasmine the most—and maybe still does. (This is a revised and expanded edition of My Imaginary Ex, the first book in the Chic Manila series. All books in the series can be read as standalones.)

Download or read book Imaginary Worlds written by Lin Carter and published by . This book was released on 2024-08-23 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Imaginary Worlds by Lin Carter is a nonfiction book that explores the history and development of fantasy literature. Published in 1973, it discusses the evolution of the genre, from the early myths and legends that inspired it to the works of modern fantasy authors. Carter delves into the imaginative worlds created by authors like J.R.R. Tolkien, H.P. Lovecraft, Lord Dunsany, and many others, analyzing their techniques and approaches to world-building.Carter, who was an editor for the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series at the time of its publication, had a deep knowledge of the genre, and Imaginary Worlds reflects his love and expertise in fantasy literature. It's often considered a significant work for understanding the roots and mechanics of world-building in fantasy.

Download or read book Imaginary Menagerie written by Julie Larios and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2008-04-01 with total page 43 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who is half gallop, half walk? Who can turn you to stone with one look? Whose voice do you hear in the splash on the shore? Centaurs, mermaids, and other curious creatures populate these wondrous poems and paintings, inspired by a mythological world full of imagination and mystery. Includes end notes about cultures and legends.

Download or read book Imaginary People written by David Pringle and published by Ashgate Publishing. This book was released on 1996 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new edition of the who's who of over 1,400 fictional characters whose names are sometimes so familiar it's difficult to remember they're imaginary. Included in the biographical parade is Ben Casey, Casper, and Fitzwilliam Darcy, a compendium of high, low, and no brow at all, each exactly recorded with a snippet of biographical anecdote. The reference is as equally useful for scholarly work as it is for killing time in aimless pursuits of information. Distributed by Ashgate. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Download or read book Control of the Imaginary written by Luiz Costa Lima and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 1988 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Control of the Imaginary was first published in 1989. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. In Control of the Imaginary Luiz Costa Lima explains how the distinction between truth and fiction emerged at the beginning of modern times and why, upon its emergence, fiction fell under suspicion. Costa Lima not only describes the continuous relationship between Western notions of reason and subjectivity over a broad time-frame—the Renaissance to the first decade of the twentieth century—but he uses this occasion to reexamine the literary traditions of France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, England, and Germany. The book reconstructs the dominant frames in the European tradition between the Middle Ages and the nineteenth century from the perspective of a Latin American who sees the culture of his native Brazil haunted by unresolved questions from the Northern Hemisphere. Costa Lima manages to synthesize positions from philosophy, anthropology, sociology, psychology, linguistics, and history without separating the theoretical discussion from his historical reconstructions. The first chapter situates the problem and grounds the emergent distinction between truth and fiction in a very close analysis of one of the first European historians, Fernao Lopes, who sets the tone for the condemnation of fiction in the name of the truth of history and the potential for individual interpretation. Costa Lima pursues these notions through the aesthetic debates of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to the writings of the French historian Michelet. He also devotes an illuminating chapter to the invention of the strictures imposed on fiction.