Mathematical methods in science

✍ Scribed by George Pólya; Leon Bowden

• Publisher: Mathematical Association of America
• Year: 1977
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 245
• Series: New mathematical library, 26
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

'Mathematics, taught and learned appropriately, improves the mind and implants good habits of thought.' This tenet underlies all of Professor Pólya's works on teaching and problem-solving. This book captures some of Pólya's excitement and vision. In it he provides enlightenment for all those who have ever wondered how the laws of nature were worked out mathematically. The distinctive feature of the present book is the stress on the history of certain elementary chapters of science; these can be a source of enjoyment and deeper understanding of mathematics even for beginners who have little, or perhaps no, knowledge of physics

✦ Table of Contents

Content: 1. From the history of astronomy: measurement and successive approximation. --
Measurement ; Astronomical measurements ; Successive approximation ; Newton's method of successive approximation --
2. From the history of statics. --
Stevinus and Archimedes ; Vectors --
3. From the history of dynamics. --
Galileo ; Newton ; The pendulum ; Escape velocity --
4. Physical reasoning in mathematics. --
5. Differential equations and their use in science. --
First examples ; Approximate formulae: power series ; Physical analogy ; What is a differential equation?