A Brief History of Mathematics for Curious Minds

A Brief History of Mathematicsfor Curious Minds
Preface
Contents
From the Beginnings to  6th Century BCE
The Greeks  (From 6th Century BCE to  5th Century CE)
Ancient Chinese and Indian Mathematics  (From 5th Century BCE to  5th Century CE)
The Romans and the Middle Ages  (From 1st Century BCE to  the 15th Century)
The Early Modern World  (From the 15th to 17th Century)
The 18th Century
The 19th Century
The 20th and 21st Centuries
Final Remarks
Further Reading
Appendices
	A proof of Thales\' theorem
	Three proofs of the Pythagorean theorem
	The broken bamboo problem
	Irrationality of 2 and the proportions of the A4 paper sheet
	Three proofs that there are infinitely many prime numbers
	Eratosthenes\' estimate of the Earth\'s circumference
	A proof of Ptolemy\'s theorem
	Al-Biruni\'s computation of the radius of the Earth
	Oresme\'s proof of divergence
	A minimal introduction to complex numbers
	A derivation of the solutions of quadratic equations
	Golden ratio and the pentagram
	A construction of a regular pentagon
	Complex roots of unity
	A derivation of the solutions of third-degree equations
	A derivation of the solutions of fourth-degree equations
	A walled town problem
	How logarithms work and why they are useful
	Euler\'s formula
	A solution to the gas, water, and electricity puzzle
	A proof that there are exactly five Platonic solids
	Condorcet paradox and Borda\'s count
	Jefferson\'s method
	The birthday paradox
	A minimal introduction to predicate logic
	Kolmogorov\'s axioms of probability
	Bayes\' theorem
	The Monty Hall problem: an informal analysis
	The Monty Hall problem and Bayes\' theorem
	Steinhaus–Trybuła paradox
	Russell\'s paradox
	Prisoner\'s dilemma
Bibliography
Name Index