Hesiod's Anvil: Falling and Spinning through Heaven and Earth (Dolciani Mathematical Expositions) [Hardcover]

Andrew J. Simoson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2007 | ISBN-10: 0883853361 | ISBN-13: 978-0883853368 | Edition: illustrated edition

This book is about how poets, philosophers, storytellers, and scientists have described motion, beginning with Hesiod, a contemporary of Homer, who imagined that the expanse of heaven and the depth of hell was the distance that an anvil falls in nine days. This book is aimed at students who have finished a year-long course in calculus, but it can be used as a supplemental text in calculus II, vector calculus, linear algebra, differential equations, and modeling. It blends with equal voice romantic whimsy and derived equations, and anyone interested in mathematics will find new and surprising ideas about motion and the people who thought about it. Some of the things readers will learn is that Dante's implicit model of the earth implies a black hole at its core; that Edmond Halley championed a hollow earth; and that Da Vinci knew that the acceleration due to the earth's gravity was a constant. There are chapters modeling Jules Verne's and H. G. Wells' imaginative flights to the moon and back, the former novelist using a great cannon and the latter using a gravity-shielding material. The book analyses Edgar Alan Poe's descending pendulum; H. G. Wells' submersible falling and rising in the Marianas Trench; a train rolling along a tunnel through a rotating earth; and a pebble falling down a hole without resistance. It compares trajectories of balls thrown on the Little Prince's asteroid and on Arthur C. Clarke's rotating space station, and it solves an old problem that was perhaps inspired by one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The penultimate chapter is a story, based upon the Mayans, that loosely ties together the ideas about falling and spinning motion discussed in the book. Nearly all the chapters have exercises, some straightforward and some open ended.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A unique book, written in a light-hearted but intellectually very strong manner...I have not seen anything like it before....This is a pretty darn good book. I just wish I had thought of it myself about ten years ago. To be honest, though, I m pretty sure I would -not have done nearly as nice a job. --Paul Nahin, SIAM News

Few books, to say the least, manage such sustained harmonization of the technical and the whimsical, not to mention marvelous historical underpinnings and modest doses of autobiography. Highly recommended --D. V. Feldman, Choice

Book Description

This book is about models of motion as enunciated by poets, philosophers, story-tellers and early scientists. By using popular literature and philosophy to bring the mechanics of motion alive, blending with equal voice both romantic whimsy and derived equations.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 324 pages
• Publisher: Mathematical Assn of Amer; illustrated edition edition (May 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0883853361
• ISBN-13: 978-0883853368
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #578,223 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.