Euler at 300: An Appreciation: (Spectrum)

Leonhard Euler (1707–1783) was the most important mathematician of the 18th century. His collected works, which number more than 800 books and articles, fill over 70 large volumes. He revolutionised real analysis and mathematical physics, single-handedly established the field of analytic number theory, and made important contributions to almost every other branch of mathematics. A great pedagogue as well as a great researcher, his textbooks educated the next generation of mathematicians. This book compiles over 20 papers, based on some of the most memorable contributions from mathematicians and historians of mathematics at academic meetings across the USA and Canada, in the years approaching Leonhard Euler's tercentenary. These papers will appeal not only to those who already have an interest in the history of mathematics, but will also serve as a compelling introduction to the subject, focused on the accomplishments of one of the greatest mathematical minds of all time.

Table of Contents:
Introduction; Leonhard Euler, the decade 1750–1760 Rüdiger Thiele; Euler's fourteen problems C. Edward Sandifer; The Euler archive: giving Euler to the world Dominic Klyve and Lee Stemkoski; The Euler-Bernoulli proof of the fundamental theorem of algebra Christopher Baltus; The quadrature of Lunes, from Hippocrates to Euler Stacy G. Langton; What is a function? Rüdiger Thiele; Enter, stage center: the early drama of the hyperbolic functions Janet Heine Barnett; Euler's solution of the Basel problem - the longer story C. Edward Sandifer; Euler and elliptic integrals Lawrence D'Antonio; Euler's observations on harmonic progressions Mark McKinzie; Origins of a classic formalist argument: power series expansions of the logarithmic and exponential functions Mark McKinzie; Taylor and Euler: linking the discrete and continuous Dick Jardine; Dances between continuous and discrete: Euler's summation formula David J. Pengelley; Some combinatorics in Jacob Bernoulli's Ars Conjectandi Stacy G. Langton; The Genoese lottery and the partition function Robert E. Bradley; Parallels in the work of Leonhard Euler and Thomas Clausen Carolyn Lathrop and Lee Stemkoski; Three bodies? Why not four? The motion of the Lunar Apsides Robert E. Bradley; 'The fabric of the universe is most perfect': Euler's research on elastic curves Lawrence D'Antonio; The Euler advection equation Roger Godard; Euler rows the boa C. Edward Sandifer; Lambert, Euler, and Lagrange as map makers George W. Heine, III; Index.

About the Author :
Robert E. Bradley is Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Adelphi University in New York. He is President of the Euler Society. Lawrence A. D'Antonio is Associate Professor of Mathematics at Ramapo College of New Jersey, Mahwah. C. Edward Sandifer is Professor of Mathematics at Western Connecticut State University.

Review :
The writing is uniformly high level and should interest both historians of mathematics and indeed any mathematician with a fondness for Euler. Highly Recommended"" - Choice ""The essays are well-written and clearly presented; many of them are accessible to a motivated reader while others are set at a more advanced level....These essays provide evidence that one can combine an avid interest in technical science with a substantial interest in history."" - Charles Fraser, Isis