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One of the World's Most Influential Math Texts is Getting a Beautiful, Minimalist Edition (theverge.com)

Posted by msmash on from the for-modern-audience dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: A couple of years ago, a small publisher called Kroncker Wallis issued a handsome, minimalist take on Isaac Newton's Principia. Now, the publisher is embarking on its next project: Euclid's Elements. The publisher is using Kickstarter to fund this new edition. Euclid's Elements is a mathematical text written by Greek mathematician Euclid around 300 BCE and has been called one of the most influential textbooks ever produced. The treatise contains 13 separate books, covering everything from plane geometry, the Pythagorean theorem, golden ratio, prime numbers, and quite a bit more. The books helped to influence scientists such as Nicolaus Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, and Sir Isaac Newton. In 1847, an English mathematician named Oliver Byrne re-wrote the first six books of Euclid's Elements, taking its concepts and illustrating them.

7 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. Should be awesome by Potor · · Score: 4, Informative

    I have an edition of Byrne's first six books - it is beautiful, and given his approach, quite useful.

    Can't wait for somebody to finish his work, esp. the illustrated version of the irrationality of the square root of 2.

  2. Re:Is it time to upgrade ? by Potor · · Score: 2

    I agree: Taschen did a great job on Byrne's book. But Taschen did so on a book that was already written, and long out of copyright.

    This new book is yet to be written, and, having done a few books myself priced in this range, I know that this price is not exorbitant.

    Finally, as a corollary to the above, this book does not compete with anything Taschen has done, so it need not blow the earlier work out of the water. It simply needs to be good on its own terms.

  3. Re: Is "The C Programming Language" next? by ganjadude · · Score: 2

    i tend not to even look at peoples names here only the comments themselves. if something is useful great! if not, then go on the attack

    attacking people for things that have nothing to do with the topic at hand is just tiring in todays world

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  4. Okay, I'll bite by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 3, Funny

    Euclid's Elements is a mathematical text written by Greek mathematician Euclid around 300 BCE.

    What does BCE mean? Is it the Canadian version of BC?

    Before Christ, Eh?

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    #DeleteFacebook
    1. Re:Okay, I'll bite by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Political correctness has decreed we not use BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini) but BCE (Before Common Era) and CE (Common Era) for dates.
      I don't know who we don't have to offend anymore. Maybe the Aliens ?

    2. Re:Okay, I'll bite by CODiNE · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's been the scholarly habit for decades and has nothing to do with Political Correctness, it's simply and incorrect and religiously charged term. It's not even the right year for Jesus' birth.

      --
      Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
  5. Re:Is it time to upgrade ? by Hognoxious · · Score: 2

    the illustrations poped out of the page

    I don't know vat I can say about that.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."