The Geometre's Grimoire: How Geometry Became Trigonometry - Paperback

by Raymond Saltpeter (Author)

If you were disappointed by the modern-day high-school Math curriculum, then this book is for you. This book takes an alternative approach, rather than teach math as a pure subject; it tries to explain why early human-kind was inspired to push math beyond arithmetic through a series of interesting questions: How did geometry come to be? (A question that takes us as far back as the Egyptians and Babylonians.) How did geometry influence the creation of philosophy? Does the meaning of life lie in the proportions of sounds made by a string instrument, like a guitar or a violin? Is it possible to logically explain the phenomenon of perspective in human sight? Can eyesight be used to measure the size of large and far-away objects, like the Moon and the Sun? How can the seasons of Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall be predicted by observing the Sun's movement? What was the scientific reason the ancient Astronomers thought Earth was the center of our universe? And through those questions, you will learn how trigonometry came to be and how the ancient Astronomers used it.