Related papers: If Archimedes would have known functions

In ancient Greek mathematics, magnitudes such as lengths were strictly distinguished from numbers. In modern quantity calculus, a distinction is made between quantities and scalars that serve as measures of quantities. It can be argued that…

These are notes on discrete mathematics for computer scientists. The presentation is somewhat unconventional. Indeed I begin with a discussion of the basic rules of mathematical reasoning and of the notion of proof formalized in a natural…

Sketches have been used to conceptualise and depict visual objects from pre-historic times. Sketch research has flourished in the past decade, particularly with the proliferation of touchscreen devices. Much of the utilisation of sketch has…

In this article, I discuss the relationship of mathematics to the physical world, and to other spheres of human knowledge. In particular, I argue that Mathematics is created by human beings, and the number $\pi$ can not be said to have…

Most if not all of today's revolutionary technologies have a common foundation, namely the intelligent use of information. It is clear that computers play a central role: but the contribution of mathematics, though less visible, is no less…

The main aim of the present work is to arrive at a mathematical theory close to the historically original conception of generalized functions, i.e. set theoretical functions defined on, and with values in, a suitable ring of scalars and…

This is expanded text of a lecture delivered by the author at the conference "Mat\'eriaux pour l'Histoire des Math\'ematiques au XX\`eme si\`ecle", which took place in Nice in January 1996. The task was to describe one area in the…

In this short review, I will summarize my research experience in three fields in applied mathematics: mathematical biology, applied probability, and applied discrete mathematics. Specifically, I will show how each project was initiated, and…

This paper establishes calculus upon two physical facts: (1) any average velocity is always between two instantaneous velocities, and (2) the motion of an object is determined once its velocity has been determined. It directly defines…

This work is thought as an operative guide to discrete exterior calculus (DEC), but at the same time with a rigorous exposition. We present a version of (DEC) on cubic cell, defining it for discrete manifolds. An example of how it works, it…

In 1989 H.Karcher rewrote the theory of elliptic functions through an approach that is much more geometrical than analytical. Therewith he obtained an optimal control over the behaviour and image values of these functions, which allowed for…

{\bf In the fourth extended version of this article, we provide a comprehensive historical survey of 200 different proofs of famous Euclid's theorem on the infinitude of prime numbers (300 {\small B.C.}--2022)}. The author is trying to…

There is a growing consensus that physics majors need to learn computational skills, but many departments are still devoid of computation in their physics curriculum. Some departments may lack the resources or commitment to create a…

Cirquent calculus is a new proof-theoretic and semantic framework, whose main distinguishing feature is being based on circuits, as opposed to the more traditional approaches that deal with tree-like objects such as formulas or sequents.…

I describe a simple historical thought experiment showing how we might have come to view the continuum hypothesis as a fundamental axiom, one necessary for mathematics, indispensable even for calculus.

Arithmetical structures on a graph were introduced by Lorenzini as some intersection matrices that arise in the study of degenerating curves in algebraic geometry. In this article we study these arithmetical structures, in particular we are…

This survey article on Hilbert's first and second problems is adapted from a one-hour colloquium lecture given at the University of Auckland in May, 2000, just three months before the 100th anniversary of Hilbert's lecture. It includes an…

Spacetime discretized in simplexes, as proposed in the pioneer work of Regge, is described in terms of selfdual variables. In particular, we elucidate the "kinematic" structure of the initial value problem, in which 3--space is divided into…

We investigate, in the context of functional prototype-based lan- guages, a calculus of objects which might extend themselves upon receiving a message, a capability referred to by Cardelli as a self-inflicted operation. We present a sound…

In this paper, some classes of discrete functions of $k$-valued logic are considered, that depend on sets of their variables in a particular way. Obtained results allow to "construct" these functions and to present them in their tabular,…