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The Best of All Possible Worlds - Mathematics and Destiny by Ivar Ekeland (Paperback, 2007)

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Optimists believe this is the best of all possible worlds. And pessimists fear that might really be the case. But what is the best of all possible worlds? How do we define it? Is it the world that operates the most efficiently? Or the one in which most people are comfortable and content? Questions such as these have preoccupied philosophers and theologians for ages, but there was a time, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when scientists and mathematicians felt they could provide the answer. This book is their story. Ivar Ekeland here takes the reader on a journey through scientific attempts to envision the best of all possible worlds. He begins with the French physicist Maupertuis, whose least action principle asserted that everything in nature occurs in the way that requires the least possible action. This idea, Ekeland shows, was a pivotal breakthrough in mathematics, because it was the first expression of the concept of optimization, or the creation of systems that are the most efficient or functional. Although the least action principle was later elaborated on and overshadowed by the theories of Leonhard Euler and Gottfried Leibniz, the concept of optimization that emerged from it is an important one that touches virtually every scientific discipline today. Tracing the profound impact of optimization and the unexpected ways in which it has influenced the study of mathematics, biology, economics, and even politics, Ekeland reveals throughout how the idea of optimization has driven some of our greatest intellectual breakthroughs. The result is a dazzling display of erudition?one that will be essential reading for popular-science buffs and historians of science alike.

Product Identifiers

Publisher
The University of Chicago Press
ISBN-13
9780226199955
eBay Product ID (ePID)
95724891

Product Key Features

Author
Ivar Ekeland
Publication Name
The Best of All Possible Worlds-Mathematics and Destiny
Format
Paperback
Language
English
Subject
Science, Mathematics
Publication Year
2007
Type
Textbook
Number of Pages
214 Pages

Dimensions

Item Height
227mm
Item Width
152mm
Item Weight
330g

Additional Product Features

Title_Author
Ivar Ekeland
Country/Region of Manufacture
United States

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The Best of All Possible Worlds - Mathematics and Destiny by Ivar Ekeland (Paperback, 2007)

About this product

Product Information

Product Identifiers

Product Key Features

Dimensions

Additional Product Features

Best Selling in Adult Learning & University

Polyvagal Exercises for Safety and Connection: 50 Client-Centered Practices by Deb Dana (Paperback, 2020)

Save on Adult Learning & University

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Michael Price Nick Vandome Windows 11 for Seniors in easy steps (Paperback)

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