{"title":"Paul J. Nahin","description":"Paul J. Nahin is emeritus professor of electrical engineering at the University of New Hampshire. He is the author of many popular math books, including most recently In Pursuit of Zeta-3: The World's Most Mysterious Unsolved Math Problem; Hot Molecules, Cold Electrons: From the Mathematics of Heat to the Development of the Trans-Atlantic Telegraph Cable; and How to Fall Slower Than Gravity: And Other Everyday (and Not So Everyday) Uses of Mathematics and Physical Reasoning (all Princeton).","products":[{"product_id":"the-mathematical-radio-inside-the-magic-of-am-fm-and-single-sideband-paperback","title":"The Mathematical Radio: Inside the Magic of Am, Fm, and Single-Sideband - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eHow a modern radio works, told through mathematics, history, and selected puzzles\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe modern radio is a wonder, and behind that magic is mathematics. In \u003ci\u003eThe Mathematical Radio\u003c\/i\u003e, Paul Nahin explains how radios work, deploying mathematics and historical discussion, accompanied by a steady stream of intriguing puzzles for math buffs to ponder. Beginning with oscillators and circuits, then moving on to AM, FM, and single-sideband radio, Nahin focuses on the elegant mathematics underlying radio technology rather than the engineering. He explores and explains more than a century of key developments, placing them in historical and technological context. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eNahin, a prolific author of books on math for the general reader, describes in fascinating detail the mathematical underpinnings of a technology we use daily. He explains and solves, for example, Maxwell's equations for the electromagnetic field. Readers need only a familarity with advanced high school-level math to follow Nahin's mathematical discussions. Writing with the nonengineer in mind, Nahin examines topics including impulses in time and frequency, spectrum shifting at the transmitter, the superheterodyne, the physics of single-sideband radio, and FM sidebands. Chapters end with \"challenge problems\" and an appendix offers solutions, partial answers, and hints. Readers will come away with a new appreciation for the beauty of even the most useful mathematics.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51376753606879,"sku":"9780691235332","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/2Lc-FSujNx9780691235332.webp?v=1789225250"},{"product_id":"an-imaginary-tale-the-story-of-8730-1-paperback","title":"An Imaginary Tale: The Story of \u0026#8730;-1 - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eToday complex numbers have such widespread practical use--from electrical engineering to aeronautics--that few people would expect the story behind their derivation to be filled with adventure and enigma. In \u003ci\u003eAn Imaginary Tale\u003c\/i\u003e, Paul Nahin tells the 2000-year-old history of one of mathematics' most elusive numbers, the square root of minus one, also known as \u003ci\u003ei\u003c\/i\u003e. He recreates the baffling mathematical problems that conjured it up, and the colorful characters who tried to solve them. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn 1878, when two brothers stole a mathematical papyrus from the ancient Egyptian burial site in the Valley of Kings, they led scholars to the earliest known occurrence of the square root of a negative number. The papyrus offered a specific numerical example of how to calculate the volume of a truncated square pyramid, which implied the need for \u003ci\u003ei\u003c\/i\u003e. In the first century, the mathematician-engineer Heron of Alexandria encountered \u003ci\u003eI \u003c\/i\u003ein a separate project, but fudged the arithmetic; medieval mathematicians stumbled upon the concept while grappling with the meaning of negative numbers, but dismissed their square roots as nonsense. By the time of Descartes, a theoretical use for these elusive square roots--now called \"imaginary numbers\"--was suspected, but efforts to solve them led to intense, bitter debates. The notorious \u003ci\u003ei\u003c\/i\u003e finally won acceptance and was put to use in complex analysis and theoretical physics in Napoleonic times. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAddressing readers with both a general and scholarly interest in mathematics, Nahin weaves into this narrative entertaining historical facts and mathematical discussions, including the application of complex numbers and functions to important problems, such as Kepler's laws of planetary motion and ac electrical circuits. This book can be read as an engaging history, almost a biography, of one of the most evasive and pervasive \"numbers\" in all of mathematics.\u003ch3\u003eBack Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Dispelling many common myths about the origin of the mystic 'imaginary' unit, Nahin tells the story of \u003ci\u003ei\u003c\/i\u003e from a historic as well as human perspective. His enthusiasm and informal style easily catch on to the reader. \u003ci\u003eAn Imaginary Tale\u003c\/i\u003e is a must for anyone curious about the evolution of our number concept.\"\u003cb\u003e--Eli Maor, author of \u003ci\u003eTrigonometric Delights\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ee: The Story of a Number\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eTo Infinity and Beyond\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51376754196703,"sku":"9780691169248","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/PdHrI3RzlP9780691169248.webp?v=1789225252"},{"product_id":"the-art-of-the-what-if-in-17-science-fiction-tales-from-the-past-paperback","title":"The Art of the What-If?: In 17 Science Fiction Tales from the Past - Paperback","description":"\u003ch3\u003eBack Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eContrary to popular belief, the goal of science fiction (SF) is not the prediction of \u003cem\u003ethe \u003c\/em\u003efuture, but rather to explore the multitude of \u003cem\u003epossible \u003c\/em\u003efutures. That is, SF is the literature of 'what-if' scenarios. This book explores more than a dozen such possibilities, with each chapter ending with a fictional illustration of the theme of that chapter (time travel, topology, alternate worlds, computer intelligence tests for politicians, invisibility, and more). The fictional treatments ask -- and sometimes answer -- questions like: \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e⦁ What might happen if you discovered how to induce nuclear fusion in room temperature water?\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e⦁ Could a combat soldier, and an intelligent, lethal weapon, develop a deep emotional relationship?\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e⦁ If an archeologist, using x-rays, discovered the lost casket of Jesus in an Egyptian museum, would he open it? If he did, what might he find? (This tale appeared in print two years before the release of \u003cem\u003eRaiders of the Lost Ark\u003c\/em\u003e.)\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e⦁ What if you received a letter, addressed specifically to you, from a man who died decades before you were born?\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e⦁ Could a little boy who tries to fix the family television set save Earth from an interstellar invasion?\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e⦁ In 1971 'D. B. Cooper' high-jacked a commercial airliner and then bailed-out (with a $200,000 ransom) into a snowstorm and vanished forever. Or did he?\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e⦁ What might happen if you ate a four-dimensional doughnut?\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe stories in this book will challenge your imagination, and perhaps make you wonder 'Well, maybe that could happen!'\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51379430654175,"sku":"9783032156174","price":30.22,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/THh1k-VHRA9783032156174.webp?v=1789272499"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/paul-j-nahin.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}