Beginning with a brief introduction to set theory and mappings, the authors offer a clear presentation of the theory of metric and complete metric spaces. The principle of contraction mappings and its applications to the proof of existence theorems in the theory of differential and integral equations receives detailed analysis, as do continuous curves in metric spaces — a topic seldom discussed in textbooks.Part One also includes discussions of other subjects, such as elements of the theory of normed linear spaces, weak sequential convergence of elements and linear functionals, adjoint operators, and linear operator equations. Part Two focuses on an exposition of measure theory, the Lebesque interval and Hilbert Space. Both parts feature numerous exercises at the end of each section and include helpful lists of symbols, definitions, and theorems.

    Why does $2 \times 2 = 4$? What are fractions? Imaginary numbers? Why do the laws of algebra hold? What are the properties of the numbers on which the Differential and Integral Calculus is based? In other words, What are numbers? And why do they have the properties we attribute to them? This work answers such questions.

    It provides a transition from elementary calculus to advanced courses in real and complex function theory and introduces the reader to some of the abstract thinking that pervades modern analysis.

    Entirely modern in its data and conclusions, it reveals the surprising sophistication of certain areas of early science, particularly Babylonian mathematics.After a discussion of the number systems used in the ancient Near East (contrasting the Egyptian method of additive computations with unit fractions and Babylonian place values), Dr. Neugebauer covers Babylonian tables for numerical computation, approximations of the square root of 2 (with implications that the Pythagorean Theorem was known more than a thousand years before Pythagoras), Pythagorean numbers, quadratic equations with two unknowns, special cases of logarithms and various other algebraic and geometric cases. Babylonian strength in algebraic and numerical work reveals a level of mathematical development in many aspects comparable to the mathematics of the early Renaissance in Europe. This is in contrast to the relatively primitive Egyptian mathematics. In the realm of astronomy, too, Dr. Ncugebauer describes an unexpected sophistication, which is interpreted less as the result of millennia of observations (as used to be the interpretation) than as a competent mathematical apparatus. The transmission of this early science and its further development in Hellenistic times is also described. An Appendix discusses certain aspects of Greek astronomy and the indebtedness of the Copernican system to Ptolemaic and Islamic methods.Dr. Neugebauer has long enjoyed an international reputation as one of the foremost workers ill the area of premodern science. Many of his discoveries have revolutionized earlier understandings. In this volume he presents a non-technical survey, with much material unique on this level, which can be read with great profit by all interested in the history of science or history of culture.Unabridged, slightly corrected reprint of the 2nd, 1957 edition. 14 plates, 52 figures. xvi + 240pp. Paperbound.

    

    Written by a leading developer of such policies, it presents a series of methods, uniqueness and existence theorems, and examples for solving the relevant equations. The text examines existence and uniqueness theorems, the optimal inventory equation, bottleneck problems in multistage production processes, a new formalism in the calculus of variation, strategies behind multistage games, and Markovian decision processes. Each chapter concludes with a problem set that Eric V. Denardo of Yale University, in his informative new introduction, calls "a rich lode of applications and research topics." 1957 edition. 37 figures.