Mathematics on stamps

Author: (British) Robin J. Wilson
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2002-08-01
Features: To celebrate the 14th General Assembly of the International Mathematical Union and the 24th International Congress of Mathematicians, two of the world's highest academic conferences in mathematics, held in China, Shanghai Science and Technology Education Press has launched the book "Mathematics on Stamps." This is a thematic philatelic appreciation book focused on mathematics, written by Robin J. Wilson, a senior mathematics lecturer at the Open University of the UK and a researcher at Keble College, Oxford, and translated by Li Xincan and others in China. From the thousands of math-related stamps he has collected over the years, the author has carefully selected nearly 400 stamps, organized into 55 topics, presenting the development of mathematics over thousands of years in a highly vivid and engaging way through the combination of stamp appreciation and corresponding descriptive text. The book includes hundreds of math-related stamps, with some materials sourced from Philamath, a regular newsletter dedicated to stamp collectors of mathematics. The themes range from the oldest counting methods to the modern era of computing. Through reading this book, you will meet some influential mathematicians in the long history of mathematics, such as Pythagoras, Archimedes, Newton, and Einstein, as well as explore fields like navigation, astronomy, and art, which were precisely the areas of study that contributed to the advancement of mathematics. Each topic in the book is accompanied by a double-page spread and a gatefold, with the left page featuring commentary and the right page displaying enlarged stamps. At the end of the book, there is also an index of stamps mentioned in the main text. This book is written for every reader interested in mathematics and its applications. It is not a traditional history of mathematics book. Some important mathematicians and important branches of mathematics are not included because there are no corresponding suitable stamps. Instead, some mathematicians who were not particularly famous originally are included because the related stamps are exquisite and abundant.