Shoulders of Giants: The story of electromagnetic theory - Paperback

by Jared Flatow (Author)

Shoulders of Giants traces how mathematical thought came to structure human understanding of the natural world - from classical geometry to the mathematics of electricity and magnetism. It follows a chain of ideas carried across centuries - discoveries forgotten, rediscovered, and transformed - linking the work of ancient philosophers to the analytical traditions of the Enlightenment and the scientific theories of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Figures such as Archimedes, Fermat, Pascal, Huygens, Euler, Gauss, Maxwell, and Heaviside appear in context, their contributions connected through evolving concepts of space, motion, and energy. The book grew out of an effort to make the ideas of mathematics and calculus intelligible to non-specialists - family, students, and anyone curious about how abstract reasoning reveals the workings of the world. Rigorously researched yet written for the general reader, it shows how abstraction became a practical language for understanding and shaping reality. Suitable for public, school, and academic library collections.