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The earliest treatise on algebra is the Egyptian Rhind Papyrus (c.1700 BC). But in c.3000 BC Egyptians called it "aha Calculus" because "Aha," "Ahe," or "Ahau" was the name of the second pharaoh of the first dynasty. Meaning mass, quantity, or heap (a pile of many things), it was used as an abstract term for the unknown in an equation. Originally, the word "algebra"-("al" "from Egypt"--"al-Kemit")--meant the reuniting of broken parts and was later defined by the Arabs as "restoration", including "bone setting". Note that Yin and Yang are also about the union of separate parts... Africans found a place...

It all started with Elvis. In 2003, mathematician Tim Pennings of Hope College in Holland, Mich., revealed to the world that his Welsh corgi, Elvis, appears to be solving a calculus problem when finding the optimal path to fetch a ball. In this case, optimal path means minimizing travel time. When Elvis and Pennings go to the beach, they always play fetch. Standing at the water's edge, Pennings throws a tennis ball out into the waves, and Elvis eagerly retrieves it. When Pennings throws the ball at an angle to the shoreline, Elvis has several options. He can run along...

Sunday May 08, 2005 LOS ANGELES (AP) Louis Leithold, who wrote one of the most widely used calculus textbooks and helped change the way the subject is taught, has died. He was 80. Leithold was found dead April 29 at his Los Angeles home by the parent of a worried student. The coroner's office said he died of natural causes. Leithold wrote ``The Calculus,'' which became a standard text and was credited with changing the way the subject is studied. The book, first published in 1968, is widely used in high schools and universities and is in its seventh printing....

This is my first vanity post, I wasn't going to post this until I realized there is a "vanity" option under topics. Anyone care to help out a freeper? I'm about to begin the three part calculus sequence followed by differential equqations and I'm starting to get nervous. I would like advice from those who are there or have been there. I am an adult student who has decided to return to school, I have re-taken trig and precalculus (both A's)as a refresher. I'm looking for any kind of advice, general or specific. What things are inportant for the study...

(Belated) congratulations to Senior Fellow David Berlinski for being included amongst the best science writers for 2002. David's article What Brings a World Into Being? from Commentary Magazine is included in Matt Ridley's The Best American Science Writing 2002. Congratulations David! David is author of the now historical The Deniable Darwin. His books include A Tour of the Calculus, The Advent of the Algorithm, and Newton's Gift. His new book, Secrets of the Vaulted Sky, is forthcoming from Harcourt later this year. From the publisher: If, as Matt Ridley suggests, science is simply the search for new forms of ignorance,...

Here's a good old fashioned math problem. Thanks for the help! A chemical in an aqueous solution decays exponentially with a half life of t minutes. At what rate must additional chemical be added to the solution in a tank so that the bulk concentration of the chemical remains constant? Fresh solution is NOT added to the tank or withdrawn from the tank, just the chemical is added. Volume of the tank = V (liters). The desired steady state concentration of the chemical = C (mg/l). Assume perfect mixing.

Fifteen years in the making, fast-selling book proposes 'A New Kind of Science' NEW YORK -- To the countless would-be scientists whose careers foundered on the baffling shoals of calculus, a brilliant physicist who earned his Ph.D. at 20 and snagged a MacArthur "genius" grant at 22 seems an unlikely source of comfort. Yet Stephen Wolfram has some inspiring words for the mathematically challenged. In his self-published and unexpectedly popular book, Wolfram argues that sophisticated mathematics has led science astray in its effort to explain the natural world. "A New Kind of Science" proposes that simple rules, not complex equations,...