Today 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 An Imaginary Tale, Paul Nahin tells the 2000-year-old history of one of mathematics' most elusive numbers, the square root of minus one, also known as i. He recreates the baffling mathematical problems that conjured it up, and the colorful characters who tried to solve them.In 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 i. In the first century, the mathematician-engineer Heron of Alexandria encountered I in 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 i finally won acceptance and was put to use in complex analysis and theoretical physics in Napoleonic times.Addressing 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.

In this book, award-winning educator Kieran Egan shows how we can transform the experience of K-12 students and help them become more knowledgeable and... more creative in their thinking. At the core of this transformative process is imagination which can become the heart of effective learning if it is tied to education's central tasks. An Imaginative Approach to Teaching is a groundbreaking book that offers an understanding of how students' imaginations work in learning and shows how the acquisition of cognitive tools drives students' educational development. This approach is unique in that it engages both the imagination and emotions. The author clearly demonstrates how knowledge comes to life in students' minds if it is introduced in the context of human hopes, fears, and passions. To facilitate this new educational approach, the book includes a wide variety of effective teaching tools - such as story, rhythm, play, opposition, agency, and meta-narrative understanding - that value and build upon the way children understand their experiences. Most important, Egan provides frameworks for lesson planning and more than a dozen sample lessons to show how teachers can use these tools to awaken intelligence and imagination in the classroom.

For more than a decade a vicious civil war has torn the fabric of society in the West African country of Sierra Leone, forcing thousands to flee their... homes for refugee camps and others to seek peace and asylum abroad. Sierra Leoneans have established new communities around the world, in London, Paris, New York, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere. Yet despite the great geographic range of this diaspora and the diverse ethnic backgrounds among Sierra Leoneans settled in the same communities abroad, these Africans have come to understand and express their shared identity through religious rituals, social engagements, and material culture.In An Imagined Geography, anthropologist JoAnn D'Alisera demonstrates persuasively that the long-held anthropological paradigms of separate, bounded, and unique communities, geographically located and neatly localized, must be reconsidered. Studying Sierra Leonean Muslims living in greater Washington, D.C., she shows how these immigrants maintain intense and genuine community ties through weddings, rituals, and travel, across both vast urban spaces and national boundaries. D'Alisera examines two primary issues: Sierra Leoneans' engagement with their homeland, to which they frequently traveled and often sent their children for upbringing until the outbreak of the civil war; and the Sierra Leonean interaction with a diverse, multicultural, increasingly global Muslim community that is undergoing its own search for identity.Sierra Leoneans in America, D'Alisera observes, express a longing for home and the pain of disconnection in powerful narratives about their country and about their own displacement. At the same time, however, self and communal identity are shaped by a pressing need to affiliate in their adopted country with Sierra Leoneans of all ethnic and religious backgrounds and with fellow Muslims from other parts of the world, a process that is played out against the complex social field of the American urban landscape.

From the author of the classic Human Anatomy for Artists comes this user-friendly reference guide featuring over five hundred original drawings and over... seventy photographs. Designed for painters, sculptors, and illustrators who use animal imagery in their work, Animal Anatomy for Artists offers thorough, in-depth information about the most commonly depicted animals, presented in a logical and easily understood format for artists--whether beginner or accomplished professional. The book focuses on the forms created by muscles and bones, giving artists a crucial three-dimensional understanding of the final, complex outer surface of the animal. Goldfinger not only covers the anatomy of the more common animals, such as the horse, dog, cat, cow, pig, squirrel, and rabbit, but also the anatomy of numerous wild species, including the lion, giraffe, deer, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, elephant, gorilla, sea lion, and bear. Included are drawings of skeletons and how they move at the joints, individual muscles showing their attachments on the skeleton, muscles of the entire animal, cross sections, photographs of live animals, and silhouettes of related animals comparing their shapes and proportions. He offers a new and innovative section on the basic body plan of four-legged animals, giving the reader a crucial conceptual understanding of overall animal structure to which the details of individual animals can then be applied. The chapter on birds covers the skeleton, muscles and feather patterns. The appendix presents photographs of skulls with magnificent horns and antlers and a section on major surface veins. Incredibly thorough, packed with essential information, Animal Anatomy for Artists is a definitive reference work, an essential book for everyone who depicts animals in their art.

Animal Behavior looks at the fascinating activities of animals as they progress from birth to maturity-how they attract a mate and care for their... young, find shelter and food, defend themselves, navigate sometimes vast distances and survive the many challenges of life.Written by a team of international experts, this beautiful book is full of examples drawn from the activities of all types of animals-mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, and insects. The relationships animals have with other animals-those on whom they depend, those whom they must repel-are a major element in their activities. More than a source of beauty and wonder, animals’ behavior is important to the earth’s ecological balance, and thus a key to the vitality of the planet.

This textbook covers the broad sweep of animal behavior from its neurological underpinnings to the importance of behavior in conservation. The authors,... Michael Breed and Janice Moore, bring almost 60 years of combined experience as university professors to this textbook, much of that teaching animal behavior. An entire chapter is devoted to the vibrant new field of behavior and conservation, including topics such as social behavior and the relationship between parasites, pathogens and behavior. Thoughtful coverage has also been given to foraging behavior, mating and parenting behavior, anti-predator behavior and learning. This text addresses the physiological foundations of behavior in a way that is both accessible and inviting. Each chapter begins with learning objectives and concludes with thought-provoking questions. Additionally, special terms and definitions are highlighted throughout. Animal Behavior provides a rich resource for students (and professors) from a wide range of life science disciplines. Provides a solid background in the neurophysiological and endocrinological bases of animal behavior as well as exceptionally strong coverage of social behavior Includes behavior and homeostatic mechanisms, behavior and conservation, and behavioral aspects of disease Highlights aspects of behavior that relate to domestic animals in particular Lab manual with fully developed and tested laboratory exercises available for courses that have labs (http://www.elsevierdirect.com/product.jsp?isbn=9780123725820) Companion site for faculty and students to enhance their learning experience at: www.elsevierdirect.com/companions/9780123725813

An Invitation to Cognitive Science provides a point of entry into the vast realm of cognitive science, offering selected examples of issues and theories... from many of its subfields. All of the volumes in the second edition contain substantially revised and as well as entirely new chapters.Rather than surveying theories and data in the manner characteristic of many introductory textbooks in the field, An Invitation to Cognitive Science employs a unique case study approach, presenting a focused research topic in some depth and relying on suggested readings to convey the breadth of views and results. Each chapter tells a coherent scientific story, whether developing themes and ideas or describing a particular model and exploring its implications.The volumes are self contained and can be used individually in upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses ranging from introductory psychology, linguistics, cognitive science, and decision sciences, to social psychology, philosophy of mind, rationality, language, and vision science.

This new edition of Animal Behavior has once again been thoroughly rewritten with coverage of much recent work in animal behavior, while retaining the... many successful features of previous editions. The writing style is clear and engaging; the book is well illustrated with many new photographs; and the discussion questions are embedded in the text to encourage the development of problem-solving skills of students. This now-classic text continues to offer a balanced treatment of the underlying mechanisms and evolutionary bases of behavior with a focus on the importance of evolutionary theory for the unification of the different behavioral disciplines.

This specially priced set includes a copy of Breed and Moore, Animal Behavior and Tillberg/Breed/Hinners, Field and Laboratory Exercises in Animal... Behavior. The textbook covers the broad sweep of animal behavior from its neurological underpinnings to the importance of behavior in conservation. An entire chapter is devoted to the vibrant new field of behavior and conservation, including topics such as social behavior and the relationship between parasites, pathogens and behavior. Thoughtful coverage has also been given to foraging behavior, mating and parenting behavior, anti-predator behavior and learning. Each chapter begins with learning objectives and concludes with thought-provoking questions. Additionally, special terms and definitions are highlighted throughout. The laboratory manual guides students through the diverse and fascinating fields of behavioral and ethological studies, employing a wide array of organisms as model systems for the study of behavior. Students participate in the development of hypothesis and turn the recording, analysis, and interpretation of data into an active and engaging process.Textbook provides a solid background in the neurophysiological and endocrinological bases of animal behavior Textbook chapters cover behavior and homeostatic mechanisms, behavior and conservation, and behavioral aspects of disease Lab manual includes fully developed and tested laboraty exercises available for courses that have labs (http://www.elsevierdirect.com/product.jsp?isbn=9780123725820) Companion site for faculty and students to enhance their learning experience at: www.elseiverdirect.com/companions/9780123725813

Designed for a one-semester introductory course in Animal Behavior. Animal behavior is a broad discipline with investigators and contributions from... diverse perspectives, including anthropology, comparative psychology, ecology, ethology, physiology, and zoology. The authors goal in this textbook is to use evolutionary principles as a unifying theme to provide students exposure to a number of approaches to the field of animal behavior. They also demonstrate that the varied perspectives used to study behavior are complementary and often integrated; they are not mutually exclusive. The subtitle, “Mechanisms, Ecology, and Evolution,” reflects the broad themes that dominate the book.