Books offered by JF Ptak Science Books

Punched Card Machines in the Maths, 1928

Snedecor,  George. 

"Use of Punched Card Equipment in Mathematics."  The Mathematical Association of America,  1928.  1st edition.  The American Mathematical Monthly, (35),Number 4, April 1928  Original printed wrappers.  Fine condition. 

Snedecor's article occupies pp 161-168 (of pp 161-216 comprising the issue) and is illustrated with several figures and one photo (of a card assembly area). We offer the entire monthly issue in the original wrappers. SCARCE. $165.00

A Chess-Playing Machine, 1950

Shannon,  Claude E.

"A Chess-Playing Machine." New York:  Scientific American,  1950.  1st edition.  Volume 182, No. 2, February 1950  This is an article in the February issue of the great Scientific American occupying pp 48-52.

Printed wrappers.  Very good condition. 

This is the first (and popular) appearance of Shannon's technical paper (which would appear a month later in the Philosophical Magazine).   This is the earliest appearance of an attempt to understand the necessities of a computer for playing a game of chess.

This is a nice, bright copy of the magazine, though there is some separation at the edges of the spine/wrappers.   $250.00

“Since the mid-1940s, scientists had aimed to create a thinking machine, an apparatus that could compete with or even surpass the human brain in logical operations, pattern recognition, problem solving and even language. Chess was found to be a useful testing ground because of its combination of simple rules and mind-bending complexity… Shannon was fascinated by chess’ potential in the pursuit of what he called ‘mechanized thinking.’ But he became convinced that computer chess and other AI pursuits should not be modeled on human thought… Computers, at least as they were understood then, could calculate very quickly, following programmed instructions. This particular strength—and limitation—of computers suggested a different route for AI, a new sort of quasi-intelligence based on mathematical computation. Chess would be a central proving ground for this new type of intelligence. Theoretically, at least, the game could be fully converted into one long mathematical formula” --Shenk, 201, 211.

Bethe & Placzek,  " Resonance Effects in Nuclear Processes."  American Physical Society,  1937.  1st edition.  The Physical Review, 51, March 15, 1937  8vo.  Original printed wrappers.  Very good condition.  The Bethe and Placzek article is abstracted in the great APS PROLA site, as follows: "A general formula is developed for the probability of nuclear processes with particular consideration of resonance (§2). The dependence of the cross section on the energy of the incident particle can be divided into two parts: Firstly, the dependence over energy regions small compared to nuclear energies, and secondly that over large energy regions, of the order of a million volts or more. The first dependence is completely given by the resonance formula; it shows resonance maxima and besides a simple general trend with the particle energy such as the 1 / v law. The dependence over large energy regions cannot be found without referring to a special nuclear model. (If the problem of nuclei were a one-body rather than a many-body problem, there would be only the dependence over large energy regions. Thus much more theoretical information of a general nature can be obtained for the many-body than for the one-body

Hilbert's Problems, 1901

Hilbert,  David.  "Problemes Mathematiques."  Paris:  Librairie armand Colin,  1901.  1st edition. In:  Revue generale des Sciences pures et appliques, 28 Fevrier 1901, 12^e annee, No. 4.

This is a revised printing of the 2nd printing of Hilbert's great problems speech (taken from The Archives of Mathematics), in which the he famously posed his 23 ("The Problems of Mathematics" was delivered to the Second International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris) problems which would challenge mathematicians to solve fundamental problems in the maths for years to come.   It was a speech full of optimism for mathematics in the coming century and he felt that open problems were the sign of vitality in the subject:  "The great importance of definite problems for the progress of mathematical science in general ... is undeniable. ... [for] as long as a branch of knowledge supplies a surplus of such problems, it maintains its vitality. ... every mathematician certainly shares ..the conviction that every mathematical problem is necessarily capable of strict resolution ... we hear within ourselves the constant cry: There is the problem, seek the solution. You can find it through pure thought... Hilbert's problems included the continuum hypothesis, the well ordering of the reals, Goldbach's conjecture, the transcendence of powers of algebraic numbers, the Riemann hypothesis, the extension of Dirichlet's principle and many more. Many of the problems were solved during this century, and each time one of the problems was solved it was a major event for mathematics".

Early Printing of Hilbert's Problems:

Hilbert, Mathematische Probleme, lecture held at the Paris ICM 1900, Nachrichten von der Koniglichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Gottingen (1900) 253-297; revised version in Archiv der Mathematik und Physik 1 (1901) 44-63, 213-237, and [58:3, pp. 290-329]

English translation (by M. W. Newson) in Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 8 (1901) 437-479; reprinted in the Bulletin 37 (2000) 407-436; also in Browder [8:1, pp. 1-34], Yandell [115, pp. 324-389], and Gray [31, pp. 240-282], selected parts in Ewald [17:2, pp. 1096-1105] and Reid [87, chap. 9].

French translations by L. Laugel (with corrections and additions) in Compte rendu du deuxieme congres international des mathematiciens tenu `a Paris du 6 au 12 aout 1900, E. Duporcq, ed., Gauthier-Villars, Paris, 1902, pp. 58-114; (fragments).L'Enseignement Mathematique 2 (1900) 349-354 and Revue Generale des Sciences Pures et Appliqees 12 (1901) 168-174.

This copy is very problematic--it comes from a tall stack of issues fro the Revue that I bought of the Library of Congress years ago--they were all cleanly sliced from their binding in an effort to digitize them.  That said, all pages are loose, but uniform.  I just couldn't not purchase these 30 years or so of the Revue, I couldn't let them go because they were in a difficult state.  Hence the price:  $150 

Weyl on Mathematical Logic, 1946

Weyl,  Hermann. 

"Mathematics and Logic."  Menasha, Wisconsin:  American MAthematical Association,  1946.  1st edition. 

In: The American Mathematical Monthly, 53/1  Pp 2-14  8vo.  Printed wrappers.  Very good condition.  Nice copy  We offer Weyl's contribution in the whole (blue wrappers) issue for January 1946 (containing pp 1-58). Not common.  $50.00

Quine: Two Truth Function Papers, 1952 & 1955

Quine,  Willard.  "The Problem of Simplifying Truth Functions."  Mathematical Association of America,  1952.  1st edition.  American Mathematical Monthly 59/8, October 1952  Original printed wrappers.  Fine condition.

Quine,  Willard van Orman.  "A Way to Simplify Truth Functions".  Mathematical Association of America,  1955.  1st edition.  American Mathematical Monthly  8vo.  Original printed wrappers.  Very good condition.  This is presentation of the Quine-McCluskey method of logical circuit minimization. Major paper, and its only appearance. The Quine-McCluskey algorithm (or the method of prime implicants) is a method used for minimization of boolean functions which was developed by W.V. Quine and Edward J. McCluskey. It is functionally identical to Karnaugh mapping, but the tabular form makes it more efficient for use in computer algorithms, and it also gives a deterministic way to check that the minimal form of a Boolean function has been reached. It is sometimes referred to as the tabulation method. 

[Note:  both issues are the same color; the issue in the background was rendered darker because it wasn't on the scanner bed.]

Carl Hempel on Mathematical Truth

Hempel,  C.G.  "On the Nature of Mathematical Truth."  Mathematical Association of America,  1945.  1st edition.  American Mathematical Monthly.   Original printed wrappers.  Fine condition.     $75

Henri Poincare, 1905

Poincare,  Henri.  "Sur la generalisation d'un theoreme elementaire de Geometrie."  Paris:  Academie des Sciences,  1905.  1st edition.  Comptes Rendus, 16 January 1905  4to.  Paper wrappers.  Good condition. Both are extracted from a larger bound volume, though only the front wrapper is present.  $350

Is this the real basis for Minkowski's construction of the 4-dimensions space-time structure? Something interesting to think about, for certain--only 6 months later would appear in these pages Poincare's "relativity" paper (1 June 1905)(on the dynamics of an electron), which so many others have (wrongly, I think) claimed to be the inspiration for the Einstein work on relativity. 

Rare Material on the Orbiting Geophysical Observatory, 1964

OGO--Orbiting Geophysical Observatory Materials, Manuscript, Blueprints, etc.

Published by TRW and various, 1962-1964.

Includes: "Final Report, Investigation of OGO-A Malfunction, Vol 1, Technical Considerations." TRW, 1964. 4 parts, 75pp. PLUS "OGO Structure Subsytem Design Criteria", offset mimeo sheets, with folding blueprints, photos etc etc.

***From Astronautica.com: "The OGO--Orbiting Geophysical Laboratory--Class: Earth. Type: Magnetosphere. Nation: USA. Agency: NASA. The purpose of the six Orbiting Geophysical Observatories was to conduct diversified geophysical experiments to obtain a better understanding of the earth as a planet and to develop and operate a standardized observatory-type satellite. OGO consisted of a main body, two solar panels, each with a solar-oriented experiment package (SOEP), two orbital plane experiment packages (OPEP) and six appendages, EP-1 through EP-6, supporting the boom experiment packages. The main body of the spacecraft was attitude controlled by means of horizon scanners and gas jets so that its orientation was maintained constant with respect to the earth and the sun. The solar panels rotated on a horizontal axis extending transversely through the main body of the spacecraft. The rotation of the panels was activated by sun sensors so that the panels received maximum sunlight. Seven experiments were mounted on the solar panels (the SOEP package). An additional axis, oriented vertically across the front of the main body, carried seven experiments (the OPEP package). Nominally, these sensors observed in a forward direction in the orbital plane of the satellite. The sensors could be rotated more than 90 deg relative to the nominal observing position and more than 90 deg between the upper and lower OPEP groups mounted on either end of this axis." $500.00

Minuteman Missile Materials, 1962

Weapon System 113B Aerospace Vehicle Structural Design Criteria.  1962.  37pp  4to.  "This document presents the basic requirements and information governing the structural design of the SM-80C Minuteman vehicle, including the re-entry vehicle during powered flight". The SM-80C was the Minuteman I, first successfully flown 28 Sept 1962 at Vandenberg. Stamped "Confidential", this report is a stapled collection of the offset sheets and subjected to very limited distribution.  $200.00