Mathematical analysis (nonfiction)

Archimedes used the method of exhaustion to compute the area inside a circle by finding the area of regular polygons with more and more sides. This was an early but informal example of a limit, one of the most basic concepts in mathematical analysis.

Mathematical analysis is the branch of mathematics dealing with limits and related theories, such as differentiation, integration, measure, infinite series, and analytic functions.

These theories are usually studied in the context of real and complex numbers and functions. Analysis evolved from calculus, which involves the elementary concepts and techniques of analysis. Analysis may be distinguished from geometry; however, it can be applied to any space of mathematical objects that has a definition of nearness (a topological space) or specific distances between objects (a metric space).

In the News

• 

  A strange attractor arising from a differential equation. Differential equations are an important area of mathematical analysis with many applications to science and engineering.

Fiction cross-reference

• Gnomon algorithm
• Mathematics

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Archimedes (nonfiction)
• Calculus (nonfiction)
• Mathematics (nonfiction)

External links:

• Mathematical analysis @ Wikipedia