"But what, after all, are the integers? Everyone thinks that he or she knows, for example, what the number three is — …"

"It should be mentioned also that the Hindus, unlike the Greeks, regarded irrational roots of numbers as numbers. This…"

"A Hebrew belief asserted that if Yahweh lays aside his bow and hangs it in the clouds, this is a sign that his anger …"

"In ancient classical literature the rainbow sometimes was deified as Iris; at other times it was regarded merely as t…"

"Ptolemy left in his Optics, the earliest surviving table of angles of refraction from air to water. … This table, quo…"

"Robert Grosseteste … was born at the decisive moment when Greek and Arabic science became accessible in Latin versions."

"Robert [Grosseteste] became much interested in science and scientific method … He was conscious of the dual approach …"

"Descartes maintained his confidence in the instantaneity of light. … Yet in his derivation of the law of refraction, …"

"Fermat had recourse to the principle of the economy of nature. Heron and Olympiodorus had pointed out in antiquity th…"

"Carl B. Boyer … is more or less the Gibbon of math history."