Geometry in History [electronic resource] / edited by S. G. Dani, Athanase Papadopoulos.

Plato on Geometry and the Geometers -- Topology and Biology: From Aristotle to Thom -- Time and eriodicity from Ptolemy to Schrödinger: Paradigm Shifts vs Continuity in History of Mathematics -- Convexity in Greek Antiquity -- On the Concept of Curve: Geometry and Algebra, fromMathematicalModernity to MathematicalModernism -- From Euclid to Riemann and Beyond: How to Describe the Shape of the Universe -- A Path in History, from Curvature to Convexity -- The Axiomatic Destiny of the Theorems of Pappus and Desargues -- Projective Configuration Theorems: Old Wine into New Wineskins -- Poincaré’s GeometricWorldview and Philosophy -- Perturbing a Planar Rotation: Normal Hyperbolicity and Angular Twist -- René Thom and an Anticipated h-Principle -- Rigid and Flexible Facets of Symplectic Topology -- Flat Affine, Projective and Conformal Structures on Manifolds: A Historical Perspective -- Basic Aspects of Differential Geometry -- The Global Study of Riemannian-Finsler Geometry -- The Poincaré Conjecture and Related Statements -- A Glimpse into the Problems of the Fourth Dimension -- Memories fromMy Former Life: The Making of a Mathematician -- Index.

This is a collection of surveys on important mathematical ideas, their origin, their evolution and their impact in current research. The authors are mathematicians who are leading experts in their fields. The book is addressed to all mathematicians, from undergraduate students to senior researchers, regardless of the specialty.