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Abstraction and Structural Analogies in Mathematical Sciences

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History of the Mathematical Sciences

Abstract

With a view to putting the available knowledge in a nutshell, while considerable efforts have been there in physical sciences to understand Nature in terms of some minimum principles, similar efforts have been in mathematical sciences to compactify the mathematical formulae of course in their abstract forms. On the other hand, a variety of formulae are used in different branches of applied mathematics just on the basis of structural analogy. In the present work, we suggest a scheme to classify the merit of an analogy and also present several examples to this effect from both pure and applied mathematics. A new process of abstraction existing already in ancient mathematical sciences is also discussed along with examples.

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Kaushal, R.S. (2004). Abstraction and Structural Analogies in Mathematical Sciences. In: Grattan-Guinness, I., Yadav, B.S. (eds) History of the Mathematical Sciences. Hindustan Book Agency, Gurgaon. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-93-86279-16-3_3

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