Taming the Infinite

by Ian Stewart

Overview

From ancient Babylon to the last great unsolved problems, Ian Stewart brings us his definitive history of mathematics. In his famous straightforward style, Professor Stewart explains each major development--from the first number systems to chaos theory--and considers how each affected society and changed everyday life forever.
Maintaining a personal touch, he introduces all of the outstanding mathematicians of history, from the key Babylonians, Greeks and Egyptians, via Newton and Descartes, to Fermat, Babbage and Godel, and demystifies math's key concepts without recourse to complicated formulae. Written to provide a captivating historic narrative for the non-mathematician, Taming the Infinite is packed with fascinating nuggets and quirky asides, and contains 100 illustrations and diagrams to illuminate and aid understanding of a subject many dread, but which has made our world what it is today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781623654733
Publisher:	Quercus
Publication date:	04/07/2015
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	15 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Professor Ian Stewart is a world renowned popularizer of mathematics, having won many awards for furthering public understanding of science, including the Royal Society's Michael Faraday Medal and the Gold Medal of the Institute for Mathematics.
He is the author of over 20 popular science and mathematics titles including Does God Play Dice?, Nature's Numbers (shortlisted for the 1996 Rhone-Poulenc Prize), Life's Other Secret and Flatterland, which was in the top 20 Bestseller List in the USA.
Professor Stewart is the mathematics consultant for New Scientist, and has been a consultant for Encyclopaedia Britannica. From 1990 to 2001 he wrote the 'Mathematical Recreations' column in Scientific American. He is an active research mathematician with over 160 published papers and is currently Professor of Mathematics at Warwick University where he is Director of the Mathematics Awareness Centre. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2001.

Table of Contents

Preface 6

1 Tokens, Tallies and Tablets 8

2 The Logic of Shape 20

3 Notations and Numbers 40

4 Lure of the Unknown 54

5 Eternal Triangles 69

6 Curves and Coordinates 82

7 Patterns in Numbers 92

8 The Systems of the World 106

9 Patterns in Nature 123

10 Impossible Quantities 137

11 Firm Foundations 148

12 Impossible Triangles 159

13 The Rise of Symmetry 173

14 Algebra Comes of Age 187

15 Rubber Sheet Geometry 200

16 The Fourth Dimension 216

17 The Shape of Logic 231

18 How Likely is That? 248

19 Number Crunching 257

20 Chaos and Complexity 266

Further Reading 279

Index 281

Editorial Reviews

"Clear and readable, [Taming the Infinite] is an essential title for math, science, and technology buffs and will be intriguing for all."—Library Journal

From the Publisher