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Lewis Carroll in Numberland: His Fantastical Mathematical Logical Life
 
 
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Lewis Carroll in Numberland: His Fantastical Mathematical Logical Life (Hardcover)

by Robin Wilson (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
RRP: £16.99
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Allen Lane (3 Jul 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0713997575
  • ISBN-13: 978-0713997576
  • Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 13.4 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 251,277 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description

Lewis Carroll's writings have inspired and entertained generations of readers, but now his forgotten achievements in the world of numbers are finally brought to light by highly acclaimed author and mathematician Robin Wilson. Here Wilson explores the singular imagination of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson - known to millions around the world as Lewis Carroll - the creator of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass". "Lewis Carroll in Numberland" shows how this incredible mind was not limited to the exuberant fantasy and word play of his children's books which brim with mathematical allusions - arithmetical, geometrical, logical and mechanical. Dodgson's exceptional talent as a mathematician won him the Christ Church Mathematical Lectureship at Oxford, a position he held for over twenty-six years. During this time he published extensively and brilliantly in the traditional fields of geometry, logic and algebra. Wilson's passionate celebration of Dodgson's mathematical achievements reveals that his work in numbers went far beyond the purely academic. We are taken inside the mind of a man who turned his mathematical genius to the study of voting patterns, to the design of tennis tournaments and even to the prolific creation and popularization of imaginative, numerical puzzles. This absorbing book introduces us to the mind behind the myth and shows the true range of Carroll's extraordinary talents and numerous contributions to British society.


About the Author

Robin Wilson is Head of the Pure Mathematics Department at the Open University and, in London, Gresham Professor of Geometry, the oldest mathematics Chair in England. He is also a Fellow in Mathematics at Keble College, Oxford. The author and editor of thirty books, including the critically acclaimed Four Colours Suffice, he is well known internationally for his expository skills and has won a number of prestigious awards for his writings.
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4 Reviews
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4.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent overview of Carroll the Mathematician, 26 Jul 2008
"Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the looking-glass" are classics, and Lewis Carroll is also known as a pioneer of photography, but his mathematics is less well-known. This excellent book is a very readable account of Carroll's mathematics: his puzzles, his occasional pieces like "The Dynamics of a Parti-cle", his defence of Euclid, and his more serious work on the mathematics of voting systems, determinants and logic. Appropriately, this book is very entertaining: Carroll and Wilson share a love of jokes! You don't need to be a mathematician to enjoy this: if you want to know about Carroll's life beyond the Alice books, this is an excellent place to start.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Lewis Carroll in Numberland, 16 May 2009
By Mr. Mark Greenaway - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
The book comprised a nice balance of biography and a range of maths based content, which provide a clear accessible outline of the developments he made without going into too much detail. I peronally would have prefered less enphasis on the puzzles but it was a major interest of his.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Lewis Carroll in Numberland by Robin Wilson, 28 Oct 2008
By K. Singh (Hertfordshire) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Review of Lewis Carroll in Numberland by Robin Wilson.
The book tells the story of Charles Dodgson who is better known as Lewis Carroll the author of various fictions such as Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. The book is divided into eight fits and describes how Charles Dodgson was not just the writer of fictions but also a professional mathematician contributing to linear algebra, logic, mathematical puzzles, geometry etc. The book is essentially a biography of Charles Dodgson with a few opening quotes of Carroll's work.
Charles Dodgson was born in 1832 in Cheshire and studied at Oxford graduating with a first class honours in 1854. One of his hints in studying mathematics was:
"Never leave an unsolved difficulty behind. It is bound to haunt you in some proof or solution later on".
Wilson also describes in detail the great interest that Charles Dodgson took in photography. He claims that Charles become one of the most important photographers of the 19th Century. The book is sprinkled with some of the images that Charles photographed throughout his life.
It is good to see that the author does not shy away from putting some of the mathematics that interested Charles Dodgson. The mathematics in the book ranges from his defence of Euclid's Elements to his book on Elementary Treatise on Determinants. However his main interest was in mathematical logic in which he wrote Symbolic Logic which was published in 1896. He also wrote various mathematical puzzles.
Over the last 100 years a lot has been written about Dodgson's interest in children normally suggesting something disturbing but Wilson refutes all these claims. I do wonder how the political correct will accommodate this refutation with the book containing photographs of young children taken by Dodgson.
Wilson describes how not only is Charles Dodgson a mathematician and an author but also a deeply religious man and a keen walker.
There are some real engaging stories about Charles Dodgson such as when he put a case for a Mathematical Institute at the University of Oxford in 1868. However Oxford had to wait another 65 years before a Mathematical Institute was built.
Another fascinating story the author describes about Charles Dodgson is when his Oxford College (Christ Church) was in financial difficulty. Dodgson proposed that his salary be lowered from £300/year to £200/year. In present day circumstances this would be an unthinkable (or even stupid) act!
In 1881 Dodgson, aged nearly 50, resigned his mathematical lectureship so that he could devote more time to writing books.
Charles Dodgson passed away in 1898 aged nearly 66 in Guildford.
The book is really well written with both characters, Charles Dodgson and Lewis Carroll, being described as a mathematician and an author of fiction.
The book can be hard to follow in places if you are not familiar with A level mathematics but it is possible to skip these parts and maintain the flow of the book. It is a hard balance to strike between putting mathematics into a book like this which can lead to decreased sales and having no mathematics which would be a very serious omission. Robin Wilson has struck the right balance between these two conflicting notions.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Lewis Carroll in Numberland
Lewis Carroll in Numberland is written in the warm and witty style characteristic of Professor Robin Wilson. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Anonymous

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