- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: Fourth Estate (4 Aug 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1841155799
- ISBN-13: 978-1841155791
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16 x 4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 460,400 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| |||||||||||||||
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'Du Sautoy is a contagious enthusiast, a populist with a staunch faith in the public's intelligence…he has uncovered a wealth of intriguing anecdotes that he has woven into a compelling narrative.' Observer
'He laces the ideas with history, anecdote and personalia – an entertaining mix that renders an austere subject palatable…valiant and ingenious…Even those with a mathematical allergy can enjoy du Sautoy's depictions of his cast of characters' The Times
'He brings hugely enjoyable writing, full of zest and passion, to the most fundamental questions in the pursuit of true knowledge.' Sunday Times
'A mesmerising journey into the world of mathematics and its mysteries.' Daily Mail
'A brilliant storyteller.' Independent
Simon Winchester, author of The Surgeon of Crawthorne
'This fascinating account...is written like the purest poetry. Marcus du Sautoy's enthusiasm shines through every line.'
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
62 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fantastic, beautiful book,
By David (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Music of the Primes: Why an unsolved problem in mathematics matters (Paperback)
It was Singh's "Fermat's Last Theorem" that led me to look for another book on Number Theory, and I'm very pleased I stumbled upon "The Music of the Primes". I've read a lot of popular science books, but this is definitely my favourite. It is incredibly easy to read, and the author gets the balance perfectly right between historical information, description of individuals and circumstances, and the maths itself. I'm pleased the maths isn't covered too thoroughly - I suspect it would have left me upset that I couldn't follow it, and negatively affected the overall story. If you do feel the need, it's simple to get any information you like on the maths involved from the web - I have a print out of a very good explanation of the zeta function now tucked in the back of the book. The subject matter is mind-blowing, and I'm appalled that I hadn't heard about it properly before. I would love to have found out about this at a younger age, and will force my own children to read it as soon as possible!!
44 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating and infuriating,
By
This review is from: The Music of the Primes: Why an unsolved problem in mathematics matters (Paperback)
This is a book I found fascinating and infuriating in turns. It is an excellent layman's history of number theory with particular reference to prime numbers and the Riemann zeta function. As such it is well worth the reading. However I found that there are certain elements, more of style than anything else, that annoyed me. Most of the results are handed to us without any proof whatsoever. All right, some of these proofs would be obviously well beyond the layman, but one is described as being understandable by the ancient Greeks (who started the whole thing) so why not include it as a footnote or appendix? Having established fairly early on that the points where a mathematical function "reaches sea level" are known as zeros, why keep reverting to the sea level analogy? And although the underlying theme throughout the book is the apparent inextricable link between the zeta function's zeros and counting primes, the Riemann hypothesis, I could find no clear, concise statement of exactly what Riemann said. Spanning over 2000 years, from the ancient Greeks to the 21st century, this is a book I would thoroughly recommend.
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very good, but could have been better...,
By
This review is from: The Music of the Primes: Why an unsolved problem in mathematics matters (Paperback)
I really wanted this book to be as good as Simon Singh's 'Fermat's Last Theorem', and while it shares many of the same characteristics as Singh's excellent debut, for me it didn't quite match up.
Of course, there my be a couple of simple reasons why this may have been so. Firstly, the Riemann Hypothesis is a rather more conceptually difficult mathematical problem to grasp than Pierre de Fermat's simple but elusive conjecture. Du Sautoy tries to deal with this by using analogies to landscapes and music, but due to the gaps between my reading sessions, I sometimes forgot the origin of the analogical thread, which meant I had to search back through the text to 'catch up'. The other main reason why this book was less satisfying is because nobody has yet proven Riemann's Hypthesis to be true, whereas Fermat's Last Theorem was finally proven by Andrew Wiles in the 1990's. Lastly, the book could have benefited from a series of notes or appendices linked to the text, through which the keen reader could gain a mathematical explanation of what was being described in the text. Again, Singh's book is a beautiful example of how this should be done. Overall though, a very good book, which I am sure I will read again.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
- Books > History > Other Historical Subjects > History of Science
- Books > Science & Nature > Mathematics > Calculus & Mathematical Analysis > Vector & Tensor Analysis
- Books > Science & Nature > Mathematics > Mathematical Foundations
- Books > Science & Nature > Mathematics > Popular Maths
- Books > Science & Nature > Popular Science > Maths
- Books > Scientific, Technical & Medical
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
