- Hardcover: 336 pages
- Publisher: Allen Lane (28 Aug 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0713996293
- ISBN-13: 978-0713996296
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.8 x 3.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 718,571 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
The Art of the Infinite: Our Lost Language of Numbers
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
This accessible work aims to inspire the general reader with the wonder and beauty of mathematics - our first native language. To savour mathematics is to feel the same exhilaration that great music inspires - the wonder that something invented by humans is also timeless. The text starts from the basics, moving systematically to the frontiers of the topic. The authors draw on science, literature, history, biography and philosophy, clarifying the knowledge that patterns of mathematics are everywhere.
About the Author
Co-authors Robert and Ellen Kaplan are husband and wife. Robert Kaplan has taught mathematics (most recently at Harvard Universtiy). He also taught Greek, German, Sanskrit and inspred guessing. In addition to teaching mathematics at Harvard University, Ellen Kaplan has taught history, Latin and biology. Together they have founded The Math Circle, a school for the enjoyment of pure mathematics
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
Things occupy space-but how many of them there are (or could be) belongs to time, as we tick them off to a walking rhythm that projects ongoing numbering into the future. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Things occupy space-but how many of them there are (or could be) belongs to time, as we tick them off to a walking rhythm that projects ongoing numbering into the future. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book is written in the same style as the Kaplans' "The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero", i.e. a friendly, somewhat informal, somewhat comical approach to the subject matter. That said, the content is very well presented and rigorous in terms of its correctness and completeness, at least for something which is not a journal article nor a textbook. The book starts with counting in the naturals, moves on through Z, Q, R, C. It is showing at each step what is going on with the extents of these spaces and what happens when their limits need to be breached. The book also works at things from a geometric standpoint, and then, a la Descartes, shows how the algebraic/coordinate complements the geometric. Pushing on with limits of space, it progresses into modern elements with projective geometry and then finally falls into the Abyss with Cantor and counting infinite sets, transfinite sets, alephs, etc.
The book is very approachable and gives good historical information on the movers and shakers involved. The book also is looking at the philisophical implications of moving towards Cantor and his amazing results.
A good read. There is some math in this book, but that is a good thing!-)
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Many years ago, sometime in the middle of the last century - I knew all about mathematics. But life moves on and you do different stuff (computers in my case) and all those incredibly beautiful equations and amazing proofs sort of fade into the background. And you have children and time moves on. And then nostalgia kicks in. What was it like back in those days when you knew everything? What was it that was so magical about mathematics? I picked up this book without any expectations - but these two REALLY know what it means to be a mathemagician - and lead you gently (but FIRMLY - lots of equations) through what you know you knew, but have since forgotten. This is serious "Tears to the Eyes" and "Tingles Down the Spine" stuff for all those of us who have forgotten the detail (but not the thrill) of seeing how algebra, geometry and infinity are all inextricably entwined in the most beautiful and elegant of the sciences. And as for E to the I PI.... to die for!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Loved this book to start with, but it gets very very difficult to follow by the end...I like the fact that some of the proofs that are mentioned so often in Maths history books are in the appendix, and there's more of the same on an online appendix...great for the amateur Maths enthusiast or undergrad student such as I am.
The author irritated somewhat with some of his references - he's obviously very well read but can lose you very quickly by using metaphors and similes that don't help at all unless you've spent much of your time reading Greek mythology and the great authors...which I haven't. I can't stand fiction of any epoch.
Nonetheless, this is an interesting read - it's sort of hit a nice middle ground between a full on text book and a history of Maths. There are points when it helps to get your out your pencil and compass yourself, but if you're not into that, you can move on and the pieces will probably fall into place later in the book.
I suppose the greatest testament to this book is that it spurred me on to obtain "The Nothing That Is", another Maths book by the same author. If he were a shop, I'd be a returning customer, which is about as good an endorsement as you can give, I guess.
The author irritated somewhat with some of his references - he's obviously very well read but can lose you very quickly by using metaphors and similes that don't help at all unless you've spent much of your time reading Greek mythology and the great authors...which I haven't. I can't stand fiction of any epoch.
Nonetheless, this is an interesting read - it's sort of hit a nice middle ground between a full on text book and a history of Maths. There are points when it helps to get your out your pencil and compass yourself, but if you're not into that, you can move on and the pieces will probably fall into place later in the book.
I suppose the greatest testament to this book is that it spurred me on to obtain "The Nothing That Is", another Maths book by the same author. If he were a shop, I'd be a returning customer, which is about as good an endorsement as you can give, I guess.
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