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Product Description
Daily Telegraph
Ian Stewart has made a speciality out of making his much-feared subject accessible and even entertaining...
Review
"Stewart is a highly gifted communicator, able not only to explain the motivation of mathematicians down the centuries but to elucidate the resulting mathematics with both clarity and style. The whole is leavened by his inimitable understated wit...and clarity...as he draws you into the minds of pathfinders...cutting through the clutter of the often slow and painful development of new ideas with a conviction that make this book accessible and motivating to anyone with a serious interest in maths. I resorted to hiding it from other members of the family until I'd finished and am confident that those on the 'waiting list' will not be disappointed. Inspirational." Times Educational Supplement "Stewart, long a class act in popular maths, does not shy from presenting equations, illuminating them with imagistic explanations and sympathetic character sketches of heroes past and present". The Guardian "Stewart's book is a good humoured, panoramic history of the development of mathematics from Babylonian times to the present... (A) fine contribution to mathematical literature..." FT "(T)he study of symmetry has become one of the most potent analytical tools for physicist, and a fundamental pillar of pure mathematics. Maybe this is what Keats was on about when he wrote "Beauty is truth, truth beauty." At any rate, there's been a gap in the market for a book to explain all this to a popular audience, and now Ian Stewart has filled it with Why Beauty is Truth. In it, he skilfully mixes narrative on the historical development of group theory - the mathematical machinery of symmetry - with effective lay explanations of how it actually works. Some of these may leave your brain gibbering helplessly in a corner - this can be technical. But in general they are staggeringly elegant... Keats would approve." BBC Focus Magazine "(I)mpressive... valuable and intelligent... (Ian Stewart is) an excellent professional mathematician". Daily Telegraph "Stewart... is renowned for his popular science books, but Why Beauty is Truth is without a doubt the finest. If it were only for its lively informal style, its historical characters, its intrigue... its beautiful prose, it would be praiseworthy. Yet, its real uniqueness - its power - is in what it uncovers. It brings us the heart of why mathematicians pursue mathematics." Nature "Dealing with the concept of symmetry, this book takes you on an easy and thrilling journey through the history of an idea and the men for whom it was an obsession. From the first sentence, that plants the reader in the midst of a duel, you are treated to a tale that is as much a history of individuals as it is of ideas. A surprising topic presented in an astonishingly entertaining manner." Good Book Guide"
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I had bought this being interested in maths many years ago in particular the concept of 'Beauty' in nature and art and how that correlated to symmetry and maths. I had hoped it would touch on fractals and logorithmic sequences and how objects such as seashells and cabbages grow in these formations. Sadly none of this was touched on and I'm not what I would call heavily into advanced mathematics.
However I did persevere and read the entire book although far from understanding the concepts in it. I very much enjoyed the humour and the history surrounding how mathmatical concepts were discovered. It reminded me very much of Bill Bryson's writting and not that of a stale Maths book at all. The book gets heavier towards the end when it starts talking of Quantum maths where it pretty much lost me completely.
If you are interested in Mathmatical concepts and discoveries this is a very entertaining and informative read but for me the cover was rather misleading. I would be interested to hear a review by a Maths scholar.
However I did persevere and read the entire book although far from understanding the concepts in it. I very much enjoyed the humour and the history surrounding how mathmatical concepts were discovered. It reminded me very much of Bill Bryson's writting and not that of a stale Maths book at all. The book gets heavier towards the end when it starts talking of Quantum maths where it pretty much lost me completely.
If you are interested in Mathmatical concepts and discoveries this is a very entertaining and informative read but for me the cover was rather misleading. I would be interested to hear a review by a Maths scholar.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book has many good points, and some drawbacks. I think my own lack of mathematical knowledge held me back from fully appreciating it. (I got A in O level maths in 1981. I enjoyed maths at school, and felt I was getting to the interesting bits when I was forced towards physics chemistry and biology for A levels- looking back I wish I had the chance to do all four subjects)
The good points are that is well written with a clear narrative showing how our mathematical thinking has developed over time. It shows well how seemingly abstract problems lead on to many insights that may be interesting of themselves (pure maths) or may help solve practical problems. (applied maths) What seems like purely abstract mathematics may later turn out to be the route to new applied knowledge. The "unreasonable effectiveness" of mathematics is shown in many examples throughout the book. The discussion of the relationship between truth and beauty is well nuanced, and it seems likely that truth will be beautiful, and that a current "ugly" or "messy" formulation is one awaiting its simplification. At school I was just beginning to get the idea that graphs, coordinates, geometry, equations and matrices were all ways of expressing the same idea in different formats. This book shows how these relationships come about, and evolve out from one another.
The drawbacks of the book for me was that the final 100 pages largely lost me. I got certain headline points, but I did not understand the ideas behind group theory, Lie groups, Hamilton's work, Killing's work. I think this is a reflection of my ignorance, not the author's writing.
My feeling about this book is that it would be a great read for someone studying maths at A level or university and wanting to get an idea of how maths has developed and where it is going. It would whet the appetite and encourage their studies.
The good points are that is well written with a clear narrative showing how our mathematical thinking has developed over time. It shows well how seemingly abstract problems lead on to many insights that may be interesting of themselves (pure maths) or may help solve practical problems. (applied maths) What seems like purely abstract mathematics may later turn out to be the route to new applied knowledge. The "unreasonable effectiveness" of mathematics is shown in many examples throughout the book. The discussion of the relationship between truth and beauty is well nuanced, and it seems likely that truth will be beautiful, and that a current "ugly" or "messy" formulation is one awaiting its simplification. At school I was just beginning to get the idea that graphs, coordinates, geometry, equations and matrices were all ways of expressing the same idea in different formats. This book shows how these relationships come about, and evolve out from one another.
The drawbacks of the book for me was that the final 100 pages largely lost me. I got certain headline points, but I did not understand the ideas behind group theory, Lie groups, Hamilton's work, Killing's work. I think this is a reflection of my ignorance, not the author's writing.
My feeling about this book is that it would be a great read for someone studying maths at A level or university and wanting to get an idea of how maths has developed and where it is going. It would whet the appetite and encourage their studies.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A fascinating account of significant developments in Mathematics and the intriguing characters who made them. It explained several things I never understood studying Chemistry at University.
I reckon you'd need at least A-level Maths to make much of it.
I reckon you'd need at least A-level Maths to make much of it.
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