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The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved: How Mathematical Genius Discovered the Language of Symmetry

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The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved: How Mathematical Genius Discovered the Language of Symmetry (Hardcover)

by Mario Livio (Author)

4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Paperback (New Ed)	�12.99	�8.44	24 used & new from �3.04

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Product details

Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Souvenir Press Ltd (16 Mar 2006)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0285637436
ISBN-13: 978-0285637436
Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14.4 x 3.6 cm

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 433,993 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in these categories:
#98 in Books > Science & Nature > Mathematics > Mathematical Foundations > Mathematical Logic
#98 in Books > Scientific, Technical & Medical > Mathematics > Mathematical Theory > Mathematical Logic

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Product Description

'Leading Edge' (BBC Radio 4)
A look at brilliant figures who changed the way we approach maths

'Scotland on Sunday'
Livio’s exploration of symmetry goes beyond mathematics to take in art and music… Most intriguing.

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Symmetry in Mathematics, Physics, Art and Nature, 27 Oct 2007

By	Serghiou Const (Nicosia, Cyprus) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved: How Mathematical Genius Discovered the Language of Symmetry (Paperback)

Mario Livio is a charming author. His writing style is simple, elegant, erudite, and alternatingly lyrical and witty and on occasions insightful.

The author traces the evolution to the solutions of equations from the linear in Babylonians, to the quadratic in the Egyptians and the Arabs to the cubic and the quartic in Renaissance. And then there was an impasse to the solution of the quintic -the equation that couldn't be solved - which persisted for centuries until the early 19th century. Then two young and tragic mathematical geniuses whose lives ended prematurely in their twenties in the case of Galois at exactly twenty following a duel, proved that the quintic could not be solved using an algebraic formula. The young geniuses were the Norwegian Niels Henrik Abel and the Frenchman Evariste Galois. In their quest for a solution they developed group theory -the language of symmetry - which not only aided in the solution of quintic equations but proved extremely fertile in Mathematics and had an enormous impact in Physics including attempts for the development of the Grand Unification Theory and relevant superstring theories and attendant supersymmetries.

I shall conclude by drawing attention to the ubiquity of Symmetry from the music of Bach to selecting our mates.

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