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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 (Paperback)

by Mario Livio (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
RRP: £12.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 368 pages
  • Publisher: Souvenir Press Ltd; New Ed edition (9 Mar 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0285637894
  • ISBN-13: 978-0285637894
  • Product Dimensions: 21 x 13.2 x 3.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 133,385 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #25 in  Books > Scientific, Technical & Medical > Mathematics > Mathematical Theory > Mathematical Logic
    #43 in  Books > Science & Nature > Mathematics > Mathematical Foundations > Mathematical Logic

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Product Description

Review

His book takes on something of the form of a historical detective story as he digs into the events surrounding Galois s death... A fine contribution to mathematical literature. --'Financial Times'

A lively addition to the small number of popular accounts of these climatic developments in mathematics. His tale is many-stranded. --'Times Higher Education Supplement'

Livio offers a heartbreakingly potted biography of Galois, whom he dubs the Lord Byron of mathematics ... an intellectual journey that is as circuitous as it is vertiginous... The Equation That Couldn t Be Solved excitingly exhibits the scope and reach of Livio s wide-ranging interdisciplinary curiosity. --'Jewish Chronicle'


'Leading Edge' (Radio 4)

"A look at brilliant figures who changed the way we approach maths."
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11 of 11 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)   
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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