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Het Wiskunde Boek (2009)

by Clifford A. Pickover(Favorite Author)

4.11 of 5 Votes: 4

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Librero

review 1: Following a sort of chronological ordering from the very ancient to the present, each two page spread involves some curious aspect of mathematical significance, with a decidedly curious bent toward a particular philosophical stance on the matter of whether mathematics is created or discovered. Pickover seems to lean toward the discovery side of this argument, which in no way lessens the way he goes from a desert ant that has some method of "counting" its steps (which begs the question of how an ant could possibly keep track of thousands of steps), to Tegmarks Mathematical Universe Hypothesis, that the universe is not just a structure described by mathematics, it is mathematics. Between these two articles, Pickover displays two-hundred-forty-eight other articles in just e... morenough detail to give this reader pause to do a bit of thinking. I was gratified that he chose to introduce readers to some of the influential women in the history of mathematics, and he elaborates some of the examples that demonstrate the whole of Euclidian geometry has not yet been explored (there are still discoveries being made in this ancient branch). I was also a bit nonplussed that the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic was not showcased the same way the Fundamental Theorems of Algebra and Calculus were, despite the fact that he devoted several articles to prime number studies. I know a few people who may find a bit of inspiration to pick up their interest in math by recommending this book to them.
review 2: The idea of devoting a one page explanation to a particular mathematical topic, explaining it in simple (enough) language so that a mathematical person, but not necessarily a mathematician, can understand the concept, and accompanying it with a beautiful related image is a wonderful idea, and it is executed here very well. What greatly takes away from the book is Mr. Pickover's raging anti-German comments, using every opportunity to pull in the Holocaust either in reference to a Jewish mathematician directly or tangentially thereby affected, or to a German mathematician. The comments approach snark and self-parody, and are uncalled for in this otherwise wonderful volume. less

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