God Created the Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs that Changed History
by Stephen Hawking
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Book Summary Information
Author: Stephen HawkingEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-10-09
ISBN: 0762430044
Number of pages: 1376
Publisher: Running Press
Book Reviews of God Created the Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs that Changed History
Book Review: a great physicist tells about great breakthroughs in math
Summary: 5 Stars
To see what interests a great physicist is, to me, of great interest.
In God Created the Integers, Stephen Hawking describes not only what he sees as the key mathematical breakthroughs of history, but also the lives of those who made these breakthroughs. Both are of great interest.
In particular, Lebesgue's grounding the integral on "measure" reveals a pattern. Certain things are unmeasurable. Other things measure zero-- but still, they are something (not nothing). And certain collections, although arising from infinite architecural processes, have finite measure. As in the numbers themselves that result from integration, by the enabling component of integration-- measure-- the finite meets the infinite.
Since integration is basic to physics (for example, as the context for the Born equation of quantum mechanics) I guess after reading this book I shouldn't be surprised that Stephen Hawking would tell us about this breakthrough in very human and understandable terms.
Summary of God Created the Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs that Changed History
Pulled together for the first time, and paired with commentary from the world?s most respected scholars, God Created the Integers presents history?s extraordinary moments in math, culled from 2,500 years of history and 21 distinguished mathematicians, four more than the hardcover edition. Each chapter begins with a profile of one of these mathematical masters, followed by original printings of their relevant works. This new paperback edition includes the work of Euler, Galois, Bolyai, and Lobachevsky. Readers get a window into the minds of these geniuses and can see the unfolding thought process as it leads, inevitably, to the high-water marks in mathematical thinking. This new edition comes with an index to make it a valuable and easy-to-use research and reference tool.
"God created the integers," wrote mathematician Leopold Kronecker, "All the rest is the work of Man." In this collection of landmark mathematical works, editor Stephen Hawking has assembled the greatest feats humans have ever accomplished using just numbers and their brains. Each of the 17 sections opens with a historical introduction of the featured author, and proceeds to a faithful translation of their most famous work. While most mathematicians will already have complete editions of Isaac Newton's Principia or Georg Cantor's Contributions to the Founding of the Theory of Transfinite Numbers, this book is unique in presenting just the best bits of these and other theoretical works. The collection spans 2,500 years and covers a vast range of theories: the parallel postulate, Boolean logic, differential calculus, and the philosophy of the unknowable among them. Dense with numbers, formulae, and ideas, God Created the Integers is quite challenging, but Hawking rewards curious readers with a look at how mathematics has been built. In contrast to the towering physical edifices of great civilizations of the past, Hawking writes, "The greatest wonder of the modern world is our understanding." --Therese Littleton
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