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ARE NUMBERS REAL?

Name: ARE NUMBERS REAL?
Author: Brian Clegg
ISBN: 978-1-250-08104-9

THE UNCANNY RELATIONSHIP OF MATHEMATICS AND THE PHYSICAL WORLD

by Brian Clegg ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 6, 2016

Solid as a straightforward chronology of how mathematics has developed over time, and the author adds a provocative note...

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The emphasis is on “real” in the latest by the prolific British science writer, who questions the extent to which mathematics truly reflects the workings of nature.

Clegg (Ten Billion Tomorrows: How Science Fiction Technology Became Reality and Shapes the Future, 2015, etc.) has a degree in physics from Cambridge, and he uses that knowledge to discourse on the relationship between math and science. Math builds its own universe based on given (i.e., not proven) axioms and rules of operation to derive facts (theorems) that are true in that system. Science, on the other hand, builds theories based on observations and experiments, and the theories become conventional wisdom until questioned by new observations and data. Nevertheless, over time, there has been an eerie congruence between abstruse developments in math—e.g., non-Euclidean geometry—and the equations that govern Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Clegg suggests that math increasingly has come to rule the roost in physics. Nobody has ever seen a black hole he notes; the objects are “more the product of mathematics than of science,” the evidence for their existence being indirect. Likewise the Higgs boson and superstring theory. The author urges caution and a step back rather than obedience to a questionable math authority. Before reaching this conclusion, Clegg treats readers to an orderly history of math. He begins with counting on fingers or marks on sticks to match the amount of a physical object, leading to symbols for numbers. These numbers are really real, he says, because they are based on matches with objects in nature. But as math evolved, that connection blurred. By the 19th century, with set theory and concepts of orders of infinity, and 20th-century proofs on the incompleteness of mathematical systems and other logical conundrums, the relation to reality has faded—as will some readers’ attention, because this is not easy stuff.

Solid as a straightforward chronology of how mathematics has developed over time, and the author adds a provocative note urging scientists to keep it in its place.

Pub Date: Dec. 6, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-250-08104-9

Page Count: 288

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: Oct. 4, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2016

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
TEN DAYS IN PHYSICS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD
by Brian Clegg

- BOOK REVIEW
TEN PATTERNS THAT EXPLAIN THE UNIVERSE
by Brian Clegg

- BOOK REVIEW
TEN BILLION TOMORROWS
by Brian Clegg

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.