by John Casti ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 15, 2001
Excellent insights into the current shape of mathematics for those who don’t mind following a few equations.
The title says it in a nutshell: five famous math problems and how they were solved.
“Famous” is a relative term, of course. Fermat’s Last Theorem and the Four-Color Problem are almost certainly familiar to those who scan the science section of their local newspapers; those who took college math have probably run across Cantor’s continuum hypothesis. The other two seem clear enough once stated, but few other than mathematicians are likely to be aware of their importance. In fact, the Kepler conjecture, on the optimal packing of spherical objects in three-dimensional space, often seems trivial to those with practical experience in stacking cantaloupes without having to explain their methods in the rigorous terms serious math requires. But math professor Casti (The Cambridge Quintet, 1998) does a solid job of presenting the problems for a mathematically unsophisticated audience. He sets each problem in the context of mathematical history and offers glimpses of the personalities that were key to their formulation. Casti also makes an effort to show the wider implications of the problems—the fact, for example, that Diophantine equations are not only the basis for Fermat’s Theorem, but of general importance throughout mathematics. The Four-Color Problem, superficially of interest only to mapmakers, led to the creation of entire new fields of mathematical inquiry. Even Fermat’s conjecture, which many mathematicians apparently considered a theoretical dead end, has opened up inquiries into the larger problems of which it was a special case, and its successful (and widely reported) solution by Andrew Wiles in 1993 has inspired the creation of prize funds for the solution of other mathematical “mountaintops.”
Excellent insights into the current shape of mathematics for those who don’t mind following a few equations.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2001
ISBN: 0-19-514171-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2001
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by William Strunk & E.B. White ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 15, 1972
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996
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
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