Heres Looking at Euclid

Posted on 02 March 2017 by Alex Bellos

Too often math gets a bad rap, characterized as dry and difficult But, Alex Bellos says, math can be inspiring and brilliantly creative Mathematical thought is one of the great achievements of the human race, and arguably the foundation of all human progress The world of mathematics is a remarkable place Bellos has traveled all around the globe and has plunged into history to uncover fascinating stories of mathematical achievement, from the breakthroughs of Euclid, the greatest mathematician of all time, to the creations of the Zen master of origami, one of the hottest areas of mathematical work today Taking us into the wilds of the , he tells the story of a tribe there who can count only to five and reports on the latest findings about the math instinct including the revelation that ants can actually count how many steps they ve taken Journeying to the Bay of Bengal, he interviews a Hindu sage about the brilliant mathematical insights of the Buddha, while in Japan he visits the godfather of Sudoku and introduces the brainteasing delights of mathematical games.Exploring the mysteries of randomness, he explains why it is impossible for our iPods to truly randomly select songs In probing the many intrigues of that most beloved of numbers, pi, he visits with two brothers so obsessed with the elusive number that they built a supercomputer in their Manhattan apartment to study it Throughout, the journey is enhanced with a wealth of intriguing illustrations, such as of the clever puzzles known as tangrams and the crochet creation of an American math professor who suddenly realized one day that she could knit a representation of higher dimensional space that no one had been able to visualize Whether writing about how algebra solved Swedish traffic problems, visiting the Mental Calculation World Cup to disclose the secrets of lightning calculation, or exploring the links between pineapples and beautiful teeth, Bellos is a wonderfully engaging guide who never fails to delight even as he edifies Here s Looking at Euclid is a rare gem that brings the beauty of math to life. Best Download Heres Looking at Euclid author Alex Bellos For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr While I was reading this book , I noticed it was published by Bloomsbury and I remembered that a few years ago they were doing rather poorly until J.K.Rowling came along with a seven volume Christian parable for children and magically transformed their financial performance.I might be the ideal audience for this book turned off Maths at school, yet still mildly interested, bed bound and unwell , with limited reading choices, however I found it largely uninteresting built up of clusters of not While I was reading this book , I noticed it was published by Bloomsbury and I remembered that a few years ago they were doing rather poorly until J.K.Rowling came alon...This was a mixed bag for me On one hand it s an easy read, a beach read if you will, and it covers quite a lot of math s ground in relatively little space Most of the anecdotes and stories about former mathematicians I already knew, but it s nice to have them all in one place On the other hand the bock sometimes lacks a certain depth It is noticeable that the author is trying to offer something to readers who have little or nothing to do with numbers and maths Only those people would probab This was a mixed bag for me On one hand it s an easy read, a beach re...Alex Bellos is a gifted writer who has embarked on a mission to popularize mathematics He makes a frank observation that should give pause to any readerBy age 16, schoolkids have learned almost no math beyond what was already known in the mid seventeenth century, and likewise by the time they are 18, they have not gone beyond the mid eighteenth centuryWhat ensues is both a historical tour and spontaneous encounters with some of the most eccentric people currently operating on the fringes Alex Bellos is a gifted writer who has embarked on a mission to popularize mathematics He makes a frank observation that should give pause to any readerBy age 16, schoolkids have learned almost no math beyond what was already known in the mid seventeenth century, and likewise by the time they are 18, they have not gone beyond the mid eighteenth centuryWhat ensues is both a historical tour and spontaneous encounters with some of the most eccentric people currently operating on the fringes of mathematics From its onset, the book is playful It opens with Chapter Zero rather than the conventional Chapter One Bellos proceeds with a revelatory anecdote illustrating our own socialized mania for quantification His overriding theme is that preconceptions shaped by culture and biological hard wiring are unconsciou...This is a fabulous chronicle of the most esoteric subject in existence Alex Bellos is witty, serious, engaging and if I may say so, utterly charming in his narration of the history of mathematics He has organized the book in the way that allows him to be chronological while also taking diversions from time to time to connect with what s happening now in the field of mathematics.He begins with a systematic exposition of the idea of numbers and the need for them and progresses steadily at a reall This is a fabulous chronicle of the most esoteric subject in existence Alex Bellos is witty, serious, engaging and if I may say so, utterly charming in his narration of the history of mathematics He has organized the book in the way...Alex Bellos attempts to engage the general public in mathematics by describing maths in a way that anyone can understand He commences by describing how different cultures use counting and numbers, and in many ways this is the most interesting part of the book Several cultures, for instance, have no name for any quantity greater than about 4 I have a degree in mathematics, but there were many things in the book that were new to me, and some that made my jaw drop My feeling is though, that any Alex Bellos attempts to engage the general public in mathematics by describing maths in a way that anyone can understand He commences by describing how different cultures use counting and numbers, and in many ways this is the most interesting part of the book Several cultures, for instance, have no name for any quantity greater than about 4 I have a degree in mathematics, but there were many things in the book that were new to me, and some that made my jaw drop My feeling is though, that anyone without mathematical training may start to lose interest at about Chapter 5, when algebra is introduced Probability, Number Theory, Geometry and Statistics follow, and in the limit as the page number tends to infinity, the book tends to resemble a maths textbook Having said, as infinity was reached and the book finished, I was quite sad There were six appendices...A must read for everyone Those who love math will enjoy it thoroughly and those who don t are likely to develop a keen interest in the subject.Is this a great book, or did I read it at the right time I am tutoring high school math and found much inspiration in these pages While there is little that is completely new for me, most of what is there is well explained He provides a lot of historical background, starting with tribes using a number system of one, two, many The author is not afraid of philosophy, as can be seen in this meditation on the number zeroIndian philosophy embraced the concept of nothingness just as Indian math Is this a great book, or did I read it at the right time I am tutoring high school math and found much inspiration in these pages While there is little that is completely new for me, most of what is there is well explained He provides a lot of historical background, starting with tribes using a number system of one, two, many The author is not afraid of philosophy, as can be seen in this meditation on the number zeroIndian philosophy embraced the concept of nothingness just as Indian math embraced the concept of zero The conceptual leap that led to the invention of zero happened in a culture that accepted the void as the essence of the universe The symbol that emerged to represent zero, the circle, encapsulated the message that mathematics cannot be separated from spirituality Zero means nothing, and it means eternity He later informs us that when math prodigy Jedediah Buxton was taken to see Shakespeare s Richard III, his reaction was that the actors had taken 5,202 step...The world of maths can seem mind boggling, irrelevant and, let s face it, boring This groundbreaking book reclaims maths from the geeks.This is how the blurb on the back cover starts Alex s Adventures in Numberland isn t quite as awful as that suggests, but it s very apparent Bellos is a journalist, not a mathematician He shares with most of his colleagues a subconscious but profound contempt of experts to his credit, at least it is subconscious , an inability to distinguish substance and le The world of maths can seem mind boggling, irrelevant and, let s face it, boring This groundbreaking book reclaims maths from the geeks.This is how the blurb on the back cover starts Alex s Adventures in Numberland isn t quite as awful as that suggests, but it s very apparent Bellos is a journalist, not a mathematician He shares with most of his colleagues a subconscious but profound contempt of experts to his credit, at least it is subconscious , an inability to distinguish substance and legitimacy from woo and crankery, or at least a belief that woo and crankery are interesti...This is a great book that delves into the fascinating history of math Stops along the way include the advent of zero, the use of the abacus and the sliderule, the search for the trillionth decimal in pi, the Fibonacci sequence, the golden ratio, fractals, varying levels of infiniti, counting cards in blackjack, the...When I was a kid, I remember reading and loving E.T Bell s Men of Mathematics I later learned that his scholarship leaves something to be desired, but he brought out the humanity and genius of the big names and famous characters of mathematics Bellos doesn t have a similar goal in Alex s Adventures in Numberland , as he s just as interested in applications and ...

English
02 March 2017

Alex Bellos