This is a homage to mathematics, and in particular to that
mysterious elite of maths known as prime numbers - for the
uninitiated, whole numbers that cannot be divided exactly by two
smaller numbers: 2, 3, 5 and 7 to 1,000,039 and beyond. It has to
be said that if you don't already know what a prime number is, you
may be baffled by large chunks of this work - written by an eminent
mathematician who does have a tendency to assume readers won't be
thrown by statements such as, 'Fermat had been right in his claim
that the equation x^n + y^n = z^n has no solutions when n is bigger
than 2.'Yet that would be a pity, because this is a fascinating
work capable of offering at least a glimpse into the magical
parallel universe of people who talk like that. Mathematicians are
often regarded as arrogant because, according to du Sautoy, their
subject has a permanence resting on the certainty of proof. Unlike
scientific hypotheses, which may be moderated by new evidence or
discarded altogether, mathematical proof is forever - what the
ancient Greeks established about maths remains true today. So the
great names of mathematics march through these pages with their
reputations forever intact, never to be overruled by mathematicians
of the future. And from Greeks onwards, mathematicians have been
fascinated by primes. The problem is this. Primes get fewer the
higher you count. There is no way of predicting the next prime to
come. Yet there is no limit to the number of primes, as various
intriguing thought experiments herein demonstrate. And it matters
because the potential significance of primes is immense. This is a
natural language - there is a species of cicada which emerges only
every 17 years (17 is prime), presumably to avoid potential
predators working to non-prime cycles. It has resonances with
problems in particle physics, and immense practical application -
computer security relies on primes, and without them modern
business would collapse. And primes are a potential universal,
intergalactic language - if we are ever to communicate with aliens,
primes could well form the vocabulary for making contact. So
mathematics' ultimate accolade will pass to the person who solves
its most difficult outstanding problem: to understand how primes
are distributed throughout the universe of numbers; to prove the
Riemann hypothesis which proposes that there is harmony in this
apparent sea of randomness. And the remarkable thing about this
book, if you read it, is that if and when the discovery occurs -
with who knows what ramifications for our future - you will want to
know all about it. (Kirkus UK)
The paperback of the critically-acclaimed popular science book by a
writer who is fast becoming a celebrity mathematician. Prime
numbers are the very atoms of arithmetic. They also embody one of
the most tantalising enigmas in the pursuit of human knowledge. How
can one predict when the next prime number will occur? Is there a
formula which could generate primes? These apparently simple
questions have confounded mathematicians ever since the Ancient
Greeks. In 1859, the brilliant German mathematician Bernard Riemann
put forward an idea which finally seemed to reveal a magical
harmony at work in the numerical landscape. The promise that these
eternal, unchanging numbers would finally reveal their secret
thrilled mathematicians around the world. Yet Riemann, a
hypochondriac and a troubled perfectionist, never publicly provided
a proof for his hypothesis and his housekeeper burnt all his
personal papers on his death. Whoever cracks Riemann's hypothesis
will go down in history, for it has implications far beyond
mathematics. In business, it is the lynchpin for security and
e-commerce. In science, it has critical ramifications in Quantum
Mechanics, Chaos Theory, and the future of comput
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
