The Music of the Primes: Searching to Solve the Greatest Mystery in Mathematics - Softcover

Du Sautoy, Marcus

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060935588 ISBN 13: 9780060935580

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2004

Synopsis

Inthe tradition of Fermat’s Enigma and Pi, Marcus du Sautoy tells the illuminating, authoritative, and engagingstory of Bernhard Reimann and the ongoing quest tocapture the holy grail of mathematics—the formula to predict prime numbers.Oliver Sacks, author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, calls TheMusic of the Primes “an amazing book. . . . I could not put it down once Ihad started.” Simon Winchester, author of The Professor and the Madman,writes, “this fascinating account, decoding the inscrutable language of themathematical priesthood, is written like the purest poetry. Marcus du Sautoy's enthusiasm shines through every line of this hymnto the joy of high intelligence, illuminating as it does so even the darkestcorners of his most arcane universe.”

About this title

From the Back Cover:

In 1859, German mathematician Bernhard Riemann presented a paper to the Berlin Academy that would forever change the history of mathematics. The subject was the mystery of prime numbers. At the heart of the presentation was an idea that Riemann had not yet proved but one that baffles mathematicians to this day.

Solving the Riemann Hypothesis could change the way we do business, since prime numbers are the lynchpin for security in banking and e-commerce. It would also have a profound impact on the cutting-edge of science, affecting quantum mechanics, chaos theory, and the future of computing. Leaders in math and science are trying to crack the elusive code, and a prize of $1 million has been offered to the winner. In this engaging book, Marcus du Sautoy reveals the extraordinary history behind the holy grail of mathematics and the ongoing quest to capture it.

About the Author:

Marcus du Sautoy is a professor of mathematics and the Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. He is a frequent contributor on mathematics to The Times, The Guardian, and the BBC, and he lives in London.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0060935588
• ISBN 13: 9780060935580
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 350