Finding Fibonacci: The Quest to Rediscover the Forgotten Mathematical Genius Who Changed the World

Devlin, Keith

ISBN 10: 0691192308 / ISBN 13: 9780691192307

Published by Princeton University Press, 2019

About this Item

This book is in clean condition, but has some damage, which is usually a tear, a scratch or a dent on the cover. clean pages, no missing pages.

Seller Inventory # C-gj24-12231

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Finding Fibonacci: The Quest to Rediscover the Forgotten Mathematical Genius Who Changed the World
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication Date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691192308
• ISBN 13: 9780691192307
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

A mathematician’s ten-year quest to tell Fibonacci’s story

In 2000, Keith Devlin set out to research the life and legacy of the medieval mathematician Leonardo of Pisa, popularly known as Fibonacci, whose book Liber abbaci, or the “Book of Calculation,” introduced modern arithmetic to the Western world. Although most famous for the Fibonacci numbers―which, it so happens, he didn’t discover―Fibonacci’s greatest contribution was as an expositor of mathematical ideas at a level ordinary people could understand. Yet Fibonacci was forgotten after his death, and it was not until the 1960s that his true achievements were finally recognized. Drawing on the diary he kept of his quest, Devlin describes the false starts and disappointments, the unexpected turns, and the occasional lucky breaks he encountered in his search. Fibonacci helped to revive the West as the cradle of science, technology, and commerce, yet he vanished from the pages of history. This is Devlin’s search to find him.

About the Author

Keith Devlin is a mathematician at Stanford University and cofounder and president of BrainQuake. His many books include The Unfinished Game: Pascal, Fermat, and the Seventeenth-Century Letter That Made the World Modern. He is “the Math Guy” on National Public Radio.