Bestselling author and astrophysicist Mario Livio examines the lives and theories of history's greatest mathematicians to ask how--if mathematics is an abstract construction of the human mind--it can so perfectly explain the physical world. Nobel Laureate Eugene Wigner once wondered about the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the formulation of the laws of nature. Is God a Mathematician? investigates why mathematics is as powerful as it is. From ancient times to the present, scientists and philosophers have marveled at how such a seemingly abstract discipline could so perfectly explain the natural world. More than that--mathematics has often made predictions, for example, about subatomic particles or cosmic phenomena that were unknown at the time, but later were proven to be true. Is mathematics ultimately invented or discovered? If, as Einstein insisted, mathematics is a product of human thought that is independent of experience, how can it so accurately describe and even predict the world around us? Physicist and author Mario Livio brilliantly explores mathematical ideas from Pythagoras to the present day as he shows us how intriguing questions and ingenious answers have led to ever deeper insights into our world. This fascinating book will interest anyone curious about the human mind, the scientific world, and the relationship between them.

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Bibliographic Details

Title: Is God a Mathematician?
Publisher: Scribner
Publication Date: 2009
Language: English
ISBN 10: 074329405X
ISBN 13: 9780743294058
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

Explores the plausibility of mathematical answers to puzzles in the physical world, in an accessible exploration of the lives and thoughts of such figures as Archimedes, Galileo, and Newton. By the author of The Golden Ratio. 50,000 first printing.

About the Author

Mario Livio is a senior astrophysicist and the Head of the Office of Public Outreach at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland. He is the author of The Golden Ratio, a highly acclaimed book about mathematics and art for which he received the International Pythagoras Prize and the Peano Prize, The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved, and The Accelerating Universe. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

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