God created the integers : the mathematical breakthroughs that changed history / edited, with commentary, by Stephen Hawking

Hawking, Stephen (1942-2018)

ISBN 10: 014101878X / ISBN 13: 9780141018782

Published by London : Penguin, 2006

About this Item

Very good paperback copy; edges slightly dust-dulled and nicked. Remains particularly well-preserved overall. Physical description: xiii, 1160 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 20 cm. Notes: Originally published: Philadelphia, Pa. : Running, 2005. Includes bibliographical references. Contents: Life and work of: Euclid -- Archimedes -- Diophantus -- René Descartes -- Isaac Newton -- Pierre Simon de Laplace -- Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier -- Carl Friedrich Gauss -- Augustin-Louis Cauchy -- George Boole -- georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann -- Karl Weierstrass -- Richard Julius Wilhelm Dedekind -- Georg Cantor -- Henri Lebesgue -- Kurt Gödel -- Alan Mathison Turing. Subjects: Mathematics; Mathematics History; Mathematicians ; Biography. 1 Kg.

Seller Inventory # 413296

Bibliographic Details

• Title: God created the integers : the mathematical breakthroughs that changed history / edited, with commentary, by Stephen Hawking
• Publisher: London : Penguin
• Publication Date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 014101878X
• ISBN 13: 9780141018782
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: First Edition.

About this title

Synopsis

This volume is about the mathematical breakthroughs that changed history.

Review

"God created the integers," wrote mathematician Leopold Kronecker, "All the rest is the work of Man." In this collection of landmark mathematical works, editor Stephen Hawking has assembled the greatest feats humans have ever accomplished using just numbers and their brains. Each of the 17 sections opens with a historical introduction of the featured author, and proceeds to a faithful translation of their most famous work. While most mathematicians will already have complete editions of Isaac Newton's Principia or Georg Cantor's Contributions to the Founding of the Theory of Transfinite Numbers, this book is unique in presenting just the best bits of these and other theoretical works. The collection spans 2,500 years and covers a vast range of theories: the parallel postulate, Boolean logic, differential calculus, and the philosophy of the unknowable among them. Dense with numbers, formulae, and ideas, God Created the Integers is quite challenging, but Hawking rewards curious readers with a look at how mathematics has been built. In contrast to the towering physical edifices of great civilizations of the past, Hawking writes, "The greatest wonder of the modern world is our understanding." --Therese Littleton