Aktion	Zweigstelle	Standorte	Status	Frist	Vorbestellungen
Vorbestellen	Zweigstelle: 07., Urban-Loritz-Pl. 2a	Standorte: NN.M FS.E Suri / College 6a - Englisch	Status: Verfügbar	Frist:	Vorbestellungen: 0

(Verlagstext)

Suri (The City of Devi), a novelist and math professor at the University of Maryland, takes on the challenge of developing mathematics from scratch in this high concept thought experiment. Suri divides his work into seven “days,” analogous to the seven days of creation in the Bible. Day one brings the invention of arithmetic, in which Suri shows how to “create” numbers, writing that they’re their own “independent entities.” In subsequent chapters, the newly created numbers play games to invent mathematical concepts such as geometry (which is day two), patterns (on day four), infinity (on day six), and on the final day, emergence, which is the “spontaneous generation of complexity” that “could plausibly create life itself.” Suri takes a jovial approach to his subject (there are, for example, side-notes to the Pope, who Suri writes would be his “most treasured potential reader”), and suggests that “the neat thing” about math is that it “can be enjoyed without needing any special mathematical knowledge or being a computation whiz.” Lay readers may have their doubts, though, as the author’s explanations sometimes confound (his breakdown of different sizes of infinity, for instance, can be a trip to parse). The math-minded, though, will enjoy Suri’s unique approach. (Sept.)

 

 

CONTENTS:

lntroduction: THE POPE MADE ME WRITE THIS BOOK 1 / / Day 1: ARITHMETIC / / 1. SETTING UP THE BIG BANG 15 / 2. GAMES NUMBERS PLAY 22 / J. MORE GAMES J2 / 4. SEARCHING FOR THEIR ROOTS 41 / 5. AN IRRATIONAL UNIVERSE 48 / 6. JOURNEY INTO THE IMAGINARY 56 / / Day 2: GEOMETRY / / 7. THE UNIVERSE NEEDS ITS SPACE 67 / 8. SETTLING THE COMPLEXES 81 / 9. FUN AND GAMES ON THE PLANE 91 / 10. TWO QUESTIONS ABOUT THE PLANE 97 / 11. SPACE OR BUST 102 / 12. AN ALTERNATIVE GEOMETRY 107 / 13. CROCHETING YOUR UNIVERSE 113 / 14. THE FOURTH AND HIGHER DIMENSIONS 122 / / Day 3: ALGEBRA / / 15. OUTSOURCING / 16. THEJOY OF x / 17. THE WORLD OF POLYNOMIALS / 18. THE y OF THINGS / 19. THE ALGEBRA OF DISTANCE / / Day 4: PATTERNS / / 20. PATTERNS AND PERFECTION / 21. NATURE'S SOFT SPOT / 22. THE GOLDEN RATIO / 23. NATURE'S RELATION TO MATHS / 24. MATHS AND BEAUTY / 25. FRACTALS / 26. THE WHY AND HOW OF NATURE'S PATTERNS / / Day 5: PHYSICS / / 27. A UNIVERSE RUN BY LAWS / 28. TIME AND SPACE / 29. THE CURVATURE OF SPACETIME / / Day 6: INFINITY / / 30. A FINITE UNIVERSE OF NUMBERS 275 / 31. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE INFINITE KIND 280 / 32. THE MATCHING GAME / 33. BATTLE OF THE CARDINALITIES / 34. A SMILE ON GEORG'S FACE / 35. THE END OF MATHEMATICS / / Day 7: EMERGENCE / / 36. SETTING NATURE FREE / / Acknowledgments / / Notes / / Illustration Credits / / Index