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Bezig met laden... The Man Who Loved Only Numbers : The Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for Mathematical Truth (origineel 1998; editie 1999)door Paul Hoffman
Informatie over het werkDe man die van getallen hield het verhaal van Paul Erdös en de zoektocht naar de waarheid van de wiskunde door Paul Hoffman (1998)
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Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. the best math book for nonmathematicians I have ever read. a perfect mix of explanations of theorems, history, and hysterical anecdotes (which I read aloud to anyone who would listen). ( ) I wish there were more people like Paul Erdös. I was only ever decent at math in high school, and terrible at math after that, so his exploits make me jealous in a good way. I think for many people, and certainly frequently for me, math beyond a certain point is a dense, lightless thicket of symbols. Maybe everyone is born with a certain amount of math facility, and once you learn up to the point where your returns have diminished to uselessness, you have no choice but to forget about it and move on to something else. I made it through calculus and still remember some of what I learned, but I wouldn't want to bet anyone's life on me being able to integrate anything more complicated than a sine function very quickly. That's why it's so cool to read an account of a genuine math genius at work - even though I know that this guy who published over 1,500 papers in his lifetime is on another plane entirely when it comes to mathematics, he's so dedicated to the wonders of the subject that it gradually infected me through the pages and I came away wishing I had stuck with my math classes. I often wonder to what extent being good at math is simply an innate quality, a gift that you either have or you don't. One of the things that struck me when I was reading Gödel Escher Bach is that Douglas Hofstader's explanations of complicated mathematical issues were much more comprehensible than that same explanation from a textbook (or even Wikipedia), and a large part of it was due to the fact that he gave a lot of history and narrative behind the various problems instead of just laying out symbols and variables. Humans naturally learn through narratives and stories, and it takes a rare kind of person to be able to strip away all of the scene-setting and background and get straight to the abstract symbol-manipulation. Probably some people are just born with the potential to understand things like Russell's paradox and some aren't, but I would really like to know exactly why that is, what separates the neurology of an Erdös from that of a mere mortal. I like that the book doesn't make Erdös - a fairly weird guy even by the relaxed standards of mathematicians - out to be some kind of freak, which I've frequently seen done to some of the more singular characters in science history like Newton. Instead it's filled with plenty of testimonials about his kindness, his many friendships, and of course his unbelievable gift for probing the relationships between numbers. Explaining higher-level mathematics to a lay audience is one of the toughest tasks a writer can undertake, and Hoffman does a good job of giving the reader a brief tour of some of the many areas of math that Erdös influenced or revolutionized in some way. It's almost comforting to realize that even many professional mathematicians were baffled by what he was doing, and really the way he was able to find patterns in numbers is one of those things that just got more and more impressive with each page. I don't know what kind of mental circuitry lies behind mathematical talent, but I wish I had it, because many of the problems Erdös struggled with are extremely interesting in their own right, if you're curious at all at the mysterious relationships behind the world that we see. There are just so many weird things about prime numbers that you can forgive Erdös' monastic devotion to the subject. I wish I had read this when I was struggling with differential equations, it might have given me some inspiration and fortitude to remember that mathematics is an infinite field. No one can know everything, and that leaves plenty of room for even the most meager contributor to make a mark. I'm planning a trip around the world in Erdos' style --- showing up, working hard on a project with someone, and then peaceing out. Most books about mathematicians I hate because they spend too much time discussing their personal lives, and not enough talking about their mathematical contributions. Unfortunately, this is the one book contrary to that style. It's a book with a few fun Erdos anecdotes, but mostly a description of somewhat-related mathematics and mathematicians for the layperson. Cantor's diagonalization argument is great and all, but I know it, and it doesn't help answer any questions I have about Erdos' lifestyle. All of that being said, this is a fun book that's worth reading. It just didn't answer what I was hoping it would. [5/5] One of the most interesting memoirs I've read ever! You don't need deep mathematical knowledge to appreciate one of the quaintest minds of the 20th century, and most everyone can benefit from his insight, his commitment, his desire to help others. The book is a memoir, not a biography, which means it's full of anecdotes rather than a series of dates and facts. But as far as anecdotes go, this is one it's chock full of references to appropriate books, journals, papers and letters about Paul Erdös and his many colleagues, so the interested reader can advance in either the technical or the biographical aspects of the most prolific mathematician of the last 100 years geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
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"Paul Erdos, the most prolific and eccentric mathematician of our time, forsook all creature comforts - including a hometo pursue his lifelong study of numbers. He was a man who possessed unimaginable powers of thought yet was unable to manage some of the simplest daily tasks." "For more than six decades, Erdos lived out of two tattered suitcases, crisscrossing four continents at a frenzied pace, chasing mathematical problems and fresh talent. Erdos saw mathematics as a search for lasting beauty and ultimate truth. It was a search Erdos never abandoned, even as his life was torn asunder by some of the major political dramas of our time." "In this biography, Hoffman uses Erdos's life and work to introduce readers to a cast of remarkable geniuses, from Archimedes to Stanislaw Ulam, one of the chief minds behind the Los Alamos nuclear project. He draws on years of interviews with Ronald Graham and Fan Chung, Erdos's chief American caretakers and devoted collaborators. With an eye for the hilarious anecdote, Hoffman explains mathematical problems from Fermat's Last Theorem to the more frivolous "Monty Hall dilemma." What emerges is an intimate look at the world of mathematics and an indelible portrait of Erdos, a charming and impish philosopher-scientist whose accomplishments continue to enrich and inform our world."--Jacket. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)510.92Natural sciences and mathematics Mathematics General Mathematics Biography And History BiographyLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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