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Title: Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics by John Derbyshire ISBN: 0-309-08549-7 Publisher: Joseph Henry Press Pub. Date: 23 April, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.55 (33 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Read this one for the pure entertainment value of it all.
Comment: I found this to be a rather delightful book with its arrangement of chapters alternating between historical point of view back to mathematical progress and then back to historical.
I found it very entertaining to read about the lives of the great mathematicians involved in developing the prime number theory and furthering the study of the Riemann Hypothesis. Mathematics is littered with such interesting characters that even a liberal arts major can enjoy these expository stories of their lives.
The only downside to this whole book is that he takes too much time for the non-math inclined readers to get 'caught up' with their basic skills before he jumps to anything interesting. If you have a background that is strong through calculus, then you could probably avoid reading all the math-based chapters up through the end of the prime number theory section of the book, and you most likely woud not have missed a thing.
Rating: 4
Summary: An amazing hypothesis in it's historical context
Comment: Writing a book about an unproven mathematical hypothesis and coupling it to a biography of a great mathematician, whose life was short and poorly documented, is a daunting task. Yet, Derbyshire has made a valiant effort in revealing intricate details of the Riemann Hypothesis (RH) and providing the history of the so far elusive proof or refutation.
In many ways this book mirrors Simon Singh's book of Fermat's Last Theorem. While I do prefer Singh's book over Derbyshire's, I will be the first to admit that the former author did have a much easier task with the final proof being at hand. I greatly enjoyed the first 250 pages of this book, where chapters alternate between math and history/biography, but was a little disappointed by the rest. I agree with a previous reviewer who remarked that the second half of the book often gives the impression of being hurried on it's way to the printer.
RH is one of the instances where "the realm of the deeper order" that normally only can be accessed by self-professed mystics can be laid out in a rather simple combination of mathematical symbols. Indeed, Riemann's work linking the infinite series called the zeta function to the frequency of prime numbers, reveals an equally unlikely and beautiful hidden truth. Especially in the first part of the book Derbyshire does a great job in giving those with limited mathematical background a good idea of Riemann's work and that of his predecessors/successors. To me the alternating of mathematical and historical chapters worked great and put the science in a very well described historic context. Yet, beyond the halfway point the author decides to postpone Riemann's "turning of the golden key" and to focus on the world after Riemann. At that point the text looses a lot of it's strength. While I recognize, that it is hard to turn "unfinished business" into truly interesting material, Mozart's Requiem and Schubert's 8th Symphony being major exceptions, I do think that this book would have benefited from a redesign of the structure of the second part. As such, treating Riemann's "turning of the golden key" in sequence, in stead of at the end of the book would have made much more sense.
Despite this criticism I recommend this book to anyone with a true interest in mathematics; even to those who have limited background in the field, since Derbyshire brings great clarity to many aspects of advanced mathematics. At the very end the author discusses whether RH is true or not and gives his opinion that the (dys)proof may still be a while in the future. Whether true or false does not really matter, truth is more interesting as the object of searching than of finding, anyhow.
Rating: 5
Summary: Wonderful, clear, comforting
Comment: I liked this book for several reasons. I enjoyed the historical insights about how mathematicians approach such a devilishly hard problem. The math itself is fascinating, with surprises at many turns. (How can there be numerical patterns like this? It's mind-bending.)
But also, the writing itself and the organization of the material is lovely. The author takes great pains to lead and motivate readers whose patience might wear thin because they don't quite know enough Analysis.
I enjoyed reading this along with the books by Sabbagh and the book by Devlin on the Millenium problems.
It think it's wonderful that a math book like this can be a "page-turner."
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Title: The Music of the Primes : Searching to Solve the Greatest Mystery in Mathematics by Marcus du Sautoy ISBN: 0066210704 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 29 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Gamma : Exploring Euler's Constant by Julian Havil ISBN: 0691099839 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 17 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Riemann's Zeta Function by Harold M. Edwards ISBN: 0486417409 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 13 June, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Riemann Hypothesis: The Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics by Karl Sabbagh ISBN: 0374250073 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 30 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: The Millennium Problems: The Seven Greatest Unsolved Mathematical Puzzles of Our Time by Keith J. Devlin ISBN: 0465017290 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 15 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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