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Great Mathematicians: Unravelling the Mysteries of the Universe
In this book, you'll learn why Florence Nightingale introduced pie charts, how Lewis Carroll regarded Pythagoras's theorem, and why some infinities are larger than others. In addition to such well-known figures as Archimedes and Isaac Newton, you'll also meet the mathematician who knew eight languages by the time he was 11, the one who was sent to jail for gambling, the ones who wrote a book on why 1 + 1 = 2, the one who spent his entire life traveling the world, and the one who published a lot but never existed.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 9, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 20, 2023
There are a lot of Great Mathematicians..
The book reads as a chronological list of Mathematicians, with short entries on a lot of different people from antiquity into the modern era. This makes it a great biographical overview of the history of Mathematicians.
The relative shortness of each entry means that the history of mathematics itself is not always as clearly told, as the book is very consciously writing about Mathematicians and their particular Mathematical interests, rather than how Mathematics itself developed. For example, when children learn Mathematics using modern Arabic numerals, and then they learn about other counting systems such as Roman numerals, they are often perplexed at how anyone could have possibly carried out multiplication and division in those other systems. This is not a book which tells that kind of historical development.
However, the discussion of each Mathematician often introduced a lot of interesting ideas about them and their work. Sometimes it felt as if the book moved a little too quickly. We hear for example, that an ancient treatise called ‘The Nine Chapters’ includes a discussion of simultaneous equations using a method which is now known as ‘Gaussian elimination’ (16%). That may well be true, but readers may also be left scratching their head about the nature of Gaussian elimination.
The book also tends to express the ancient mathematics using modern forms of mathematical expression. That makes sense, otherwise modern readers would struggle to understand what is being said. But it would have been helpful to flag up now and then, that what we’re reading is not necessarily how the original mathematicians actually expressed themselves.
I thought that the foray into medieval art and its discovery of (mathematical) perspectivism was particularly well told, and it provided a clear example of how Mathematics was gradually realised to have increasing application. However, on that note I was surprised that there was little mention of cryptography. Throughout the Early modern era states spied on each other and developed frequency analysis to crack each other’s codes. This means that there are some interesting individuals and stories of Mathematics to be found in that arena.
Overall this is an enjoyable book which can be read in snippets and bite sized sections. The language makes the book accessible to readers from teen ages upwards, but Mathematical notation is sometimes included in chapters, in ways which assumes a Mathematical literacy which may be a little challenging for readers with less experience of Mathematics.
These comments are based on the 2012 edition, read digitally in Nov 2023.
The book reads as a chronological list of Mathematicians, with short entries on a lot of different people from antiquity into the modern era. This makes it a great biographical overview of the history of Mathematicians.
The relative shortness of each entry means that the history of mathematics itself is not always as clearly told, as the book is very consciously writing about Mathematicians and their particular Mathematical interests, rather than how Mathematics itself developed. For example, when children learn Mathematics using modern Arabic numerals, and then they learn about other counting systems such as Roman numerals, they are often perplexed at how anyone could have possibly carried out multiplication and division in those other systems. This is not a book which tells that kind of historical development.
However, the discussion of each Mathematician often introduced a lot of interesting ideas about them and their work. Sometimes it felt as if the book moved a little too quickly. We hear for example, that an ancient treatise called ‘The Nine Chapters’ includes a discussion of simultaneous equations using a method which is now known as ‘Gaussian elimination’ (16%). That may well be true, but readers may also be left scratching their head about the nature of Gaussian elimination.
The book also tends to express the ancient mathematics using modern forms of mathematical expression. That makes sense, otherwise modern readers would struggle to understand what is being said. But it would have been helpful to flag up now and then, that what we’re reading is not necessarily how the original mathematicians actually expressed themselves.
I thought that the foray into medieval art and its discovery of (mathematical) perspectivism was particularly well told, and it provided a clear example of how Mathematics was gradually realised to have increasing application. However, on that note I was surprised that there was little mention of cryptography. Throughout the Early modern era states spied on each other and developed frequency analysis to crack each other’s codes. This means that there are some interesting individuals and stories of Mathematics to be found in that arena.
Overall this is an enjoyable book which can be read in snippets and bite sized sections. The language makes the book accessible to readers from teen ages upwards, but Mathematical notation is sometimes included in chapters, in ways which assumes a Mathematical literacy which may be a little challenging for readers with less experience of Mathematics.
These comments are based on the 2012 edition, read digitally in Nov 2023.
November 1, 2025
O livro começa com assuntos mais simples, descobertos há muito tempo, e se desenvolve passando por milênios de histórias da matemática.
Devido à natureza complexa das mais recentes descobertas, é impossível explicar do zero o conteúdo apresentado. Porém, os autores parecem esquecer disso em alguns temas, pois tentam explicar temas complexos usando termos também complexos, que acabam não ajudando em nada a compreensão.
Porém, o livro apresenta curiosidades interessantes sobre figuras famosas, conhecidas e até obscuras da história matemática.
Devido à natureza complexa das mais recentes descobertas, é impossível explicar do zero o conteúdo apresentado. Porém, os autores parecem esquecer disso em alguns temas, pois tentam explicar temas complexos usando termos também complexos, que acabam não ajudando em nada a compreensão.
Porém, o livro apresenta curiosidades interessantes sobre figuras famosas, conhecidas e até obscuras da história matemática.
February 3, 2016
If this book was written for the general reader, there are by far too many complicated mathematical expressions; if it was written for mathematicians it would seem old hat, or so I think. Personally, I found all the equations as unnecessary to understand the work of the mathematician the book did cover. The book was short, so I suppose that if the equations were absent, the book wouldn't be a book, but equivalent to a novella if it were fiction.
I did find this one gem, a quote from Leonhard Euler on complex numbers: “Of such numbers we may truly assert that they are neither nothing, nor greater than nothing, nor less than nothing, which necessarily constitutes them imaginary or impossible.”
Recommendation: Yes if you like equations, no if you don't like equations.
I did find this one gem, a quote from Leonhard Euler on complex numbers: “Of such numbers we may truly assert that they are neither nothing, nor greater than nothing, nor less than nothing, which necessarily constitutes them imaginary or impossible.”
Recommendation: Yes if you like equations, no if you don't like equations.
July 21, 2015
This was a wonderfully insightful look into the lives of the men and women behind the maths. Some histories were downright painful, women and other minorities being discriminated against, and geniuses dying before their genius could really impact the world. They also did a nice job of balancing the math with the history. Given only 2-page summaries of each mathematician, you necessarily have to gloss (or Gauss) over some of the details of their work. It's unfortunate to do so, but understandable. A great book.
September 6, 2016
A surprising history of some of the greatest minds known.
With some maths problems to work out it is a book to savour.
I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Arcturus Digital via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.
With some maths problems to work out it is a book to savour.
I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Arcturus Digital via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.
June 16, 2022
Unfortunately I bought this expecting a few in depth essays on mathematicians. It is many very short, trivial comments on mathematicians. Very disappointing.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews