What do you think?
Rate this book
Call of the Primes: Surprising Patterns, Peculiar Puzzles, and Other Marvels of Mathematics
This sampler of entertaining mathematical diversions reveals the elegance and extraordinary usefulness of mathematics for readers who think they have no aptitude for the subject. If you like any kind of game at all, you'll enjoy the amazing mathematical puzzles and patterns presented here in straightforward terms that any layperson can understand. From magic squares and the mysterious qualities of prime numbers to Pythagorean triples, probability theory, the Fibonacci sequence, and more, the author shows that math can be fun while having some profound implications. Such ubiquitous mathematical entities as pi and the Fibonacci numbers are found throughout the natural world and are also the foundation of our technological civilization. By exploring the intriguing games presented here, you'll come away with a greater appreciation for the beauty and importance of these and many more math concepts.This is the perfect book for people who were turned off by math in school but now as adults wonder what they may have missed.
- GenresMathematicsScience
330 pages, Paperback
First published March 8, 2016
13 people are currently reading
65 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 11, 2016
I was very disappointed by this book - largely due to the insufferable infusions of numeralogy present in every chapter. Quite frankly I would never recommend this book to anyone because in my view it gives the lay reader the impression that serious mathematics encompasses such nonsensical pseudoscience.
For those interested in reading a good popular book on mathematics please check out Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics, or anything by Ian Stewart.
For those interested in reading a good popular book on mathematics please check out Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics, or anything by Ian Stewart.
June 13, 2017
This book averaged at least three serious errors per page: names were misspelled, formulas were stated incorrectly, math was done wrong, logical errors were made, references to figures were incorrect, etc. The writing was boring, choppy, and repetitive. There were some cool math facts I didn't know about, but for the most part, the topics were hackneyed. Also, the book was infused with extremely pointless and contrived numerology. There were some interesting philosophical comments about Platonism in mathematics and even some musings on the universe as a whole. But the book contained perhaps the worst and most memorable philosophical argument I've ever heard. The author argued that the reason there is something (the universe) rather than nothing (non-existence) may be that a set with n elements has 2^n subsets, only one of which is empty. Therefore the probability of something is much higher than the probability of nothing (represented by the empty set).
October 18, 2019
Call of the Primes, Owen O'Shea, 2016, 330pp., Dewey 510.
Myriad fun facts.
How to make magic squares, p. 23.
Conjectures and theorems about primes, pp. 37-40, 43-45.
Geometric proof of Pythagorean theorem, p. 57.
Pythagorean triples where hypotenuse is 1 longer than one side, p. 60.
Integer-radius circles inscribed in such triangles, p. 62.
Fibonacci sequence, chap. 5.
Fast pace.
Few explanations of "why?"
Little sense of, "this is significant, and why" as distinct from, "here's a weird fact, but knowing it never helped anybody."
Oddly explains the most trivial: "recall that a triangle's area is 1/2 the base times the height."
Even odder musings on beauty. Mathematicians are strange.
Some outright errors, as in his statements about E = mc^2, pp. 71-73.
Some deep numerical weeds.
But wow: there's good stuff here! Particularly, Pythagorean triples and e.
Myriad fun facts.
How to make magic squares, p. 23.
Conjectures and theorems about primes, pp. 37-40, 43-45.
Geometric proof of Pythagorean theorem, p. 57.
Pythagorean triples where hypotenuse is 1 longer than one side, p. 60.
Integer-radius circles inscribed in such triangles, p. 62.
Fibonacci sequence, chap. 5.
Fast pace.
Few explanations of "why?"
Little sense of, "this is significant, and why" as distinct from, "here's a weird fact, but knowing it never helped anybody."
Oddly explains the most trivial: "recall that a triangle's area is 1/2 the base times the height."
Even odder musings on beauty. Mathematicians are strange.
Some outright errors, as in his statements about E = mc^2, pp. 71-73.
Some deep numerical weeds.
But wow: there's good stuff here! Particularly, Pythagorean triples and e.
May 12, 2016
A popular/recreational approach to maths, which is an admirable goal. It was unfortunate that the execution was so absolutely and uniformly unreadable.
Largely, the material is a badly re-purposed collection of Martin Gardner's best Scientific American articles, and I am not kidding. Every chapter ends with a citation of sources, and a single collection of Gardner's articles is the primary source for most. The added value is supposed to be O'Shea's framing I suppose, but O'Shea is unable to make the material interesting, clear, or coherent. Worse yet, he takes things that I am truly interested in and makes it dull and confusing. Then, as a capper, he tosses in a correspondence with an imaginary retired Chinese numerologist/mathematician to end each chapter; a weird thing on every level which is even worse than O'Shea trying to jolly us along to see the Fun-In NUMBERS!.
Largely, the material is a badly re-purposed collection of Martin Gardner's best Scientific American articles, and I am not kidding. Every chapter ends with a citation of sources, and a single collection of Gardner's articles is the primary source for most. The added value is supposed to be O'Shea's framing I suppose, but O'Shea is unable to make the material interesting, clear, or coherent. Worse yet, he takes things that I am truly interested in and makes it dull and confusing. Then, as a capper, he tosses in a correspondence with an imaginary retired Chinese numerologist/mathematician to end each chapter; a weird thing on every level which is even worse than O'Shea trying to jolly us along to see the Fun-In NUMBERS!.
April 9, 2016
An introduction to recreational mathematics through chapters devoted to various mathematical constructs: the prime numbers, the Fibonacci sequence, the square root of -1, π, etc. The book is uneven, excellent in some places (the chapter on Pascal's triangle alone is worth the price of the book) but tending towards mathematical parlor tricks in others (how the first six triangular numbers figure in Abraham Lincoln's life) and containing a few too many typos. Still, a good introduction to some of the basic entities in math.
January 5, 2017
Some decent stuff on pi, e, and imaginary numbers (the ones relating to the square root of -1). But I have no use for numerology as it's arbitrary unlike "real" math which has more beauty as well. I wouldn't recommend this to get someone interested in math.
April 11, 2020
Unfortunately I cannot give this book a good review. I picked it up thinking it would be in the vein of Alex Bellos' masterpiece, "Alex Through the Looking Glass."
It was anything but.
Most chapters consist of re-hashed mathematical concepts which are told in such as way as to seem uninspired and even boring. Oddly when the author wanted to appear empathetic he chose to write in italics and add exclamation points and cram repetitive sentences together. It was the epitome of "tell" and not "show".
There are long sections which wax poetic on beauty, but not once does he ever touch platonic or formalist theory, on emergence or determinism. There is no personal narrative attached here a la Douglas Hofstadtert in GEB.
This is such a shallow dive full of navel-gazing, with no real effort to connect his freshman thoughts to deeper or wiser arguments. I was very disappointed, as the subject of whether Mathematics is 'invented' or 'discovered' is a fascinating one full of rich history, none of which is on display. He mentioned Hippo once and that was it.
There are many pages devoted to what he calls "curiosities" which are nothing more than him finding arbitrary connections between numbers and letters, or writing out a sequence and just going "Look! How cool is that??" but with no attempt to connect it to anything other than his own interest level, which was about as hot as an ice cube.
There is a chapter of Pythagoras which, a few pages in, states that the author will later reveal a link between this theorem and the primes. The pay-off never comes.
The same chapter references Albert Einstein and literally has the sentence, "His name was Albert Einstein". Either O'Shea is totally obviously to the meme-sphere or he is trolling us. Note as well that the same chapter used Pythagoras to explain special and general relativity, but he never once touched upon Lorenz Transforms, which in my mind misses the entire point of using a PPT as an example for relativity.
Finally, the worst part of the book comes over and over: letters (which I am guessing are fake) in the form of some obscure number occultist appear and bookend each chapter. Each one offers up meaningless tripe and numerological garbage. For God's sake, there is even a section devoted to how words and letters from 9/11 relate to 9/11, or the Pearl Harbour bombing, and all sorts of trash.
I really can't believe this book got published.
It was anything but.
Most chapters consist of re-hashed mathematical concepts which are told in such as way as to seem uninspired and even boring. Oddly when the author wanted to appear empathetic he chose to write in italics and add exclamation points and cram repetitive sentences together. It was the epitome of "tell" and not "show".
There are long sections which wax poetic on beauty, but not once does he ever touch platonic or formalist theory, on emergence or determinism. There is no personal narrative attached here a la Douglas Hofstadtert in GEB.
This is such a shallow dive full of navel-gazing, with no real effort to connect his freshman thoughts to deeper or wiser arguments. I was very disappointed, as the subject of whether Mathematics is 'invented' or 'discovered' is a fascinating one full of rich history, none of which is on display. He mentioned Hippo once and that was it.
There are many pages devoted to what he calls "curiosities" which are nothing more than him finding arbitrary connections between numbers and letters, or writing out a sequence and just going "Look! How cool is that??" but with no attempt to connect it to anything other than his own interest level, which was about as hot as an ice cube.
There is a chapter of Pythagoras which, a few pages in, states that the author will later reveal a link between this theorem and the primes. The pay-off never comes.
The same chapter references Albert Einstein and literally has the sentence, "His name was Albert Einstein". Either O'Shea is totally obviously to the meme-sphere or he is trolling us. Note as well that the same chapter used Pythagoras to explain special and general relativity, but he never once touched upon Lorenz Transforms, which in my mind misses the entire point of using a PPT as an example for relativity.
Finally, the worst part of the book comes over and over: letters (which I am guessing are fake) in the form of some obscure number occultist appear and bookend each chapter. Each one offers up meaningless tripe and numerological garbage. For God's sake, there is even a section devoted to how words and letters from 9/11 relate to 9/11, or the Pearl Harbour bombing, and all sorts of trash.
I really can't believe this book got published.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews