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Cracking Mathematics: You, This Book and 4,000 Years of Theories
This comprehensive guide covers the history and development of mathematics, from the Ancient Egyptians and Pythagoreans to key figures such as Galileo, Dodgson, Babbage and Lovelace through to contemporary work of the 21st century. It tells of the remarkable stories that have shaped mathematics and also features sections on how maths can be used to solve the mysteries of the universe, what the Prisoner's Dilemma is as well as Fermat's Last Theorem amongst many more.
Accessible, well-informed and fully-illustrated, this is a book that shows perfectly just how varied and fascinating mathematics is as a subject.
Accessible, well-informed and fully-illustrated, this is a book that shows perfectly just how varied and fascinating mathematics is as a subject.
400 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 11, 2016
19 people are currently reading
120 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 4, 2016
This kind of book is puzzling, though as we shall discover, Cracking Mathematics is a particularly effective example of the genre. Generally, it's difficult to be sure what a book like this is for, a bafflement not helped in this case by the Zen subtitle 'you, this book and 4,000 years of theories'.
The kind of book I'm talking about is a heavily illustrated summary of a big scientific subject - in this case the whole of mathematics - often covering each topic in as little as a pair of pages with sufficient pictures that the text can only ever be very summary. I can see this format would appeal as a gift book, something to give someone who is difficult to buy for, but I struggle to get a feel for why you would want to sit down and read a book like this from cover to cover - yet it's not a reference book either.
Such books are often big coffee table numbers, but the books in this particular series come in a virtually pocket-sized format - smart hardbacks just 17.5x15 centimetres, so they are far more manageable as, say, a loo book, or something to keep in your bag for boring journeys to keep yourself entertained. And perhaps that format is part of the reason why this particular example works so well - that and some genuinely interesting text from Colin Beveridge.
Along the way, Beveridge takes us on a journey through the origins of mathematics, the renaissance, with the introduction of negative and imaginary numbers, calculus and the infinitesimal, powers and logs, the infinite, codes and some of the more exotic modern ideas. Unlike some of the summary maths texts I've read, it isn't a collection of dull facts, but provides plenty of little gems along the way, from the 20,000 year old Ishango bone to the mysteries of elliptic curves and John Conway's Game of Life. Sometimes the format is a little forced - there's a section labelled 'The Curious Maths of Alice in Wonderland' which certainly does contain some Dodgson maths, but equally includes things like quaternions and non-Euclidian geometry, where the connection to Lewis Carroll, let alone Alice, is rather weak.
In other places, the attempt to make the discussion populist overstretches a little. There is some great material on games and probability, with, for instance, an really good description of the famous Monty Hall problem and the controversy it caused in Parade magazine - but quite why there is a double page spread on poker player Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson, even if he did apply game theory to poker, is a little baffling. My general feeling about this was 'So what?'
Maths is often portrayed as a very dry subject - a necessary evil, rather than something to enjoy - and when maths enthusiasts such as Ian Stewart try to make it seem that mathematics is pure fun they can often misunderstand what the general reader actually finds entertaining, or even faintly interesting. Beveridge does not fall into this trap, and consistently gives us interesting material - in part because the book focusses on the people involved and the history of maths as much as it does on the actual mathematics. Because of this, this title lifts itself above the other books of this type that I've read to make it feel that it really is worth popping into your bag to lighten your next wait at the station.
The kind of book I'm talking about is a heavily illustrated summary of a big scientific subject - in this case the whole of mathematics - often covering each topic in as little as a pair of pages with sufficient pictures that the text can only ever be very summary. I can see this format would appeal as a gift book, something to give someone who is difficult to buy for, but I struggle to get a feel for why you would want to sit down and read a book like this from cover to cover - yet it's not a reference book either.
Such books are often big coffee table numbers, but the books in this particular series come in a virtually pocket-sized format - smart hardbacks just 17.5x15 centimetres, so they are far more manageable as, say, a loo book, or something to keep in your bag for boring journeys to keep yourself entertained. And perhaps that format is part of the reason why this particular example works so well - that and some genuinely interesting text from Colin Beveridge.
Along the way, Beveridge takes us on a journey through the origins of mathematics, the renaissance, with the introduction of negative and imaginary numbers, calculus and the infinitesimal, powers and logs, the infinite, codes and some of the more exotic modern ideas. Unlike some of the summary maths texts I've read, it isn't a collection of dull facts, but provides plenty of little gems along the way, from the 20,000 year old Ishango bone to the mysteries of elliptic curves and John Conway's Game of Life. Sometimes the format is a little forced - there's a section labelled 'The Curious Maths of Alice in Wonderland' which certainly does contain some Dodgson maths, but equally includes things like quaternions and non-Euclidian geometry, where the connection to Lewis Carroll, let alone Alice, is rather weak.
In other places, the attempt to make the discussion populist overstretches a little. There is some great material on games and probability, with, for instance, an really good description of the famous Monty Hall problem and the controversy it caused in Parade magazine - but quite why there is a double page spread on poker player Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson, even if he did apply game theory to poker, is a little baffling. My general feeling about this was 'So what?'
Maths is often portrayed as a very dry subject - a necessary evil, rather than something to enjoy - and when maths enthusiasts such as Ian Stewart try to make it seem that mathematics is pure fun they can often misunderstand what the general reader actually finds entertaining, or even faintly interesting. Beveridge does not fall into this trap, and consistently gives us interesting material - in part because the book focusses on the people involved and the history of maths as much as it does on the actual mathematics. Because of this, this title lifts itself above the other books of this type that I've read to make it feel that it really is worth popping into your bag to lighten your next wait at the station.
January 28, 2018
Całkiem sympatyczny, lekki przewodnik po co bardziej interesujących matematykach w historii. A także trochę o samej matematyce, ale nie ma się co oszukiwać - to raczej mniej. W kilku interesujących miejscach autor wyjaśnia, o co tak naprawdę chodzi, ale w paru innych fragmentach moim zdaniem mógł nieco szerzej pociągnąć swój wywód.
Książkę dostałem na gwiazdkę, w efekcie pierwszy raz od dawna czytałem coś w wersji z papierowymi stronami. Akurat w tym przypadku chyba warto, jest dużo ładnych ilustracji, które dobrze uzupełniają się z tekstem. Myślę że edycja ebookowa nie będzie tym samym.
Jeśli chodzi o poziom - zdecydowanie popularny. Akurat to mi się podobało, bo poziomem akademickim zdążyłem się już w życiu nasycić i raczej dla rozrywki bym się nim nie zajmował.
Fajnie było zauważyć, że pewne rzeczy się prostują: w rozdziale o enigmie już nie tylko Turing, ale jednak pojawili się jacyś Polacy, co jest miłą odmianą po typowych zachodnich publikacjach. Duży fragment poświęcono też Księdze Szkockiej i - co za tym idzie - Lwowskiej szkole matematycznej. Miłe.
Książkę raczej polecam, w każdym razie czasu nad nią nie zmarnowałem.
Książkę dostałem na gwiazdkę, w efekcie pierwszy raz od dawna czytałem coś w wersji z papierowymi stronami. Akurat w tym przypadku chyba warto, jest dużo ładnych ilustracji, które dobrze uzupełniają się z tekstem. Myślę że edycja ebookowa nie będzie tym samym.
Jeśli chodzi o poziom - zdecydowanie popularny. Akurat to mi się podobało, bo poziomem akademickim zdążyłem się już w życiu nasycić i raczej dla rozrywki bym się nim nie zajmował.
Fajnie było zauważyć, że pewne rzeczy się prostują: w rozdziale o enigmie już nie tylko Turing, ale jednak pojawili się jacyś Polacy, co jest miłą odmianą po typowych zachodnich publikacjach. Duży fragment poświęcono też Księdze Szkockiej i - co za tym idzie - Lwowskiej szkole matematycznej. Miłe.
Książkę raczej polecam, w każdym razie czasu nad nią nie zmarnowałem.
June 7, 2017
This book is delightful.
Probably designed more as a coffee table book than a cover to cover read how I did it.
The story of mathematics told in a colourful and insightful way by Colin Beverage.
Probably designed more as a coffee table book than a cover to cover read how I did it.
The story of mathematics told in a colourful and insightful way by Colin Beverage.
March 26, 2025
Ciekawe!
December 29, 2020
Love it! It is in my livingroom table to browse at random to remind me of the good things and amazing stories and facts in mathematics.
August 21, 2024
Good introductory book about the history of mathematics.
Attractive graphics, byte-sized chapters, clear writing style.
Lots of references to historical books that can make for great additional reading material.
To which I'd like to add - Elements of Algebra by Leonhard Euler.
Attractive graphics, byte-sized chapters, clear writing style.
Lots of references to historical books that can make for great additional reading material.
To which I'd like to add - Elements of Algebra by Leonhard Euler.
March 10, 2019
Entertaining, written for mathematicians so that I missed some of it, more pop science than serious mathematics. Good fun.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews