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Priyadarshini Sur

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One, Two, Three...Infinity: Facts and Speculations of Science

by George Gamow

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Priyadarshini Sur said: " Though mathematics is not my cup of tea, I picked a book on mathematics’ ‘One two three.Infinity,’subtitled Facts and speculations of science by George Gamow .The book was originally written in 1947 and then revised in 1961. It's an amazing tour of s Though mathematics is not my cup of tea, I picked a book on mathematics’ ‘One two three.Infinity,’subtitled Facts and speculations of science by George Gamow .The book was originally written in 1947 and then revised in 1961. It's an amazing tour of some interesting bits of physics, mathematics , biology and about birth of planets, in under 350 pages.I read and re-read several times the chapters on mathematics and physics and marked the particularly interesting sections.
The book opens with a discussion of mathematics, specifically very large numbers, with two examples of the power of exponential growth, Gamow mentions that arithmetic made easy ‘was not known in ancient times. In fact it was invented less than two thousand years ago by an Indian Mathematician. The book opens with a discussion of mathematics, specifically very large numbers, with two examples of the power of exponential growth The first is about a vizier who (in legend) invented the game of chess. When told by a king that he could have any reward he wished, he asked for one grain of wheat for the first square of a chessboard, two for the second, four for the third, and so forth. The king happily agreed, only to discover that the total amount of wheat would be more than the entire world's wheat production for two thousand years. The second is a legend of a temple in Varanasi containing a game of with 64 disks which, when complete, will mean the end of the world. At a move per second, this would take significantly longer than the estimated age of the universe Gamow mentions that ’arithmetic made easy ‘was not known in ancient times. In fact it was invented less than two thousand years ago by an Indian Mathematician.
One Two Three... Infinity is full of stories like that, and charming examples of whatever point Gamow is discussing, all illustrated with wonderful and often whimsical line drawings by the author .I liked he chapters on ‘Dimensions and Co-ordinates ‘and ‘Time is the fourth dimension .As the book was last revised in !961 and Gamow died in 1968,the book is not updated as far as physics and biology are concerned. However the sections on mathematics hold up the best, and I will recommend Gamow's explanations of imaginary numbers and infinities to anyone. ...more "

Feb 28, 2014 02:47AM · see review