The Universe in Zero Words: The Story of Mathematics as Told through Equations

Description

Most popular books about science, and even about mathematics, tiptoe around equations as if they were something to be hidden from the reader's tender eyes. Dana Mackenzie starts from the opposite premise: He celebrates equations. No history of art would be complete without pictures. Why, then, should a history of mathematics--the universal language of science--keep the masterpieces of the subject hidden behind a veil? The Universe in Zero Words tells the history of twenty-four great and beautiful equations that have shaped mathematics, science, and society--from the elementary (1+1=2) to the sophisticated (the Black-Scholes formula for financial derivatives), and from the famous (E=mc2) to the arcane (Hamilton's quaternion equations). Mackenzie, who has been called "a popular-science ace" by Booklist magazine, lucidly explains what each equation means, who discovered it (and how), and how it has affected our lives. Illustrated in color throughout, the book tells the human and often-surprising stories behind the invention or discovery of the equations, from how a bad cigar changed the course of quantum mechanics to why whales (if they could communicate with us) would teach us a totally different concept of geometry. At the same time, the book shows why these equations have something timeless to say about the universe, and how they do it with an economy (zero words) that no other form of human expression can match. The Universe in Zero Words is the ultimate introduction and guide to equations that have changed the world. Cover Title contents preface introduction: the abacist versus the algorist part one: equations of antiquity 1. Why we believe in arithmetic: the world’s simplest equation 2. Resisting a new concept: the discovery of zero 3. The square of the hypotenuse: the Pythagorean theorem 4. The circle game: the discovery of π 5. From Zeno’s paradoxes to the idea of infinity 6. A matter of leverage: laws of levers part two: equations in the age of exploration 7. The stammerer’s secret: Cardano’s formula 8. Order in the heavens: Kepler’s laws of planetary motion 9. Writing for eternity: Fermat’s Last Theorem 10. An unexplored continent: the fundamental theorem of calculus 11. Of apples, legends . . . and comets: Newton’s laws 12. The great explorer: Euler’s theorems part three: equations in a promethean age 13. The new algebra: Hamilton and quaternions 14. Two shooting stars: group theory 15. The geometry of whales and ants: non-Euclidean geometry 16. In primes we trust: the prime number theorem 17. The idea of spectra: Fourier series 18. A god’s-eye view of light: Maxwell’s equations part four: equations in our own time 19. The photoelectric effect: quanta and relativity 20. From a bad cigar to Westminster Abbey: Dirac’s formula 21. The empire-builder: the Chern-Gauss-Bonnet equation 22. A little bit infinite: the Continuum Hypothesis 23. Theories of chaos: Lorenz equations 24. Taming the tiger: the Black-Scholes equation conclusion: what of the future? acknowledgments bibliography index