The Art of the Infinite
The Pleasures of Mathematics
ISBN10: 1608198693
ISBN13: 9781608198696
Paperback
416 Pages
$18.00
CA$19.00
The Art of the Infinite takes infinity, in its countless guises, as a touchstone for understanding mathematical thinking. Robert and Ellen Kaplan guide us through the "Republic of Numbers," where we meet both its upstanding citizens and its more shadowy dwellers; and transport us across the plane of geometry into the unlikely realm where parallel lines meet. The journey is enriched by deft character studies of great mathematicians (and equally colorful lesser ones). And as we go deeper into infinity, we explore the most profound mystery of mathematics: Are its principles eternal truths that we discover? Or ones that we invent?
Reviews
Praise for The Art of the Infinite
"Anyone interested in a serious introduction to mathematics will delight in this volume."—Los Angeles Times Book Review
"Both imaginative and diverting . . . The Kaplans want us to appreciate mathematics as . . . an art which involves invention, narrative, and an inexhaustible pursuit of variations on themes."—London Review of Books