Equation That Couldn't be Solved: How a Mathmatical Genius Discovered the Language of Symmetry - Couverture souple

Livio, Mario

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0285637894 ISBN 13 : 9780285637894

Editeur : Souvenir Press Ltd, 2007

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

For centuries the phenomenon of symmetry had defied mathematicians' attempts to define it in a single equation. The attempt to create this equation, the quintic equation, would open up a route to group theory, and group theory lies at the heart of modern science and modern technology. The discovery of group theory paved the way for Einstein s theory of general relativity, modern physics and the search for a unifying theory of the cosmos. I have no time , wrote Evariste Galois in the margin of his manuscript which finally solved the quintic equation, and invented a new branch of mathematics, that of group theory. Aged only twenty he died shortly after in a duel, regarded as one of the greatest scholars of his age and as a revolutionary in Louis Philippe s France he was a member of the same republican society as Alexandre Dumas (and was imprisoned along with the poet Gerard de Nerval for his political sympathies).

Revue de presse

His book takes on something of the form of a historical detective story as he digs into the events surrounding Galois s death... A fine contribution to mathematical literature. --'Financial Times'

A lively addition to the small number of popular accounts of these climatic developments in mathematics. His tale is many-stranded. --'Times Higher Education Supplement'

Livio offers a heartbreakingly potted biography of Galois, whom he dubs the Lord Byron of mathematics ... an intellectual journey that is as circuitous as it is vertiginous... The Equation That Couldn t Be Solved excitingly exhibits the scope and reach of Livio s wide-ranging interdisciplinary curiosity. --'Jewish Chronicle'

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Souvenir Press Ltd
• Date d'édition: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0285637894
• ISBN 13: 9780285637894
• Reliure: Broché
• Langue: anglais
• Nombre de pages: 368