Stewart receives an A for telling us how vast, wonderful and useful are all the members of the world of numbers but a lower...
The erudite British math professor revels in the wonders of numbers.
Stewart (Emeritus, Mathematics/Univ. of Warwick; The Mathematics of Life, 2011, etc.) adopts the framework of the chapters as subjects to elucidate the charms of the digits one to 10, adding separate chapters for special numbers including zero, negative numbers, rationals and irrationals, pi, e, the imaginary number i (the square root of minus 1) and so on. For each, the author provides historical context—e.g., many 19th-century mathematicians found the notion of infinity abhorrent. Stewart’s approach works well early on, giving a nice sense of how math has evolved to ever larger number systems that have many applications beyond pure mathematics. However, Stewart tells about the remarkable findings of great mathematicians rather than showing how they were obtained. This is partly because the proofs involved are too complex or technical, requiring some knowledge of calculus or complex numbers. Yet even in simpler cases where Stewart shows steps in a proof, his explanations are terse and may assume too much on the part of readers. (On the other hand, he is expansive in giving the names and dates of those who carried out calculations of the square root of 2 or pi to a zillion places.) The degree of sophistication grows in the latter half of the text, as Stewart discourses on fractals, musical scales, packing problems, Rubik’s cubes, string theory and encryption, including an analysis of the celebrated German enigma code of World War II. The topics defy any logical sequence, so a discussion of wallpaper patterns can be followed by the famous birthday problem in which it turns out that the probability of two people in a group having the same birthday is greater than 50 percent in a group as small as 23 people.
Stewart receives an A for telling us how vast, wonderful and useful are all the members of the world of numbers but a lower grade for his explanation of the whys and wherefores.Pub Date: April 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-465-04272-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2015
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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