false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172796159m/218392.jpg 218392 2 Bernhard Riemann was an underdog of sorts, a malnourished son of a parson who grew up to be the author of one of mathematics' greatest problems. In <I>Prime Obsession</I>, John Derbyshire deals brilliantly with both Riemann's life and that problem: proof of the conjecture, "All non-trivial zeros of the zeta function have real part one-half." Though the statement itself passes as nonsense to anyone but a mathematician, Derbyshire walks readers through the decades of reasoning that led to the Riemann Hypothesis in such a way as to clear it up perfectly. Riemann himself never proved the statement, and it remains unsolved to this day. <I>Prime Obsession</I> offers alternating chapters of step-by-step math and a history of 19th-century European intellectual life, letting readers take a breather between chunks of well-written information. Derbyshire's style is accessible but not dumbed-down, thorough but not heavy-handed. This is among the best popular treatments of an obscure mathematical idea, inviting readers to explore the theory without insisting on page after page of formulae. </p> In 2000, the Clay Mathematics Institute offered a one-million-dollar prize to anyone who could prove the Riemann Hypothesis, but luminaries like David Hilbert, G.H. Hardy, Alan Turing, André Weil, and Freeman Dyson have all tried before. Will the Riemann Hypothesis ever be proved? "One day we shall know," writes Derbyshire, and he makes the effort seem very worthwhile. <I>--Therese Littleton</I> 211448 2003 Prime Obsession: Berhhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics total:132|5:40|4:54|3:31|2:4|1:3| 132 520 225 32 4 1 false false Mon Jul 09 12:25:56 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 09 12:41:27 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 1 false false Tue Oct 13 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 08 12:59:27 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 15 06:30:03 -0700 2009 Prime Obsession deals with mathematical concepts magnitude...more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Nov 20 03:23:29 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 30 09:54:02 -0800 2008 1 3 0 false false Wed Mar 11 09:14:24 -0700 2009 Sat May 02 23:06:20 -0700 2009 Jon Krakauer. Topically, of course, they have nothing in common. But their style both depends heavily on the conspicuousness of the author in the narrative. This isn't necessarily because Krakau...more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jul 02 21:18:44 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 02 21:20:02 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 23 11:33:45 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 13 11:24:57 -0800 2009 This wasn't quite what I expected, but I thought the author had a gift for explaining the necessary math (though I'll probably forget it soon enough). The author admits up front that not much is known about Riemann, so it is much less of a biography and much more ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Dec 29 22:18:55 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 29 22:20:26 -0800 2008 5 0 false false Tue May 27 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon May 26 22:08:36 -0700 2008 Mon May 26 22:23:18 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Mar 17 20:23:56 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 17 20:26:00 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Apr 20 12:44:01 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 20 12:44:01 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Wed Dec 10 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 25 10:26:40 -0800 2007 Wed Dec 10 12:41:48 -0800 2008
Overall though this is a great book w...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Sep 07 12:42:12 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 22 08:38:34 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Jul 04 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 29 07:56:51 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 10 18:34:59 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Sun Jul 22 09:30:11 -0700 2007 Sun Jul 22 09:31:35 -0700 2007 want to read them, but more often than not even the ones intended for "the common people" go over my head. This one didn't -- as far as a book about the Riehmann hypothesis can be a page-turner, this was. I occasionally neede...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Sat Feb 02 08:46:42 -0800 2008 Sat Feb 02 08:48:32 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Aug 14 18:11:07 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 14 18:13:57 -0700 2008
There IS some damn tricky math in here...that's the whole point, so I certainly wouldn't try to pitch it to the type of person ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sun Jan 13 16:16:59 -0800 2008 Sun Oct 19 14:10:08 -0700 2008 2
Many surprises an...more...]]> 2 0 false false Sun Jul 15 18:11:55 -0700 2007 Sun Jul 15 18:14:40 -0700 2007
As the author says (pg 89):
"The difficulty people have in grasping these ideas is a reminder that mathematical thinking is, at some level, deeply unnatural."

Or, as I always say, "We are not tru...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Mar 08 22:27:12 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 10 18:10:25 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 08 17:19:38 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 04 10:39:25 -0800 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=218392