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Why Beauty Is Truth

By Ian Stewart

Product Image: Why Beauty Is Truth

Why Beauty Is Truth

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Description
At the heart of relativity theory, quantum mechanics, string theory, and much of modern cosmology lies one concept: symmetry. In Why Beauty Is Truth, world-famous mathematician Ian Stewart narrates the history of the emergence of this remarkable area of study. Stewart introduces us to such characters as the Renaissance Italian genius, rogue, scholar, and gambler Girolamo Cardano, who stole the modern method of solving cubic equations and published it in the first important book on algebra, and the young revolutionary Evariste Galois, who refashioned the whole of mathematics and founded the field of group theory only to die in a pointless duel over a woman before his work was published. Stewart also explores the strange numerology of real mathematics, in which particular numbers have unique and unpredictable properties related to symmetry. He shows how Wilhelm Killing discovered "Lie groups" with 14, 52, 78, 133, and 248 dimensions-groups whose very existence is a profound puzzle. Finally, Stewart describes the world beyond superstrings: the "octonionic" symmetries that may explain the very existence of the universe.
Product details
Binding:
Paperback
Edition:
1
Number of Pages:
304
Release Date:
2008-04-29
Publication Date:
2008-04-01
Publisher:
Basic Books
Languages:
Original: English
ISBN10:
0465082378
ISBN13:
9780465082377
GPSR Manufacturer Reference:
[email protected]
Minimum Reading Age:
13
Maximum Reading Age:
99
Weight:
385 g
Height:
133 cm
Width:
203 cm
Thickness:
18 cm
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