God Created the Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs that Changed History | 
 enlarge | Author: Stephen Hawking
Publisher: Running Press
Category: Book
List Price: $21.95
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Rating:  25 reviews
Sales Rank: 17206
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 1376
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.9
Dimensions (in): 9 x 5.8 x 2.1
ISBN: 0762430044
Dewey Decimal Number: 500
EAN: 9780762430048
Publication Date: October 8, 2007
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Condition: Great condition... *confirmaition number upon request*
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Amazon.com
"God created the integers," wrote mathematician Leopold Kronecker, "All the rest is the work of Man." In this collection of landmark mathematical works, editor Stephen Hawking has assembled the greatest feats humans have ever accomplished using just numbers and their brains. Each of the 17 sections opens with a historical introduction of the featured author, and proceeds to a faithful translation of their most famous work. While most mathematicians will already have complete editions of Isaac Newton's Principia or Georg Cantor's Contributions to the Founding of the Theory of Transfinite Numbers, this book is unique in presenting just the best bits of these and other theoretical works. The collection spans 2,500 years and covers a vast range of theories: the parallel postulate, Boolean logic, differential calculus, and the philosophy of the unknowable among them. Dense with numbers, formulae, and ideas, God Created the Integers is quite challenging, but Hawking rewards curious readers with a look at how mathematics has been built. In contrast to the towering physical edifices of great civilizations of the past, Hawking writes, "The greatest wonder of the modern world is our understanding." --Therese Littleton
Product Description
Pulled together for the first time, and paired with commentary from the world’s most respected scholars, God Created the Integers presents history’s extraordinary moments in math, culled from 2,500 years of history and 21 distinguished mathematicians, four more than the hardcover edition. Each chapter begins with a profile of one of these mathematical masters, followed by original printings of their relevant works. This new paperback edition includes the work of Euler, Galois, Bolyai, and Lobachevsky. Readers get a window into the minds of these geniuses and can see the unfolding thought process as it leads, inevitably, to the high-water marks in mathematical thinking. This new edition comes with an index to make it a valuable and easy-to-use research and reference tool.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 20 more reviews...
 Forget the flaws. Enjoy it. August 30, 2007
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I just couldn't put this book down. I was so absorbed that I even missed my station and had to catch a train back. The biographies mixed with mathematical explanations and an outline of the significance of each work is brilliant. It gives one an insight into how context-dependent genius really is.
I knew that the book had flaws because I read these reviews a while ago. But so what! You wouldn't use this book for reference or as a text book. It's meant to be entertainment and entertaining it is. If you can understand the maths and the significance of the selected papers you can enjoy it without worrying too much about everything being crossed and dotted.
I knew the biographies of many, but not all, of these men. Of the ones I didn't know, my favorite is George Boole. The description of his unusual career and the amazingly clear and readable paper on symbolic logic are worth buying the book for. I almost choked up when I read how he died.
Anyway, in our age or irrationality and ignorance we need more books like this to show us that we can rise above it all.
God Created the Integers October 18, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a beautiful book because it lists the life and work of 16 mathematicians whose work has inspired our civilization. For example Einstein is not included, but Riemann whose analysis of curved space is the foundation of the General Theory of Relativity is rhere. So also are Archimedes and Newton the pillars of mathematical physics.Kurt Godel in 1931 proved that there will always a truth that is outside a set of axioms.Some of the original papers are difficult but I have gained much from the logic of George Boole which also governs computer programmes.
Recommended as a pick for college-level collections strong in mathematics. January 6, 2007
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
Math enables human society to function - but that areas of math make modern wonders possible, and what problem made each theory's first inventor become involved in a puzzle? While GOD CREATED THE INTEGERS: THE MATHEMATICAL BREAKTHROUGHS THAT CHANGED HISTORY is a follow-up to ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS, it stands well alone as a history of thirty-one landmark cases of mathematical problem-solving, from geometry to calculus. Also included are biographies of each mathematician, the full proof of work reproduced from the original publication, and newly translated results; three of which appear in English for the first time. Recommended as a pick for college-level collections strong in mathematics.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
Exactly what I wanted! July 21, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I read "Euclid's Window" last year, another mathematical history/overview book, and while I enjoyed it, it did seem to skim much and not get too deep into any one subject. I'm still glad I read it, because it's whetted my appetite for the subject, and this book is definitely the main course. It's a great companion to Roger Penrose' "Road to Reality", an overview of just about all we currently know about physics, which doesn't shy away from the math. Between these two books, my brain will likely explode (I'm a musician, but I love the subject), but they are full of depth for both thorough reading or just reference.
A great mathematics source book March 31, 2007
0 out of 19 found this review helpful
I follow the excellent translation of Riemann's 1859 zeta paper
in my book "Riemann's Zeta paper: The Product Formula Error"
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