e: The Story of a Number

Also, many other explanations of this subject (and other mathematical topics) make a huge leap in reasoning, and then rely on that leap like a crutch when explaining the later topic to you. This book seems like you can jump in at about any point. It has chapters which explain 'e' using financial interest (which is, in my humble opinion, the best way), and there are geometric reasonings, and many many formulaic techniques (which are, again in my humble opinion, the worst ways of explaining math). Even the formulaic parts are not that hard, though. There have been very few times that the leap from one formula to the next took more than a few seconds to say "AH! I see how we got here!!", which is to me the most satisfying part of it all.

HOWEVER!!! I disagree with another reviewer that the reason that this book is so good is that it is written by a mathematician and is thus free from error. One of the best books on math that I have is Jan Gullberg's "Mathematics: From the Birth of Numbers", which is written by a physician. I feel that sometimes the outside perspective keeps an author from assuming foundational knowledge or jargon. Also, I think that there is an error on page 34 (I'm currently on page 49). It is the tiniest error in an inconsequential passing phrase, which is only wrong if taken in a nit-picky literal sense. Mathematical induction is described as: "Show that if the formula is true for all values of n up to, say m, then it must also be true for n=m+1" The reason that I think that this is an error, or at least too precursory a description, is that mathematical induction doesn't require you to show that a formula is true for all values up to m. It requires you to prove the 'm+1' case, assuming the truth of m. Then it requires a single base case (you can prove the formula is true for any number you want). Once these two steps are done, the proof is complete. The source of my nit-picking is the words "up to", which are specifically a part of the results, not the requirements, of a proof by induction. ANYWAY, sorry to be so pedantic, I'm a computer scientist who likes to talk about his subject. If you were able to sit and read this entire review, you have the patience for this book. Hope you enjoy!


Best Story of Classical Math   July 28, 2004
Alaturka (Northport, NY USA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

What a masterpiece! Eli Maor has written a wonderful story of classical math, while mostly centered around logarithms and natural base e, he has also taken us through much of the other essential classical math developments that touched upon this topic such as calculus, limits and analytic geometry. One can easily sense the author's enthusiasm for the subject and it is contagious. He has squeezed an amazing number of facts, personalities, history into a modest number of pages and whatever was left over, and there was plenty, he has expanded on them in little abstracts and appendixes. The path he takes us through is nothing less than a biography of our intellectual development. It is so interesting to see that some of the very basic math concepts that takes no more than a page in a standard textbook today, had to come into being through such tortuous ways. One also cant help but admire the pioneers such as Euler, Gauss and Descartes, their immense genius and their creativity and vision so many centuries ago. Eli puts all these into perspective. Writing and delivery are excellent. While the whole book reads like an exciting novel, many chapters can be read by themselves and stand on their own too. There is also plenty of math and derivations. Highly recommended.