God Created the Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs That Changed History

by Stephen Hawking

Book Overview

Bestselling author and physicist Stephen Hawking explores the "masterpieces" of mathematics, 25 landmarks spanning 2,500 years and representing the work of 15 mathematicians, including Augustin... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0762419229
• ISBN13: 9780762419227
• Release Date: October 2005
• Publisher: Running Press Book Publishers
• Length: 1160 Pages
• Weight: 1.21 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.0" x 6.7" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Not what I expected… it’s found a new home. 😊

I’ve never been into the mathematical sense at all, so union opening and perusing the book, was like way over my head 🤭🤭🤭, so it’s found a new home with someone who understands and digs that stuff. 🤭🤭🤭❤️

math

Math, math, everywhere there is math. I have not finished this book. I will be a long time finishig this book, but it is great reading for an 11 hour flight to Europe. This is a book that can be read several times and more can be learned each time read. Not a late night book, it stirs the brain into overdrive!

God Created the Integers

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.

Forget the flaws. Enjoy it.

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.

Exactly what I wanted!

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.

Recommended as a pick for college-level collections strong in mathematics.

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