The Moment of Proof: Mathematical Epiphanies

by Donald C. Benson

Book Overview

When Archimedes, while bathing, suddenly hit upon the principle of buoyancy, he ran wildly through the streets of Syracuse, stark naked, crying "eureka " In The Moment of Proof, Donald Benson attempts to convey to general readers the feeling of eureka--the joy of discovery--that mathematicians feel when they first encounter an elegant proof.
This is not an introduction to mathematics so much as an introduction to the pleasures of mathematical...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195117212
• ISBN13: 9780195117219
• Release Date: March 1999
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 2.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 7.3" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Great book

I've read a lot of popular writing on mathematics. This is without a doubt the BEST book I've ever read for someone who wants to work through the actual math (as opposed to having the ideas explained intuitively). This book should be used in high school to make math interesting.

Delivers on the promise of the title

A good mathematical proof can be better than sex.My definition of the joy of mathematics:You have a few facts, awkwardly arrayed. You have some idea of a new fact you think might be a logical consequence of those facts. You start finding ways of stating them more interestingly. This may lead you to defining new composite concepts. You play around with them for a while. Sometimes you have to throw them out and start over. Often if you are brilliant, once in a great while if you are me, things start falling into place rather elegantly. Then you finally discover a snappy way of articulating all the pieces of a problem and the proof pops out.And it feels amazing.This book allows people like me, who wish they could have these moments more often, to live them vicariously through the great selection of theorems and demonstrations Donald Benson has put together. I didn't find this book particularly hard to read. In fact, I often read it while walking -- wishing I had a chalkboard, admittedly. It is written for laypersons who are not afraid to spend quite a bit of time on a page: all the knowledge you need is there, but seeing how it fits together to produce a given result can take some effort. The proofs are all some combination of elegant, surprising, and subtle, and always cause a few minutes of ecstasy.

Fun exercises of medium to hard difficulty

The examples chosen here are based on their elegance and charm. The author is a former math professor so he doesn't take a lightweight route and oversimplify things. Is that good or bad? That depends on the reader. But to take full advantage of the book, one should read it with scratch paper and pen by your side.An interesting book for someone who's willing to dig in.

An excellent summary of the BROAD Field of Mathemetics

This is an EXCELLENT book on the broad subject of Mathematics - not just related to those topics that the general public understands as being Mathematics. I specifically commend the very broad coverage of the subject of Mathematics for readers who may even be struggling to recall some elementary algebra. Even most educated people do not realize that Mathematics includes such things as Probability Theory, Game Theory, Finding Optimal Strategies, The Study of Prime Numbers, Map Coloring with no more than four colors and designing and deciphering Secret Messages. I specifically appreciated the many excellent comments in marginal boxes and the frequent marginal notations of a "Dangerous curve" in many key areas that may not be obvious to the general reader. I also appreciated the comment near the end of the book of having "finished the main course, and even the dessert, of our mathematical banquet" and the comment on page 298 about there being no Nobel Prize in Mathematics. Clearly a book to remember and one to make you think!

An excellent and easy-to-read broad coverage of mathematics.

I specifically commend the very broad coverage of the subject of Mathematics for readers who may even be struggling to recall some elementary algebra. Even most educated people do not realize that Mathematics includes such things as Probability Theory, Game Theory, Finding Optimal Strategies, The Study of Prime Numbers, Map Coloring with no more than four colors and designing and deciphering Secret Messages.I specifically appreciated the many excellent comments in marginal boxes and the frequent marginal notations of a "Dangerous curve" in many key areas. I also appreciated the comment near the end of having "finished the main course, and even the dessert, of our mathematical banquet" and the comment on page 298 about there being no Nobel Prize in Mathematics.