Description

Prime Obsession taught us not to be afraid to put the math in a math book. Unknown Quantity heeds the lesson well. So grab your graphing calculators, slip out the slide rules, and buckle up! John Derbyshire is introducing us to algebra through the ages and it promises to be just what his die-hard fans have been waiting for. Here is the story of algebra. With this deceptively simple introduction, we begin our journey. Flanked by formulae, shadowed by roots and radicals, escorted by an expert who navigates unerringly on our behalf, we are guaranteed safe passage through even the most treacherous mathematical terrain. Our first encounter with algebraic arithmetic takes us back 38 centuries to the time of Abraham and Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, Ur and Haran, Sodom and Gomorrah. Moving deftly from Abel s proof to the higher levels of abstraction developed by Galois, we are eventually introduced to what algebraists have been focusing on during the last century. As we travel through the ages, it becomes apparent that the invention of algebra was more than the start of a specific discipline of mathematics it was also the birth of a new way of thinking that clarified both basic numeric concepts as well as our perception of the world around us. Algebraists broke new ground when they discarded the simple search for solutions to equations and concentrated instead on abstract groups. This dramatic shift in thinking revolutionized mathematics. Written for those among us who are unencumbered by a fear of formulae, Unknown Quantity delivers on its promise to present a history of algebra. Astonishing in its bold presentation of the math and graced with narrative authority, our journey through the world of algebra is at once intellectually satisfying and pleasantly challenging.

Reviews

"All interested readers will learn something about mathematics and its history."
-- Mathematical Association of America Online

"Derbyshire has a witty, almost brusque way with words. He offers pithy anecdotes, sardonic asides, and sharp-eyed vignettes of his protagonists. Admirably, he doesn't talk down to readers but leads them on with breezy confidence."
-- The Wilson Quarterly, Summer 2006

"A world away from schoolroom tedium, John Derbyshire's Unknown Quantity buzzes with rivalries, frustrations, and breakthroughs. As with his excellent Prime Obsession, there are equations aplenty, but this is all to the good: the mix of narrative and hands-on mathematical alchemy amounts to more than the sum of its parts. A first-rate account that even algebraphobes will struggle to fault."
-- New Scientist, June 24, 2006

Author Biography

John Derbyshire is a mathematician and linguist by education; a systems analyst by profession; and the celebrated author of Prime Obsession, his no-holds-barred mathematical biography of Bernhard Riemann, and the highly acclaimed 1996 novel Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream. His work appears frequently in the National Review and The New Criterion. He currently lives in Huntington, New York, with his wife and two children.

Authoring Organizations

• Joseph Henry Press (JHP)
• More Titles from JHP

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