The Art of the Infinite: The Pleasures of Mathematics

Robert Kaplan · Ellen Kaplan

ก.ค. 2014 · Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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A witty, conversational, and accessible tour of math's profoundest mysteries.

Mathematical symbols, for mathematicians, store worlds of meaning, leap continents and centuries. But we need not master symbols to grasp the magnificent abstractions they represent, and to which all art aspires. Through language, anyone can come to delight in the works of mathematical art, which are among our kind's greatest glories.

Taking the concept of infinity, in its countless guises, as a starting point and a helpful touchstone, the founders of Harvard's pioneering Math Circle program Robert and Ellen Kaplan guide us through the “Republic of Numbers,” where we meet both its upstanding citizens and its more shadowy dwellers, explore realms where only the imagination can go, and grapple with math's most profound uncertainties, including the question of truth itself-do we discover mathematical principles, or invent them?

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Robert and Ellen Kaplan have taught subjects ranging from Sanskrit through mathematics to philosophy and history and founded The Math Circle. Robert Kaplan is the author of the bestselling The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero. Ellen Kaplan is coauthor of Chances Are . . . and Bozo Sapiens, written with their son Michael. Together, Robert and Ellen are the authors of Out of the Labyrinth. Their website is www.themathcircle.org.