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Overview20 years later The Music of the Primes is still a groundbreaking popular science book. This new edition features updates from the author and a foreword by actor and director, Simon McBurney. In 1859, the German mathematician Bernhard Riemann presented a paper to the Berlin Academy which would change the history of mathematics. The subject was the strange and enigmatic prime numbers. At the heart of the presentation was an idea, a hypothesis, that Riemann had not yet proved but which has come to obsess mathematicians for the last 150 years. No one knows if he ever found the proof; on his death his housekeeper burnt all the personal papers. Today, the hypothesis is considered by many the holy grail of mathematics but has significance far beyond maths. At the of the heart of the enigma is a prize much larger than just intellectual glory; not only is there a $1 million reward for the person who can crack it but also is the key to all banking and e-commerce security. It is the idea that brings together many other areas of science and has ramifications within Quantum Mechanics, Chaos Theory and the future of computing. In 'The Music of the Primes', one of Britain's leading mathematicians, Marcus du Sautoy, recounts the history of these elusive numbers. It is a story of eccentric and brilliant men, last minute escapes from death, strange journeys, dangerous ideas and the unquenchable thirst for knowledge that drove some men mad and others to unparalleled glory. du Sautoy also tells a coruscating history of Mathematics. Combining in-depth knowledge as a practitioner in the field with narrative flair, this book will become a classic of popular science writing and will rank alongside 'Chaos' and 'Fermat's Last Theorem' within the genre. The Riemann Hypothesis: • Compared to Fermat's Last Theorem, the Hypothesis is mathematicians’ real Holy Grail • Is the only problem from Hilbert's 1900 Centenary Problems that was unproved in the 20th century and now has a $1 million reward for the person who cracks it. • The Hypothesis is the key to all Internet and e-commerce security Full Product DetailsAuthor: Marcus du SautoyPublisher: HarperCollins Publishers Imprint: HarperPerennial Dimensions: Width: 12.90cm , Height: 3.20cm , Length: 19.80cm Weight: 0.320kg ISBN: 9781841155807ISBN 10: 1841155802 Pages: 464 Publication Date: 06 September 2004 Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Tertiary & Higher Education , Professional & Vocational Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: To order  Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us. Table of ContentsReviews'Du Sautoy is a contagious enthusiast, a populist with a staunch faith in the public's intelligence!he has uncovered a wealth of intriguing anecdotes that he has woven into a compelling narrative.' Observer 'He laces the ideas with history, anecdote and personalia -- an entertaining mix that renders an austere subject palatable!valiant and ingenious!Even those with a mathematical allergy can enjoy du Sautoy's depictions of his cast of characters' The Times 'He brings hugely enjoyable writing, full of zest and passion, to the most fundamental questions in the pursuit of true knowledge.' Sunday Times 'A mesmerising journey into the world of mathematics and its mysteries.' Daily Mail 'A brilliant storyteller.' Independent 'Du Sautoy is a contagious enthusiast, a populist with a staunch faith in the public's intelligence...he has uncovered a wealth of intriguing anecdotes that he has woven into a compelling narrative.' Observer 'He laces the ideas with history, anecdote and personalia -- an entertaining mix that renders an austere subject palatable...valiant and ingenious...Even those with a mathematical allergy can enjoy du Sautoy's depictions of his cast of characters' The Times 'He brings hugely enjoyable writing, full of zest and passion, to the most fundamental questions in the pursuit of true knowledge.' Sunday Times 'A mesmerising journey into the world of mathematics and its mysteries.' Daily Mail 'A brilliant storyteller.' Independent This is a homage to mathematics, and in particular to that mysterious elite of maths known as prime numbers - for the uninitiated, whole numbers that cannot be divided exactly by two smaller numbers: 2, 3, 5 and 7 to 1,000,039 and beyond. It has to be said that if you don't already know what a prime number is, you may be baffled by large chunks of this work - written by an eminent mathematician who does have a tendency to assume readers won't be thrown by statements such as, 'Fermat had been right in his claim that the equation x^n + y^n = z^n has no solutions when n is bigger than 2.'Yet that would be a pity, because this is a fascinating work capable of offering at least a glimpse into the magical parallel universe of people who talk like that. Mathematicians are often regarded as arrogant because, according to du Sautoy, their subject has a permanence resting on the certainty of proof. Unlike scientific hypotheses, which may be moderated by new evidence or discarded altogether, mathematical proof is forever - what the ancient Greeks established about maths remains true today. So the great names of mathematics march through these pages with their reputations forever intact, never to be overruled by mathematicians of the future. And from Greeks onwards, mathematicians have been fascinated by primes. The problem is this. Primes get fewer the higher you count. There is no way of predicting the next prime to come. Yet there is no limit to the number of primes, as various intriguing thought experiments herein demonstrate. And it matters because the potential significance of primes is immense. This is a natural language - there is a species of cicada which emerges only every 17 years (17 is prime), presumably to avoid potential predators working to non-prime cycles. It has resonances with problems in particle physics, and immense practical application - computer security relies on primes, and without them modern business would collapse. And primes are a potential universal, intergalactic language - if we are ever to communicate with aliens, primes could well form the vocabulary for making contact. So mathematics' ultimate accolade will pass to the person who solves its most difficult outstanding problem: to understand how primes are distributed throughout the universe of numbers; to prove the Riemann hypothesis which proposes that there is harmony in this apparent sea of randomness. And the remarkable thing about this book, if you read it, is that if and when the discovery occurs - with who knows what ramifications for our future - you will want to know all about it. (Kirkus UK) 'Du Sautoy is a contagious enthusiast, a populist with a staunch faith in the public's intelligence!he has uncovered a wealth of intriguing anecdotes that he has woven into a compelling narrative.' Observer 'He laces the ideas with history, anecdote and personalia -- an entertaining mix that renders an austere subject palatable!valiant and ingenious!Even those with a mathematical allergy can enjoy du Sautoy's depictions of his cast of characters' The Times 'He brings hugely enjoyable writing, full of zest and passion, to the most fundamental questions in the pursuit of true knowledge.' Sunday Times 'A mesmerising journey into the world of mathematics and its mysteries.' Daily Mail 'A brilliant storyteller.' Independent Author InformationMarcus du Sautoy is a fellow of Wadham College, Oxford and has been named by The Independent on Sunday as one of Britain leading scientists. In 2001 he won the Berwick Prize of The London Mathmatical Society and in 2006 gace the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures. His book ‘The Music of the Prmes' was published in 2003 to widespread acclaim. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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