The Art of the Infinite : The Pleasures of Mathematics

by Robert Kaplan

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Conversations
215	4	26,771	(3.6)	2

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Book details

Title	The Art of the Infinite : The Pleasures of Mathematics
Author	Robert Kaplan
Rating
Tags	unread, daedalus, March 2006, nonficiton, mathematics, history, illustrated
Collections	Your library
Your review	Yes, The Art of the Infinite has a lot of equations, schematics, graphs, and geometric projections (although the really intricate ones are kindly set aside in the Appendix). But don't let that scare you. Remember, we are relaxing into the idea of really understanding how cool upper-level mathematics is -- don't tense up at all those Greek symbols and acute angles, just let them wash over you and the Kaplan's will lead you through some pretty amazing mathematical concepts one step at a time. Along the way, you will get a taste of the major mathematical figures: from Pythagoras to Cantor -- all nicely illustrated by Ellen Kaplan, who also hand-draws all the mathematical figures in the book. I wouldn't claim to have understood (or really thought out) every proof in this book, but I feel like I got enough of a taste to understand what was going on every step of the way and why it was interesting. I feel like I really understand the definitions and distinctions between Real, Natural, Rational and Imaginary numbers. I have a huge appreciation for the imagination and creativity of mathematicians who attack the mind-blowing complications of infinite numbers and come up with something that can be wrangled into an equation and applied to any number at all. [full review here: http://spacebeer.blogspot.com/2008/06...]
Other authors*	Kaplan, Ellen
Publication	Oxford University Press, USA (2003), Hardcover
Publication date	2003
ISBN	019514743X / 9780195147438
LC classification 1	QA295 .A85
Dewey 1	515/.243 22
Subjects	Infinite Processes, Infinite Series, Infinite
Primary language eng	English
Secondary language	(blank)
Original language
Date acquired
Date started
Date finished
Summary 0	The Art of the Infinite : The Pleasures of Mathematics by Robert Kaplan (2003)
Comments
BCID	XXX-
Number of copies	1
Citation	MLA, APA, Chicago/Turabian, Wikipedia citation
Data source	Amazon.com

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