About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherWorld Industries Scientific Publishing Co Pte LTD

ISBN-109813274352

ISBN-139789813274358

eBay Product ID (ePID)15038609176

Product Key Features

Publication Year2018

SubjectGeometry / Non-Euclidean, Geometry / General

Number of Pages350 Pages

Publication NameIn the Search for Beauty

LanguageEnglish

TypeTextbook

Subject AreaMathematics

AuthorVoldemar Smilga

FormatHardcover

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

SynopsisThis is a popular book that chronicles the historical attempts to prove the fifth postulate of Euclid on parallel lines that led eventually to the creation of non-Euclidean geometry. To absorb the mathematical content of the book, the reader should be familiar with the foundations of Euclidean geometry at the high school level. But besides the mathematics, the book is also devoted to stories about the people, brilliant mathematicians starting from Pythagoras and Euclid and terminating with Gauss, Lobachevsky and Klein. For two thousand years, mathematicians tried to prove the fifth postulate (whose formulation seemed to them too complicated to be a real postulate and not a theorem, hence the title In the Search for Beauty). But in the 19th century, they realized that such proof was impossible, and this led to a revolution in mathematics and then in physics. The two final chapters are devoted to Einstein and his general relativity which revealed to us that the geometry of the world we live in is not Euclidean.Also included is an historical essay on Omar Khayyam, who was not only a poet, but also a brilliant astronomer and mathematician., This is a popular book that chronicles the historical attempts to prove the fifth postulate of Euclid on parallel lines that led eventually to the creation of non-Euclidean geometry. To absorb the mathematical content of the book, the reader should be familiar with the foundations of Euclidean geometry at the high school level. But besides the mathematics, the book is also devoted to stories about the people, brilliant mathematicians starting from Pythagoras and Euclid and terminating with Gauss, Lobachevsky and Klein. For two thousand years, mathematicians tried to prove the fifth postulate (whose formulation seemed to them too complicated to be a real postulate and not a theorem, hence the title In the Search for Beauty ). But in the 19th century, they realized that such proof was impossible, and this led to a revolution in mathematics and then in physics. The two final chapters are devoted to Einstein and his general relativity which revealed to us that the geometry of the world we live in is not Euclidean. Also included is an historical essay on Omar Khayyam, who was not only a poet, but also a brilliant astronomer and mathematician., This is a popular book that chronicles the historical attempts to prove the fifth postulate of Euclid on parallel lines that led eventually to the creation of non-Euclidean geometry. To absorb the mathematical content of the book, the reader should be familiar with the foundations of Euclidean geometry at the high school level. But besides the mathematics, the book is also devoted to human stories about the people, brilliant mathematicians starting from Pythagoras and terminating with Gauss, Lobachevsky and Klein who first tried to prove the fifth postulate (whose formulation seemed to them too complicated to be a real postulate and not a theorem, hence the title "In the search for beauty"). It was understood in the 19th century that such proof was impossible leading to a revolution of mathematics. The two final chapters are devoted to Einstein and his general relativity.