Reaching for the Extreme

£22.00

Many of the most important areas of mathematics have arisen from questions about extremes – shortest lines, smallest areas, densest packings, fewest colours. Mathematicians have been grappling with such issues for centuries, & some go back thousands of years. The isoperimetric problem dates back to the mythological founding of the city of Carthage. By contrast, it was only in 2017 that the densest ways to pack identical spheres into a space of 24 dimensions was finally proved. Many of these problems are more than mere thought experiments. The origins of the Travelling Salesperson Problem are self-explanatory. The Plateau problem, about the geometry of soap bubbles, now has applications as diverse as cosmology & biological development. ‘Reaching for the Extreme’ tells the stories of these & other similar problems.

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SKU: 9781805221593 Category: Tag:

Description

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF PROFESSOR STEWART’S CABINET OF MATHEMATICAL CURIOSITIES ‘Britain’s most brilliant and prolific populariser of maths’ ALEX BELLOSWhat is the maximum land you can enclose inside a given border?What is the minimum number of colours you can use to colour in a map so that no region shares a shade?And how do you calculate the shortest route between two cities?These questions may not sound related, but they have this in common: they all explore extremes: shortest lines, greatest areas, fewest colours. They have also given rise to some of the most important areas of mathematical study and have resulted in a myriad of applications – from the legend of Dido’s founding of the city of Carthage to contemporary satellite navigation systems. From soap bubbles to the cosmos, Britain’s most beloved mathematician tells the fascinating stories of the people and ideas pushing the very bounds of mathematics – and the discoveries that have changed our lives.

Additional information

Weight 557 g
Dimensions 23.6 × 15.4 × 3.4 cm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Hardback
Pages

352
Language

English
Edition
Dewey

510 (edition:23)
Readership

General – Trade / Code: K

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