The Music of the Primes: Searching
to Solve the Greatest Mystery in
Mathematics by Marcus Du Sautoy
One Of The Best Math Books I Have Ever Read
In 1859, German mathematician Bernhard Riemann presented a paper to
the Berlin Academy that would forever change the history of mathematics.
The subject was the mystery of prime numbers. At the heart of the
presentation was an idea that Riemann had not yet proved but one that
baffles mathematicians to this day.
Solving the Riemann Hypothesis could change the way we do business,
since prime numbers are the lynchpin for security in banking and e-
commerce. It would also have a profound impact on the cutting-edge of
science, affecting quantum mechanics, chaos theory, and the future of
computing. Leaders in math and science are trying to crack the elusive
code, and a prize of $1 million has been offered to the winner. In this
engaging book, Marcus du Sautoy reveals the extraordinary history behind
the holy grail of mathematics and the ongoing quest to capture it.
Personal Review: The Music of the Primes: Searching to Solve
the Greatest Mystery in Mathematics by Marcus Du Sautoy
My father was a number theorist and before he went on to work in Nuclear
Engineering he published three paper s on number theory. When i was a
jumior in college and had trouble understanding my Hungarian teachers
number theory lectures my father helped me and my fellow classmates
with insigntful and clear explanations. I was able to get an a in the course.
Most mathematicians lack the gift of explaining their craft to the layman.
But their are a few and du Sautoy is clearly one. This is a book about the
beauty of primes as it is likened to music. The mystery is the Riemann
hypothesis, one of Hilbert challenges to the mathematics community at the
start of the 20th century. At the beginning of the 21st century the Clay
Foundation has offered the "Millennium Prize" of 1 million dollars to anyone
who solves one of seven problems. One of the few problems that have yet
to be solved among Hilbert's is the Riemann hypothesis and it is the only
one of Hilbert's that is on this list of seven.
The first chapter captures your attention as du Sautoy introduces the
uninitiated to the prime numbers and gradually to explain the Riemann
hypothesis. but we also hear about Andrew Wiles and the proof of fermat's
laast theorem. What really grabs the reader is the way he tells the story of
Enrico Bombieri's 1997 April Fool's day hoax that the Riemann Hypothesis
had been solved. In describing the problem to the layperson du Sautoy
takes ous through the history of man's discoveries about the primes.
Names like Hardy and Ramanujan along with Wiles, Connes, Einstein,
Godel, Turing, Tarski, Julia Robinson and Bombieri come up. We learn of
the connections of the Riemann hypothesis to the theory of codes and
quantum physics.
This is the kind of book that can inspire young curious minds to study
mathematics.
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