Beyond Infinity: An Expedition to the Outer Limits of Mathematics
by:
Eugenia Cheng (author)
"[Cheng] does a great service by showing us non-mathematician schlubs how real mathematical creativity works." --Wall Street JournalWhether pondering why some numbers are uncountable, or why infinity + 1 is not the same as 1 + infinity, we've all asked the same question: What is infinity? In...
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"[Cheng] does a great service by showing us non-mathematician schlubs how real mathematical creativity works." --Wall Street JournalWhether pondering why some numbers are uncountable, or why infinity + 1 is not the same as 1 + infinity, we've all asked the same question: What is infinity? In Beyond Infinity, Eugenia Cheng takes us on a staggering journey from elemental math to its loftiest abstractions. Along the way she considers how to use a chessboard to plan a worldwide dinner party, how to make a chicken-sandwich sandwich, and how to create infinite cookies from a finite ball of dough. Beyond Infinity shows how this little symbol holds the biggest idea of all.
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Format: Hardcover
ISBN:
9780465094813 (0465094813)
ASIN: 0465094813
Publish date: 2017-03-28
Publisher: Basic Books
Pages no: 304
Edition language: English
“If this be not that you look for, I have no more to say, but bid Bianca farewell for ever and a day.” In “The Taming of the Shrew” by William Shakespeare (quoted by Cheng in the book) Eugenia Cheng starts by saying right at the beginning of the book, "Infinity is not a number," and I think it...