"In 1904, Henri Poincare, a giant among mathematicians who transformed the fledging area of topology into a powerful field essential to all mathematics and physics, posed the Poincare conjecture, a tantalizing puzzle that speaks to the possible shape of the universe. For more than a century, the conjecture resisted attempts to prove or disprove it. As Donal O'Shea reveals in his elegant narrative, Poincare's conjecture opens a door to the history of geometry, from the Pythagoreans of ancient Greece to the celebrated geniuses of the nineteenth-century German academy and, ultimately, to a fascinating array of personalities--Poincare and Bernhard Riemann, William Thurston and Richard Hamilton, and the eccentric genius who appears to have solved it, Grigory Perelman. The solution seems certain to open up new corners of the mathematical universe.
Or split into 4x interest-free payments of 25% on orders over R50
Learn more
"In 1904, Henri Poincare, a giant among mathematicians who transformed the fledging area of topology into a powerful field essential to all mathematics and physics, posed the Poincare conjecture, a tantalizing puzzle that speaks to the possible shape of the universe. For more than a century, the conjecture resisted attempts to prove or disprove it. As Donal O'Shea reveals in his elegant narrative, Poincare's conjecture opens a door to the history of geometry, from the Pythagoreans of ancient Greece to the celebrated geniuses of the nineteenth-century German academy and, ultimately, to a fascinating array of personalities--Poincare and Bernhard Riemann, William Thurston and Richard Hamilton, and the eccentric genius who appears to have solved it, Grigory Perelman. The solution seems certain to open up new corners of the mathematical universe.
Imprint | Penguin Books |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Release date | October 2008 |
Availability | Expected to ship within 9 - 15 working days |
First published | October 2008 |
Authors | Donal O'Shea |
Dimensions | 198 x 129 x 19mm (L x W x T) |
Format | Paperback - B-format |
Pages | 292 |
ISBN-13 | 978-0-14-103238-2 |
Barcode | 9780141032382 |
Categories | |
LSN | 0-14-103238-3 |