Content introduction:

This book integrates the development of mathematics for more than two thousand years into twelve chapters, and each chapter contains three basic components, namely, historical background, biographies and creativity shown in these "mathematical masterpieces". The author carefully selected some outstanding mathematicians and their great theorems, such as Euclid, Archimedes, Newton and Euler. These great theorems not only string together the historical rings, but also string together all the profound and practical fields covered by mathematics. Of course, this is not a typical mathematics textbook, but a popular reading, which will make people who love mathematics feel the joy falling from the sky and make people who hate mathematics fall in love with mathematics from now on.

About the author? ：

William Dunham, graduated from Ohio State University with a master's degree and a doctor's degree, is now a professor at Mullenburg College in the United States and a world-renowned expert in the history of mathematics. He was awarded the George Polya Prize, Trevor Evans Prize and Lester Ford Prize by the American Mathematical Association in 1992, 1997 and 2006 respectively. Professor Dunham has written a lot. In addition to this book, he has also written about the mathematical universe: the journey of letters through great proofs, problems, and personalities, as well as other popular science works.

Wonderful book review:

One: Short comments

#? The best history of mathematics. It turns out that some seemingly ordinary exercises were actually developed by several generations of ancient mathematicians. But when I met these problems when I was a student, no one told me. Now I can conclude that those students who solved problems independently in those years must have been pointed out!

# Genius, mathematics is a world of genius, and logic and mathematical logic are eternal.

# Wonderful history of mathematics. Not only the process of proving twelve theorems (in fact, more than that), but also the life and background of those geniuses. The author's beautiful writing and refined thoughts show the charm of the history of science.

Two:

I'm glad you can reprint this book. Very supportive!

This book really had a great influence on my high school days. I was in Sichuan in high school. At that time, I was fascinated by mathematics when I saw the book "Tutorial for Genius". Almost all my college entrance examination volunteers are in the math department. I think the first-class geniuses in this world are mathematicians, and the first-class discoveries are the great theorems in mathematics. It was difficult for me to buy this book when I was in high school. I once typeset and printed the online version myself and gave it to my beloved girl. Finally, I bought the original English, and now I have it with me. But I don't have the wisdom of genius. As an ordinary person, I can only be fascinated by idols. Everyone has something he is good at. For example, I may be better at using computer clusters to realize some machine learning methods than pure mathematics research. But I am still grateful to William Dunham for showing me the geometric rise and fall of Europe for thousands of years and the magnificence of Cantor's ravaged kingdom. Let me know that life is not only an ultra-low lottery winning rate and an oil price that will never be in line with international standards, but also some theorems that are still shining with wisdom in the universe for hundreds of millions of years, which are worth our lifetime efforts to discover.

Three:

I think it is most suitable for high school students to read, and I can guarantee that you will have a shocking feeling after reading it for the first time.

Of course, adults who are interested in the origin of mathematics can also calm down and read carefully. You will find that mathematics may really be so beautiful, so different from the static, boring, boring and unquestionable mathematics you have known since you were a child, and you begin to feel that the world is so wonderful.

From ancient times, people began to talk about the geometry and algebra of measurement and counting, and how it germinated and developed from practical needs.

Such beautiful and magical theorem proofs are interspersed in the middle, leading you to discover their mystery and confusion like a master. Let you know that mathematics is not static, it is not created out of thin air, it is the product of need, it is the product of confusion, and it is the result of efforts from generation to generation.

The proof of infinity of prime numbers, Pythagoras theorem, Ponuri theorem, the perfect and ghostly fifth postulate of European geometry.

Everything is displayed before your eyes.

The statement of Cantor theorem in the last chapter is completely beyond the scope of life intuition.

Do you believe that rational numbers can correspond to natural numbers one by one?

Do you believe that the real axis is occupied by endless irrational numbers?

Do you believe that the number on the whole plane can correspond to the number between 0, 1

……

Concise proof will make you feel great pleasure and cheer you up.

This paper explains why human language logic is so fragile from the perspective of set theory.

The most shocking thing is that the continuum hypothesis is magically linked to Euclid's fifth postulate more than 2000 years ago, and the historical similarity makes people marvel at the wonders of the world.

Doubt from the fifth postulate has created a brilliant chapter in non-Euclidean geometry. The results of the proof of relativity show that it is not an imagination in the human brain, but a more accurate approximation to the world.

And the continuum hypothesis is another beginning to understand the world?

Clear the fog and restore the real history of mathematics.

Four:

I have bought this book for four years.

It was a friend who recommended me a book list at that time. I didn't read it carefully, so I bought it one by one from the Internet. I didn't see the new book. I bought it from Confucius. It's 90% new.

When the book arrived, I opened the package and flipped through it. I was dumbfounded at once! Crackle, I only see all kinds of geometric figures and equations, and I know the unknown XYZ, which makes me laugh and cry. Then I told my friends about it in a group. I said, you'll never guess. A literary editor recommended a book to me. How exciting this book is! As a result, someone immediately jumped out and replied, "It won't be a math book, will it?" ! "

Hey, how well my lovely friends reason!

This "genius" book has been shelved by me since then, but fortunately it is not expensive.

Today, I was sick in bed and bored. I just dreamed that I was a genius, so I dug up this book. To tell the truth, I didn't read this book carefully one by one. I just felt too tired after pushing several theorems with the author's thinking, so I stopped because of injury. Ha ha. But I don't let go of gossip I swear, if I come into contact with this book before junior high school or even senior high school, then Peking University and Tsinghua are the worst, such as Zhejiang University ... (A distant boast can be exaggerated. )

As an adult, I have discussed with many math teachers. I said, it's not that I don't like math, but that no one told me why I wanted to study math from the beginning. I am studying some books on pedagogy this year, and others have also said that students will be confused if they don't have a disciplinary framework. I, especially an independent-minded student, never do anything for no reason, haha. As soon as I entered the classroom, I didn't say give me an X axis and a Y axis. Barabara is infinite and infinitesimal ... then my sister's head suddenly fainted ... I watched Gao Ertai's Looking for Home the year before last, and recalled that in a math class, he suddenly couldn't stand the teacher's explanation and couldn't help but ask the teacher angrily, "If it is infinite, what is the size?" ! "I immediately spit rice, really want to give Miss Gao a deep hug!

Are girls really not suitable for science? Not exactly. The teacher I miss most in my life is one of my physics teachers. It is said that there are more science women around me than liberal arts women. But it's hard to say whether they really like it or not. I may be mainly concerned about the reasons and interests. Finally, I ended a serious subtitle.

If the math class is written like this and the teacher is so interesting, it goes without saying that I can definitely learn math well.

So I want to be preserved by this book and give it to my son. Ha ha.

Wu:

In my opinion, to learn mathematics well, we must be interested first, and the premise of interest is to study the history of mathematics. The reason why our classmates are generally afraid of math is that our math textbooks often stare at you straight, blankly and coldly, and stare at you in shame. As long as we open the math textbook, it is full of the same definitions, theorems and proofs as "Fengtian Shipping, Emperor Zhao Yue", as if all these things are innate, and all we can do is to keep reciting, memorizing, calculating and practicing ... In fact, there are many exciting and thrilling stories hidden behind those theorem definitions! The history of mathematics can be said to be the greatest discipline history, and it is also the development history of human thinking. Those seemingly boring theorems are actually not deliberately difficult for mathematicians, but thinking products born to solve some practical problems. A theorem, a theory and a branch of mathematics have gone through a long and tortuous process from embryonic form to constant rigor.

There is one biggest difference between the history of mathematics and the history of other disciplines. The development of other disciplines is generally based on the constant denial and innovation of predecessors. Aristotle, for example, didn't leave us much good impression in our physics class. Although his theory dominated for a period of time, it has basically appeared as a negative model. Mathematics is not like this. For thousands of years, mathematicians have been adding bricks to the building of mathematics, making it more and more solid and rigorous. Even ancient Greek geometry is still the cornerstone of architecture. This is the charm of the history of mathematics.

After I got this book, I thought it was an ordinary little book on the history of mathematics, and I was attracted by it without reading a few pages. Although I have read many books on the history of mathematics, I still have to admit that this book has unique charm. It is not a general history of mathematics, but a description of the cause and effect of several greatest theorems, especially the work done by mathematicians for theorems, as well as their personal experiences and interesting stories. It is more interesting and thirst-quenching than the general history of mathematics. Moreover, the translation is also wonderful, smooth and vivid, adding a lot of color.

If you like math, I recommend you to study it, and you will have new gains;

If you hate math, I recommend you to study it. Maybe you like math.

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