Prime Obsession
By:John Derbyshire
Published on 2003-04-15 by Joseph Henry Press
In August 1859 Bernhard Riemann, a little-known 32-year old mathematician, presented a paper to the Berlin Academy titled: |On the Number of Prime Numbers Less Than a Given Quantity.| In the middle of that paper, Riemann made an incidental remark â€| a guess, a hypothesis. What he tossed out to the assembled mathematicians that day has proven to be almost cruelly compelling to countless scholars in the ensuing years. Today, after 150 years of careful research and exhaustive study, the question remains. Is the hypothesis true or false? Riemann's basic inquiry, the primary topic of his paper, concerned a straightforward but nevertheless important matter of arithmetic â€| defining a precise formula to track and identify the occurrence of prime numbers. But it is that incidental remark â€| the Riemann Hypothesis â€| that is the truly astonishing legacy of his 1859 paper. Because Riemann was able to see beyond the pattern of the primes to discern traces of something mysterious and mathematically elegant shrouded in the shadows â€| subtle variations in the distribution of those prime numbers. Brilliant for its clarity, astounding for its potential consequences, the Hypothesis took on enormous importance in mathematics. Indeed, the successful solution to this puzzle would herald a revolution in prime number theory. Proving or disproving it became the greatest challenge of the age. It has become clear that the Riemann Hypothesis, whose resolution seems to hang tantalizingly just beyond our grasp, holds the key to a variety of scientific and mathematical investigations. The making and breaking of modern codes, which depend on the properties of the prime numbers, have roots in the Hypothesis. In a series of extraordinary developments during the 1970s, it emerged that even the physics of the atomic nucleus is connected in ways not yet fully understood to this strange conundrum. Hunting down the solution to the Riemann Hypothesis has become an obsession for many â€| the veritable |great white whale| of mathematical research. Yet despite determined efforts by generations of mathematicians, the Riemann Hypothesis defies resolution. Alternating passages of extraordinarily lucid mathematical exposition with chapters of elegantly composed biography and history, Prime Obsession is a fascinating and fluent account of an epic mathematical mystery that continues to challenge and excite the world. Posited a century and a half ago, the Riemann Hypothesis is an intellectual feast for the cognoscenti and the curious alike. Not just a story of numbers and calculations, Prime Obsession is the engrossing tale of a relentless hunt for an elusive proof â€| and those who have been consumed by it.
This Book was ranked at 23 by Google Books for keyword Math book.
Book ID of Prime Obsession's Books is A-cg6DdryysC, Book which was written byJohn Derbyshirehave ETAG "u6LnOFus9qQ"
Book which was published by Joseph Henry Press since 2003-04-15 have ISBNs, ISBN 13 Code is 9780309141253 and ISBN 10 Code is 0309141257
Reading Mode in Text Status is true and Reading Mode in Image Status is false
Book which have "446 Pages" is Printed at BOOK under CategoryScience
This Book was rated by 5 Raters and have average rate at "4"
This eBook Maturity (Adult Book) status is NOT_MATURE
Book was written in en
eBook Version Availability Status at PDF is falseand in ePub is true
No comments:
Post a Comment