Is God a Mathematician? |  | Author: Mario Livio
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
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Rating:  32 reviews
Sales Rank: 15472
Media: Paperback
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.9
ISBN: 0743294068
Dewey Decimal Number: 500
EAN: 9780743294065
ASIN: 0743294068
Publication Date: January 19, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| • | ISBN13: 9780743294065 | | • | Condition: NEW | | • | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
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Product Description
Nobel Laureate Eugene Wigner once wondered about "the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics" in the formulation of the laws of nature. Is God a Mathematician? investigates why mathematics is as powerful as it is. From ancient times to the present, scientists and philosophers have marveled at how such a seemingly abstract discipline could so perfectly explain the natural world. More than that -- mathematics has often made predictions, for example, about subatomic particles or cosmic phenomena that were unknown at the time, but later were proven to be true. Is mathematics ultimately invented or discovered? If, as Einstein insisted, mathematics is "a product of human thought that is independent of experience," how can it so accurately describe and even predict the world around us?Mathematicians themselves often insist that their work has no practical effect. The British mathematician G. H. Hardy went so far as to describe his own work this way: "No discovery of mine has made, or is likely to make, directly or indirectly, for good or ill, the least difference to the amenity of the world." He was wrong. The Hardy-Weinberg law allows population geneticists to predict how genes are transmitted from one generation to the next, and Hardy's work on the theory of numbers found unexpected implications in the development of codes. Physicist and author Mario Livio brilliantly explores mathematical ideas from Pythagoras to the present day as he shows us how intriguing questions and ingenious answers have led to ever deeper insights into our world. This fascinating book will interest anyone curious about the human mind, the scientific world, and the relationship between them.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 32
 answers or questions? January 10, 2009
Hampton Childress (Towson, MD United States)
39 out of 42 found this review helpful
The specific question posed in the title doesn't actually get answered (at least not directly by God). In fact, it gets illuminated, and in the most entertaining and probing ways. Dr. Livio weaves together science, history, and philosophy breathing life into some of the most famous thinkers and thinking about mathematics' extraordinary utility in describing our physical world. He explains these sometimes contrary perspectives so clearly and concisely you feel you could almost write a layman's treatise yourself. Were he a teacher at my high school or university he would have been my favorite, leaving me with not only profound understandings but, perhaps moreso, with profound questions.
Livio has done it again January 8, 2009
A reader (New York, NY)
25 out of 28 found this review helpful
After his fabulous "The Golden Ratio," Livio now tackles the question of the "unreasonable effectiveness" of mathematics in explaining the world. Mixing philosophy, mathematics, and the sciences, he creates an intellectual tension that reads almost like a mystery novel. I liked in particular the chapter on the ideas of Archimedes and Galileo, and the chapter on logic, which was challenging but fascinating.
an absolutely MUST HAVE book from a great scientist! January 9, 2009
E. Cosla (Utrecht, Netherlands)
31 out of 38 found this review helpful
Anyone interested in mathematics, philosophy, or science, will love this book.
Even though I always knew that all the fundamental theories of the universe are based on mathematics, it somehow never occurred to me to ask: What is it that makes mathematics so powerful?
Livio explains why the question is even more important than the answer.
What makes this book quite unique is the fact that it is not so much a history of mathematics, as it is a history of ideas on mathematics.
A wonderful book, but not what other reviewers have described February 20, 2009
Aaron C. Brown (New York, New York United States)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I enjoyed this book but, with all due respect to reviewers who found it deeply insightful on the title topic, I have to agree with Stephen Grey and PBCup. It's a competent and entertaining, superficial account of the relation between mathematics and reality. As a history of mathematics it's equally competent and entertaining, but highly selective. If you want breadth or depth, look elsewhere, and be prepared to sacrifice "entertaining."
This book is better described as a terrific essay about how mathematicians feel about the relation of their work with reality. Judged on this basis, it's up there with the great essays of science. It's book-length because the middle chapters are masterfully-told history vignettes that set the background for the meat of the essay.
Many of the key points are made by direct quotation from great mathematicians and the book spends more time on why people chose problems and how they felt about solutions, than on the pure mathematics. The results of this inquiry are unexpected and fascinating. I think the "God" of the title is not the one who created the universe, as you might expect, but the one in whose image humans were made.
The Universe, Mathematics, and the Human Mind January 17, 2009
Amit Kesar (Cambridge, MA, USA)
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
Mario Livio's latest book attempts no less than to explore the relations among mathematics, the cosmos, and the human mind. This is such an ambitious goal, that I was skeptical at first that anything of substance can be said in a popular book. However, I discovered that this book not only provides a fantastic summary of the history of the ideas in this arena, but that Livio also presents a rich tapestry of his own fresh insights. Highly recommended.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 32
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