It may not seem as interesting as the other suggestions, but I have a book recommendation. Jenn and I were in the Library renewing one of her books and getting another one--I swear it seems like she is in 7 different book clubs. Anyway, I was bored and went to the non-fiction section and randomly pulled a seemingly interesting book called Fermat's Enigma.
I didn't really know what it was but the book referred to it as one of the greatest math problems that had gone unsolved for over 300 years. Anyway, it chronicles the quest for providing a proof for Fermat's Last Theorem along with a relatively elementary history of mathematics and number theory in general. It had been a while since I did anything with math so I found the read quite refreshing. I got it Saturday and finished it during my lunch break today so it is a pretty quick read. I actually found myself rooting for the mathematicians along the way with each discovery.The denouement was slightly lacking for me. I guess this was good though, as it left we wanting to read more.
One thing that was kind of cool was a quick and easy reference to the Pythagaras's Theorem that of course, everyone can quote without thinking. Well, it goes into it's proof, which I never learned (or was never taught) and it's kind of liberating to know the reasons why it works. This theorem directly relates to Fermat's Last Theorem.
Anyway, I recommend it to anyone, except of course to Nick, who probably could have written it.
4 comments:
I actually thought about getting that book. I'll have to put it in my queue (or, at times, my stack, and, at other times, my random access vector, for those looking for the precise abstract computer science data structure analogies).
Honestly, have our lives been so bored into routine to where we are writing on the blog concerning mathematicians and their quest for finding the correct solution to some theorem. Maybe if it was about mathematicians and their quest to find a date it would be pretty interesting but then again, it would just be like reading Nick's autobiography...
Huh??????????
Trevor, sorry about how boring and routine my life is. Next time I'll recommend a book you'll approve of like Tuesday's with Maury Povich or something.
Also, I wouldn't talk too much about Nick's dating autobiography. Let's just say you would probably write the preface.
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