The Moment of Proof: Mathematical Epiphanies Book

Even the most innumerate person can sense that mathematician Andrew Wiles must have got a big thrill out of finding a proof of the 300-year-old conundrum called Fermat's Last Theorem. But being able to experience even a tiny bit of that kind of thrill would seem beyond the capabilities of most people. Not according to maths professor Donald Benson, who has scoured a huge range of mathematical fields in search of epiphanies for us all to enjoy. Why is it that you need just 23 people to give better than 50:50 odds of at least two sharing a birthday? How do we know that the volume of a sphere is four-thirds-pi-r-cubed? Why does a minus times a minus give a plus? Prof Benson tackles these questions and many more in his attempt to give us some inkling about what it is that turns mathematicians on. One acid test of any such attempt is to see how well the author conveys the elegance and clarity of Euclid's ancient proof-by-contradiction that there is an infinite number of primes. In that, it succeeds pretty well. Some other areas are not so easily dealt with: this is definitely a book requiring pencil, paper and thinking-caps. For those prepared to make the effort, however, a rare experience awaits. --Robert Matthews.Read More