Full name: Why Beauty Is Truth: A History of Symmetry

Author: Ian Stewart Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Science, Non Fiction, History, Philosophy Purchase/reserch links: LibraryThing Goodreads Amazon ISBNs: 9780465082377 0465082378

At the heart of relativity theory, quantum mechanics, string theory, and much of modern cosmology lies one concept: symmetry. In Why Beauty Is Truth, world-famous mathematician Ian Stewart narrates the history of the emergence of this remarkable area of study. Stewart introduces us to such characters as the Renaissance Italian genius, rogue, scholar, and gambler Girolamo Cardano, who stole the modern method of solving cubic equations and published it in the first important book on algebra, and the young revolutionary Evariste Galois, who refashioned the whole of mathematics and founded the field of group theory only to die in a pointless duel over a woman before his work was published. Stewart also explores the strange numerology of real mathematics, in which particular numbers have unique and unpredictable properties related to symmetry. He shows how Wilhelm Killing discovered "Lie groups" with 14, 52, 78, 133, and 248 dimensions-groups whose very existence is a profound puzzle. Finally, Stewart describes the world beyond superstrings: the "octonionic" symmetries that may explain the very existence of the universe. Similar books: Symmetry by Marcus du Sautoy In Pursuit of the Unknown by Ian Stewart 100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know by John D. Barrow The Math Gene by Keith Devlin Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz by Edward B. Burger 50 Mathematical Ideas You Really Need to Know by Tony Crilly Geekspeak by Graham Tattersall Nature's Numbers by Ian Stewart Archimedes' Revenge by Paul Hoffman Mathematics by Timothy Gowers The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved by Mario Livio Professor Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities by Ian Stewart by John Allen Paulos Is God a Mathematician? by Mario Livio Alex's Adventures in Numberland by Alex Bellos Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari The Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking Broca's Brain by Carl Sagan The God Particle by Leon Lederman