Ellen Kaplan – författare

It is easy to be wary of mathematics - but as this book shows, drawing on science, literature and philosophy, its patterns are evrywhere. In witty and eloquent prose, Robert and Ellen Kaplan take mathematics back to its estranged audience, bringing understanding and clarity to a traditionally difficult subject, and revealing the beauty behind the equations. Only by letting loose our curiosity can we learn to appreciate the wonder that can be found in mathematics - an 'art' invented by humans, which is also timeless.

A compelling journey through history, mathematics, and philosophy, charting humanity’s struggle against randomness

Our lives are played out in the arena of chance. However little we recognize it in our day-to-day existence, we are always riding the odds, seeking out certainty but settling—reluctantly—for likelihood, building our beliefs on the shadowy props of probability. Chances Are is the story of man’s millennia-long search for the tools to manage the recurrent but unpredictable—to help us prevent, or at least mitigate, the seemingly random blows of disaster, disease, and injustice. In these pages, we meet the brilliant individuals who developed the first abstract formulations of probability, as well as the intrepid visionaries who recognized their practical applications—from gamblers to military strategists to meteorologists to medical researchers, from blackjack to our own mortality.

A squared plus b squared equals c squared. Itsounds simple, doesn''t it? Yet this familiar expression is a gatewayinto the riotous garden of mathematics, and sends us on a journey ofexploration in the company of two inspired guides, acclaimed authorsRobert and Ellen Kaplan. With wit, verve, and clarity, they trace thelife of the Pythagorean theorem, from ancient Babylon to the present,visiting along the way Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, PresidentJames Garfield, and the Freemasons-not to mention the elusive Pythagorashimself, who almost certainly did not make the statement that bears hisname.How can a theorem have more than one proof? Why does this one havemore than two hundred-or is it four thousand? The Pythagorean theoremhas even more applications than proofs: Ancient Egyptians used it forsurveying property lines, and today astronomers call on it to measurethe distance between stars. Its generalizations are stunning-the theoremworks even with shapes on the sides that aren''t squares, and not justin two dimensions, but any number you like, up to infinity. And perhapsits most intriguing feature of all, this tidy expression opened the doorto the world of irrational numbers, an untidy discovery that deeplytroubled Pythagoras''s disciples.Like the authors'' bestselling The Nothing That Is and Chances Are . . .-hailed as "erudite and witty," "magnificent," and "exhilarating"-Hidden Harmonies makes the excitement of mathematics palpable.

A witty, conversational, and accessible tour of math''s profoundest mysteries.Mathematical symbols, for mathematicians, store worlds of meaning, leap continents and centuries. But we need not master symbols to grasp the magnificent abstractions they represent, and to which all art aspires. Through language, anyone can come to delight in the works of mathematical art, which are among our kind''s greatest glories.Taking the concept of infinity, in its countless guises, as a starting point and a helpful touchstone, the founders of Harvard''s pioneering Math Circle program Robert and Ellen Kaplan guide us through the “Republic of Numbers,” where we meet both its upstanding citizens and its more shadowy dwellers, explore realms where only the imagination can go, and grapple with math''s most profound uncertainties, including the question of truth itself-do we discover mathematical principles, or invent them?