| View Larger Image | Recountings: Conversations with MIT Mathematicians | Hardcoverby Joel Segel (Author), Joel Segel (Editor)
| List Price: | $49.00 | | Price: | $39.20 | | You Save: | $9.80 (20%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Hardcover | | Publisher: | AK Peters | | Page Count: | 330 Pages | | Publication Date: | January 26, 2009 | | Sales Rank: | 456,347th |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
This book traces the history of the MIT Department of Mathematics one of the most important mathematics departments in the world through candid, in-depth, lively conversations with a select and diverse group of its senior members. The process reveals much about the motivation, path, and impact of research mathematicians in a society that owes so much to this little understood and often mystified section of its intellectual fabric, exemplified by names like Euclid, Newton, Euler, and Goedel. At a time when the mathematical experience touches and attracts more laypeople than ever, such a book contributes to our understanding and entertains through its personal approach. From the book: The usual thing is there were these Thursday colloquiums at MIT or Harvard, and even the mathematicians from Brown would come. They would invite some speaker to give a mathematical talk. And afterward there was a dinner and a party in somebody's house. If it was in one guy's field, he would make the party. So that's how they socialized. They couldn't socialize with people who'd talk about tomatoes or clothes or something; they had to talk to people who understood the values they had, which were mathematical values. They're attracted to mathematics like a drug addict is attracted to drugs. They can't stay away from it.; --Fagi Levinson |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 1 review)
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An intriguing look at mathematics and the men behind it by Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)  5 Stars
May 15, 2009
Though never in the eye of popular culture, these men kept society advancing with their minds. "Recountings: Conversations with MIT Mathematicians" is a collection of interviews and anecdotes from the geniuses of MIT who have pursued mathematics as their life's careers and obsessions. These men have been responsible for major scientific advances throughout history and picking their minds in a volume that's more interesting than one could think math class could ever be. "Recountings" is an intriguing look at mathematics and the men behind it.
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