The Best Writing on Mathematics 2021

Hardback

Main Details

Title The Best Writing on Mathematics 2021
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Mircea Pitici
SeriesThe Best Writing on Mathematics
Physical Properties
Format:Hardback
Pages:320
Dimensions(mm): Height 216,Width 140
ISBN/Barcode 9780691225715
ClassificationsDewey:510.5
Audience
General
Illustrations 16 color + 91 b/w illus.

Publishing Details

Publisher Princeton University Press
Imprint Princeton University Press
Publication Date 19 July 2022
Publication Country United States

Description

The year's finest mathematical writing from around the world This annual anthology brings together the year's finest mathematics writing from around the world-and you don't need to be a mathematician to enjoy the pieces collected here. These essays-from leading names and fresh new voices-delve into the history, philosophy, teaching, and everyday aspects of math, offering surprising insights into its nature, meaning, and practice, and taking readers behind the scenes of today's hottest mathematical debates. Here, Viktor Blasjoe gives a brief history of "lockdown mathematics"; Yelda Nasifoglu decodes the politics of a seventeenth-century play in which the characters are geometric shapes; and Andrew Lewis-Pye explains the basic algorithmic rules and computational procedures behind cryptocurrencies. In other essays, Terence Tao candidly recalls the adventures and misadventures of growing up to become a leading mathematician; Natalie Wolchover shows how old math gives new clues about whether time really flows; and David Hand discusses the problem of "dark data"-information that is missing or ignored. And there is much, much more.

Author Biography

Mircea Pitici teaches mathematics at Syracuse University and has edited The Best Writing on Mathematics since 2010. Twitter @MPitici

Reviews

"This series . . . never disappoints. Mircea does an amazing job each time at collecting such a diverse ideas, voices, and areas of mathematics, that I usually find the vast majority of them to be exceptional. This year is no different."---Jonathan Shock, Mathemafrica