Unknown Quantity: A Real and Imaginary History of Algebra

(Paperback, Main)

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Description

'Here is the story of algebra.' With this deceptively simple introduction, Unknown Quantity opens, thirty-eight centuries ago, at the time of Abraham and Isaac. In stylish and accessible prose, Derbyshire shows how the invention of algebra was more than the beginning of a specific discipline of mathematics; it was also the birth of a new way of thinking that altered, forever, the ways in which we see and understand our world.

Reviews

"* 'Unknown Quantity buzzes with rivalries, frustrations and breakthroughs... A first-rate account that even algebraphobes will struggle to fault.' New Scientist * 'Derbyshire is a virtuoso at simplifying mathematics... This is more than an engaging history; it records an entire, perhaps endangered, way of thinking.' Simon Ings, Daily Telegraph * 'Everything a popular mathematics book should be: gentle, chatty, anecdotal and full of mind-aching equations... Worth reading twice.' Alexander Masters, Literary Review * 'Derbyshire offers a very real and very entertaining survey of the development of algebra.' Publishers Weekly (US)"

Author Bio

John Derbyshire is the author of Prime Obsession. His work appears frequently in National Review and The New Criterion. He lives in New York.