Reaching for the extreme : how the quest for the biggest, fewest and weirdest makes maths
Stewart, Ian2026
Books
Many of the most important areas of mathematics have arisen from questions about extremes - shortest lines, smallest areas, densest packings, fewest colours. Mathematicians have been grappling with such issues for centuries, & some go back thousands of years. The isoperimetric problem dates back to the mythological founding of the city of Carthage. By contrast, it was only in 2017 that the densest ways to pack identical spheres into a space of 24 dimensions was finally proved. Many of these problems are more than mere thought experiments. The origins of the Travelling Salesperson Problem are self-explanatory. The Plateau problem, about the geometry of soap bubbles, now has applications as diverse as cosmology & biological development. 'Reaching for the Extreme' tells the stories of these & other similar problems.
Main title:
Author:
Stewart, Ian, author
Imprint:
London : Profile Books, 2026.
Collation:
352 pages ; 24 cm
ISBN:
9781805221593 (hbk. :)
Dewey class:
510
Language:
English
BRN:
9047898
More Information:
| Location | Collection | Call number | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Richmond Lending Library | Adult non-fiction | 510Popular science and nature | On order |