The Infinite Book: A Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless in Science and Inquiry

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The Infinite Book: A Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless

John D. Barrow

Why we're reading this: Recently discovered the author, would like know others opinions about his books, mainly the best ones to …more
[close] Recently discovered the author, would like know others opinions about his books, mainly the best ones to read first. Like the style which is light read about deep concepts and their historical background.

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Sep 07, 2010 Adam rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mathematics

As I started studying Calculus more and more it made me a lot more curious about the nature of infinity. We take these limits of functions to get the derivation process, we look at area with integration by summing infinitely small pieces under a curve, and then we look at the divergence and convergence of a series with limits to see what these things do at infinity. Then, to top it off, I had my mind further blown by discussing infinite dimensions in Linear Algebra. Needless to say, I had infini As I started studying Calculus more and more it made me a lot more curious about the nature of infinity. We take these limits of functions to get the derivation process, we look at area with integration by summing infinitely small pieces under a curve, and then we look at the divergence and convergence of a series with limits to see what these things do at infinity. Then, to top it off, I had my mind further blown by discussing infinite dimensions in Linear Algebra. Needless to say, I had infinity on my mind. However, I wanted a more informal book to read to pass the time. Studying the formal texts is fun, but can get tedious.

Barrow's book "The Infinite Book" is exactly what I was looking for. Don't worry, if you're not a mathematician you can still grasp the general concepts discussed in this book. One of the great aspects of this book is that Barrow brings through a bit of the history of infinity. With that in mind you take a walk through the history of infinity and how it touches human curiosity. Natural he makes reference to Zeno's Paradox. (I'm actually getting sick of reading about this, it feels like just about every math book I read discusses Zeno. Don't get me wrong, it's definitely relevant.) Anyway, some of the more interesting stuff comes when he gets to discussing Cantor's history. I found this utterly fascinating and Cantor did some impressive work with infinity.

Naturally Barrow ups the ante as the history gets to more modern day applications. Cosmology being a major one, but he also brings us through some of the more "pop culture" elements (if I dare call them that). Such as strange movies that involve things like an infinite game, which are now movies I intend to track down and watch. Some of this material may be beyond some readers, it was a little beyond me at times, but I wouldn't say it was so overwhelming I got totally lost in what was being discussed.

If you're at all curious about the nature of infinity, then I highly recommend this book. I would even rank this as a rather exhilarating read. Barrow approaches the subject in an excellent way and not in a way where I think non-mathematicians will feel put aback by the arcane discussions. After reading this I am definitely interested in reading other books by Barrow and I would definitely recommend this to anyone interested. ...more

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