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Man Who Loved Only Numbers : The Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for Mathematical Truth by Paul Hoffman (1999, Trade Paperback)
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Based on a National Magazine Award-winning articl
- Buy It NowThe Man Who Loved Only Numbers Format: Paperback
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About this product
Product Identifiers
PublisherGrand Central Publishing
ISBN-100786884061
ISBN-139780786884063
eBay Product ID (ePID)1010115
Product Key Features
Book TitleMan Who Loved only Numbers : the Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for Mathematical Truth
Number of Pages352 Pages
LanguageEnglish
TopicHistory & Philosophy, Cultural Heritage, Science & Technology
Publication Year1999
IllustratorYes
FeaturesReprint
GenreMathematics, Biography & Autobiography
AuthorPaul Hoffman
FormatTrade Paperback
Dimensions
Item Height1 in
Item Weight11.2 Oz
Item Length8 in
Item Width5.3 in
Additional Product Features
Intended AudienceTrade
LCCN98-014027
TitleLeadingThe
Dewey Edition21
Grade FromEighth Grade
Grade ToCollege Graduate Student
Dewey Decimal510/.92 B
Edition DescriptionReprint
Synopsis"A funny, marvelously readable portrait of one of the most brilliant and eccentric men in history." -- The Seattle Times Paul Erdos was an amazing and prolific mathematician whose life as a world-wandering numerical nomad was legendary. He published almost 1500 scholarly papers before his death in 1996, and he probably thought more about math problems than anyone in history. Like a traveling salesman offering his thoughts as wares, Erdos would show up on the doorstep of one mathematician or another and announce, "My brain is open." After working through a problem, he'd move on to the next place, the next solution. Hoffman's book, like Sylvia Nasar's biography of John Nash, A Beautiful Mind , reveals a genius's life that transcended the merely quirky. But Erdos's brand of madness was joyful, unlike Nash's despairing schizophrenia. Erdos never tried to dilute his obsessive passion for numbers with ordinary emotional interactions, thus avoiding hurting the people around him, as Nash did. Oliver Sacks writes of Erdos: "A mathematical genius of the first order, Paul Erdos was totally obsessed with his subject--he thought and wrote mathematics for nineteen hours a day until the day he died. He traveled constantly, living out of a plastic bag, and had no interest in food, sex, companionship, art--all that is usually indispensable to a human life." The Man Who Loved Only Numbers is easy to love, despite his strangeness. It's hard not to have affection for someone who referred to children as "epsilons," from the Greek letter used to represent small quantities in mathematics; a man whose epitaph for himself read, "Finally I am becoming stupider no more"; and whose only really necessary tool to do his work was a quiet and open mind. Hoffman, who followed and spoke with Erdos over the last 10 years of his life, introduces us to an undeniably odd, yet pure and joyful, man who loved numbers more than he loved God--whom he referred to as SF, for Supreme Fascist. He was often misunderstood, and he certainly annoyed people sometimes, but Paul Erdos is no doubt missed. --Therese Littleton
LC Classification NumberQA29.R3
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- May 19, 2020
Clean!
The book was nicely packaged and is new. very happy with the purchase. thank you!Verified purchase: YesCondition: New
