Of Men and Numbers: The Story of the Great Mathematicians by Jane Muir (PDF)

Description

While mathematics itself may be a formidable subject for many, the lives and accomplishments of history’s greatest mathematicians—from Pythagoras to Cantor—offer fascinating reading.In this delightful and informative recounting, for example, we learn how Pascal’s life was abruptly changed by a family of fanatical bonesetters, how Descartes was influenced by three dreams, and how the scholarly Swiss Leonhard Euler (whose famous conjecture was finally disproved in 1959, after 177 years) almost ended up in the Russian navy.Here, too, are Cardano, the gambler who becomes the 16th century’s most fashionable doctor; Archimedes, Newton, and Gauss, often considered the three greatest mathematicians of all times; Lobatchevsky, the inventor of non-Euclidean geometry; and the tragic Galois, a founder of modern higher algebra.In addition to a wealth of interesting and informative anecdotes, presented in a delightfully conversational style, the author offers lucid, accessible explanations of these thinkers’ invaluable contributions to the edifice of modern mathematical thought and to man’s understanding of himself and his universe.—Print ed.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I’ve read Of Men and Numbers twice and have enjoyed the book immensely. It’s so interesting and sometimes funny, and Jane Muir paints a great picture of the twelve most famous mathematicians that ever lived. Many mathematics books can be technical when presenting a story, but not in Of Men and Numbers. The writing is so simple that Jane Muir made the book extremely accessible for anyone and even for the kids. There are legends associated with many of the famous mathematicians, and they are all contained in this book. Before I read Of Men and Numbers for the first time, I had no idea of the men, only just their names associated with special numbers, proofs, etc., and afterwards, I felt my knowledge enriched by the colorful sketch of each man’s biography. Of course, as I use the word “men,” there is no biography of a female mathematician because the title Of Men and Numbers implies its omission. All in all, I greatly recommend Of Men and Numbers to anyone regardless of her/his interest in mathematics.

⭐This happened to be just what I was looking for: info on some of the more prominent mathematicians in history, in a short readable format. Not written as a necessarily easy, novel-like read, but definitely worth adding to my library.

⭐I dontated this book. Hopefully someone will like it but I didn’t. It is boring.

⭐Jane Muir – I’ve never heard of her. She published this in 1961; this was thirty to twenty years after E.T. Bell’s “The Development of Mathematics.” Her 240 pages here looks more analogous to E.T. Bell’s “Men of Mathematics”, minus a few mathematicians here and there.Janes book relates Mathematics to Philosophy – but more contemporary Philosophy from Descartes through Hume and Loche, than Greek. E.T. Bell also relates philosophy to mathematics, but I’d say his Magic of Numbers covers Greek philosophy to mathematics more than his “Men of Mathematics” or, “the Development of Mathematics.” E.T. Bell does mention some interesting philosophy of Carnap in the last chapter of his “the Development of Mathematics.” He points out the difference between vague ideas and constructive mathematical ideas.The effort to relate philosophy to mathematics is because some philosophers have keyed on mathematics as the key to the problems of philosophy of knowledge. Study the history of mathematics, and perhaps get some insight on how knowledge works. This and rational philosophy seems to be why Jane Muir wanted to write this. Once again, in terms of Descartes and later philosophers, I think she made a contribution.But, it’s not just whether she made a contribution or not; it’s the fact that she saw this connection and pursued it at all. I find in my life from 1975 to Dec 2018, having spent a life trying to explore the philosophy of mathematics, that few intellectuals much less non-intellectuals have tried to go down this path. Only like .0000000001 percent of humanity, namely me, have noted that mankind is the technologically dependent, and hence science and mathematics dependent species. That figuring out nature is what distinguishes humanity from the other life on Earth.Jane Muir was a rational philosopher in a sea of irrationality, psuedo-science . . . apes dressed in suits. This was her calling card to the future humanity, if there is to be any. I think this book is a treasure for any rational philosopher to read.- Jane misses a few things like Cardano’s discovery that “Tartaglia wasn’t the first to solve the general third degree equation, and hence, Cardano felt free of his secrecy oath to Tartaglia to publish it.” And a few details like that here and there.Jane suggests Descartes “the Geometry” is the more significant writing than his philosphy; but, I’m not sure she fully understands how amazing a mathematical work it is. For descartes, his algebraic points on a line are the roots of an algebraic equation, which are the intersections on a line. It took him till he went to the third dimension till he came to make the x,y grid as well.Her best mathematical understanding seems to be between Newton’s calculus and George Cantor’s transfinite numbers.- Jane Muir, as of the time I’ve discovered her, appears to either have passed away a long time ago; or, has changed last names. I mean there’s no wiki or any way of finding out what happened to her. This book is her only record of her existence. Her message is an important one; unfortunately, with almost eight billion people on the Earth, it’s almost impossible to enlighten everyone. Mankind will go into the Nano/A.I./and Quantum computer future a mess of thought.

⭐While narrating life stories of the greatest known mathematicians that lived — from Pythagoras in 500 B.C. to Cantor in the twentieth — Jane Muir unravels their inventions and discoveries that have enabled the evolution of mathematics. For example, stories in the lives of individual mathematicians such as how Pascal’s life as a mathematician was truncated by the influence of fanatics and how Descartes erected the proof that he himself existed – “I think, therefore I am” are delightfully recounted. Without going into the technicalities, we are able to comprehend gigantic inventions such as Cartesian coordinates, the view of Geometry as an empirical science as approached by Lobatchavesky and its vindication in Einstein’s theory, to name a few. Mathematics that started as a study of quantities has morphed and is no longer looked upon as an absolute truth. The world does not necessarily fit our mathematics. On the contrary, we fit our mathematics to the world, observing and testing to determine which mathematics to use under different circumstances in order to have the world as we see it conform to some type of mathematical order. As Einstein put it, “So far as the theorems of mathematics are about reality, they are not certain; so far as they are certain, they are not about reality”.

⭐I am a high school math teacher and picked this book out of one of my cupboards for some lame “read during school” promotion (It’s not like they ever have “do math during school” promotions…). I found the book difficult to put down. The book is filled with intriguing information at several levels; the math, the biographies, the drama, etc. Terrific book.

⭐Galois, one very bad cat! By far the most interesting mathematician in the whole book. However, many of the mathematicians in the book are very cool.

⭐It is a pity that Jane Muir seems to have modeled her book on “Men of Mathematics” by E. T. Bell. Like him, she “embellishes” her biographies to the point of sacrificing historical accuracy. Unfortunately (from my point of view) she also shares some of Bell’s anti-Christian sentiments. For example, in the section on Blaise Pascal, she portrays Pascal as a mentally ill religious lunatic. Naturally, in the section on Evariste Galois, the great mathematician Cauchy is made out to be a fool and a bigoted religious fanatic while Galois (a very unstable, self-destructive character if there ever was one) is made out to be the martyred hero!

⭐would like even more stories!! and more mathematicians. otherwise really good read!!! I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I like to use some of these nuggets to bring maths alive to students.

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