The Prime Number Conspiracy: The Biggest Ideas in Math from Quanta by Thomas Lin (PDF)

Description

The Pulitzer Prize–winning magazine’s stories of mathematical explorations show that inspiration strikes haphazardly, revealing surprising solutions and exciting discoveries—with a foreword by James Gleick These stories from Quanta Magazine map the routes of mathematical exploration, showing readers how cutting-edge research is done, while illuminating the productive tension between conjecture and proof, theory and intuition. The stories show that, as James Gleick puts it in the foreword, “inspiration strikes willy-nilly.” One researcher thinks of quantum chaotic systems at a bus stop; another suddenly realizes a path to proving a theorem of number theory while in a friend’s backyard; a statistician has a “bathroom sink epiphany” and discovers the key to solving the Gaussian correlation inequality. Readers of The Prime Number Conspiracy, says Quanta editor-in-chief Thomas Lin, are headed on “breathtaking intellectual journeys to the bleeding edge of discovery strapped to the narrative rocket of humanity’s never-ending pursuit of knowledge.”Winner of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting, Quanta is the only popular publication that offers in-depth coverage of the latest breakthroughs in understanding our mathematical universe. It communicates mathematics by taking it seriously, wrestling with difficult concepts and clearly explaining them in a way that speaks to our innate curiosity about our world and ourselves. Readers of this volume will learn that prime numbers have decided preferences about the final digits of the primes that immediately follow them (the “conspiracy” of the title); consider whether math is the universal language of nature (allowing for “a unified theory of randomness”); discover surprising solutions (including a pentagon tiling proof that solves a century-old math problem); ponder the limits of computation; measure infinity; and explore the eternal question “Is mathematics good for you?” Contributors Ariel Bleicher, Robbert Dijkgraaf, Kevin Hartnett, Erica Klarreich, Thomas Lin, John Pavlus, Siobhan Roberts, Natalie Wolchover Copublished with Quanta Magazine

User’s Reviews

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

⭐I enjoyed reading the stories in this book. Like Alice and Bob Meet the Wall of Fire, it’s a bird’s eye view of recent research and issues in mathematics. It also focuses on telling stories of the researchers and problem solvers. While it shows the landscape and characters, explanations of the “hows” are abysmally lacking. Mathematics, especially advanced mathematics, is incredibly abstract so describing the mechanics of problem solving in an exciting way is bound to be difficult. The pieces in this book only make a bare-bones effort.I found it interesting and useful because even when I found the descriptions lacking it directed me toward meaningful areas of exploration and thought. Also, the articles in the book are more brief and easier to read than those in Alice and Bob.If Quanta publishes another volume like this I probably won’t purchase it. If they publish another volume like Alice and Bob I definitely will.

⭐Prime numbers meeting in dingy bars plotting uh, um… Actually, no conspiracy. The book is about prime numbers and the non-primes. I am an 81 year old Electronic Engineer with a minor in math and books like this help keep me sharp. A good read if one is into math.

⭐Owing to cutting edge Math being esoteric, it must be difficult to write about such material for the layperson. I felt like it would often go, “this person won this excellence prize/award and it’s really great you see, because this, that and the other.” While I am interested in the topic, some of the content can likely only be explained by diving into the deeper meaning. There are plenty of references, so with that I do not take issue. It’s just that it would take time to become conversant with a lot of of the topics. So in just wanting to get an overview, I had trouble sorting why any one topic might be much more important than any other. It’s sort of a Who’s Who in contemporary Math, if that’s what you’re looking for. I guess one shouldn’t hope for Math to converge to something fundamental, but just acknowledge that there are just all of these areas of specialization.

⭐OK, so I should have read the “inside” of the book before I purchased it. But at least the title should indicate what the book is about, which it does not. It is a collection of short stories about the trials and tribulations of mathematicians struggling with proofs. And, the authors don’t even try to make the subject interesting enough for the avarage reader to care. It almost reads like short summaries for math “insiders” which I’m not. The only reason I gave it 3 stars instead of one is that I’m a fan of Quanta Magazine.

⭐Gleick is a famous expert of mathematics and physics, and the articles contained in this sage are mixed in according to his competence. Particularly last 20 years it is born a movement of ideas, which connecting models of algebraic and differential geometry, but also topological facts, has had a strong approach to the quantum physics. An important consequence of that is the origin of informatical models using the quantum theory.

⭐A truly enjoyable romp through more recent math discoveries told in an exciting and thought-provoking manner. I like math but don’t have a math degree and although I had to look up some terms, it was worth the little extra work.If you like math or how discoveries are made, get this for the pure pleasure of it.

⭐I bought this book because I absolutely love Quanta Magazine and all the really interesting articles they put out. Even though I never made it past Calculus 1 I still found this book to be fairly accessible, and easy to enjoy. It’s an incredible dive in to a concept of math that seems simple on the surface, but beautifully complex upon deeper analysis.

⭐This was for pure entertainment. Loved these informative stories of very clever math people.

⭐Quanta ist ein online – Magazin für Mathematik, Informatik, Biologie und Physik. Dieses Buch ist eine Sammlung ausgewählter Artikel aus dem Bereich Mathematik (wobei einige Artikel auch starken Informatik-Bezug haben). Das Niveau ist etwa auf dem Level von Spektrum der Wissenschaft, allerdings gefühlt etwas aktueller.Generell kann man die Artikel auch online lesen und braucht dieses Buch nicht. Aber ich weiß, dass ich es hasse komplizierte Artikel auf englisch am Bildschirm zu lesen – da fehlt mir einfach die nötige Ruhe. So als gebundenes Buch erhält man eine gute Auswahl (ich war überrascht wie dick das Buch ist) und kann auch blättern und stöbern. Und dazu lädt das Buch wirklich ein – Die Artikel sind von der Länge her genau richtig und sehr vielseitig. Sicher, es kommen Dopplungen vor (das liegt in der Natur der Sache), aber wer sich für Mathematik interessiert, findet Tonnen Interessantes. Ich habe mir gleich den anderen Sammelband hinterher bestellt (den über Nicht-Mathematische Themen), weil mir dieses Buch so gut gefallen hat. Empfehlung! Zumindest für das Magazin (einfach Quanta magazine googlen) – da kann man sich selbst ein Bild machen!

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