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Great Feuds in Mathematics
Hal Hellman
Ten of the Liveliest Disputes Ever
Wiley
September 2006
On Sale: September 11, 2006
256 pages
ISBN: 0471648779
EAN: 9780471648772
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
"A very engaging effort and a good introduction to
the human side of mathematics."--Mathematics Association of
America
Book Description
Praise for Hal Hellman
Great Feuds in
Mathematics
"Those who think that
mathematicians are cold, mechanical proving machines will do
well to read Hellman's book on conflicts in mathematics. The
main characters are as excitable and touchy as the next man.
But Hellman's stories also show how scientific fights bring
out sharper formulations and better arguments."
-Professor Dirk van Dalen, Philosophy Department, Utrecht
University
Great Feuds in Technology
"There's nothing like a good feud to grab your
attention. And when it comes to describing the battle, Hal
Hellman is a master."
-New Scientist
Great Feuds in Science
"Unusual insight into
the development of science . . . I was excited by this book
and enthusiastically recommend it to general as well as
scientific audiences."
-American Scientist
"Hellman has assembled a series of entertaining
tales . . . many fine examples of heady invective without
parallel in our time."
-Nature
Great
Feuds in Medicine
"This engaging book
documents [the] reactions in ten of the most heated
controversies and rivalries in medical history. . . . The
disputes detailed are . . . fascinating. . . . It is
delicious stuff here."
-The New York Times
"Stimulating."
-Journal of the American
Medical Association
From the Inside Flap
Mathematical disputes offer indisputable proof that great
mathematical minds are calculating in more ways than one.
Fueled by greed, jealousy, ambition, and ego, they have
plots worthy of a soap opera, pitting brother against
brother, father against son, and student against mentor.
In the sixteenth century, Cardano and Tartaglia
battled over credit for finding a method for solving cubic
and quadratic equations; the plots and counterplots ended
when Tartaglia, using Cardano's son as an informant, turned
Cardano over to the Spanish Inquisition. In later centuries,
Descartes battled Fermat over analytic geometry and optics;
Newton and Leibniz feuded bitterly over the credit for the
calculus; the Bernoulli brothers fought over calculus
problems; and Poincaré tussled with Russell over the logical
foundations of mathematics. In a notable twentieth-century
math conflict involving Hilbert and Brouwer, Einstein took a
neutral stance and described the controversy as the War of
the Frogs and the Mice. Hal Hellman explores
both the mathematics and the spirit of the times in this
fascinating exposé. He draws from letters, articles, and
books in which the debated ideas were propounded or refuted,
and from the works of historians who have assessed the
contributions of the participants to mathematics. Many of
the ideas that sparked the feuds are prominent in
mathematics today. For example, Hilbert's proof theory is a
powerful mathematical tool, especially in computer science.
Russell's logicism has modern-day proponents. And Cantor's
set theory became the basis for today's topology and
fractals and led to advances that provided a rigorous
grounding for infinitesimal calculus. Providing
insight into math and history, and spiced with cunning,
deception, and subterfuge, this book shows how great feuds
propelled great progress in mathematics.
About the Author
HAL HELLMAN is the author of Great Feuds in
Science, Great Feuds in Medicine, and Great Feuds in
Technology, all from Wiley. He has published articles in the
New York Times, Omni, Reader's Digest,
Psychology Today, and Geo.
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