Nature's Numbers: The Unreal Reality of Mathematics (Science Masters Series) [Paperback]

Ian Stewart (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0465072739 | ISBN-13: 978-0465072736 | Publication Date: July 1995

The well-known author of the "Mathematical Recreations" column in Scientific American explains the key concepts in math and their implications, pointing out that although mathematics is totally unreal--an entirely mental construct--it is the best tool available for describing and understanding the real world. Illustrations.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Defining mathematics as a system of thought for recognizing and exploiting patterns, Scientific American math columnist Stewart takes readers on an exciting, lucid voyage of discovery as he investigates patterns of form, number, shape and movement in the world around us. His examples range from water dripping slowly from a tap to the symmetries of molecules, viruses and galaxies and from a snail's spiral shell to biological evolution and the dynamics of solar systems. Making forays into the history of mathematics and the role of mathematics in human culture, Stewart gives the reader an uncanny feel for the way mathematicians think and provides a succinct yet remarkably broad overview extending from the invention of numbers to unsolved problems that bedevil contemporary mathematicians and cosmologists. His elegant narrative concludes with a look at today's emerging sciences of chaos and complexity, which reveal that nature's seeming anarchy is bound by rules. Both novices and advanced students will find this an enlightening and rewarding exploration. QPBC triple main selection, Library of Science dual main selection, BOMC alternate.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Ian Stewart is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick and is well known for his writing and broadcasting about mathematics for nonspecialists. He has written over 140 research papers on such subjects as symmetry in dynamics, pattern formation, chaos, and mathematical biology, as well as numerous popular books, including Letters to a Young Mathematician, Does God Play Dice?, What Shape Is a Snowflake?, Nature’s Numbers, The Annotated Flatland, and Flatterland. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2001. He lives in Coventry, England.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 164 pages
• Publisher: BasicBooks (July 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465072739
• ISBN-13: 978-0465072736
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,438,133 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Math is better than you thought, July 11, 2000

By 

Jiri Matejicek (Prague, CZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nature's Numbers: The Unreal Reality of Mathematics (Science Masters Series) (Paperback)

This book is a hint that math can be both fun and useful. Understandable even to the non-mathematical reader, it tells in an entertaining style what mathematics is about and what it is good for. It shows how math helped us understand nature and our world in general, how it was used in mankind's most important inventions and developments; how it threaded through our history and what can we expect in the future. Both enlightening and enjoyable reading.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A mathematician with his head on straight, July 21, 2001

By 

Joel Brown (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nature's Numbers: The Unreal Reality Of Mathematics (Science Masters Series) (Paperback)

Nature's Numbers is a valuable resource and, I think, a new doorway of scientific philosophy. (I think some reviewers didn't like this because they expected more, but as I said, its a doorway to a field, and by no means a complete study in itself) From the very beginning, it is promised to the reader that a new pair of glasses, a mathematicians, will be provided to look at your life in the universe a bit differently. Ian Stewart attempts to grasp the mathematical hypostasis of the natural macrocosm. Objectively, simplicity still likely underlies all external phenomena, however a outward branching tree of complexity translates this core into our manifested world, appearing fairly simple again as the laws which govern the cosmos. However, in Stewart's universe, mere laws and equations do not suffice. He strives for a new field of mathematics that is intertwined with natural science. It is obvious, as he shows from the science of flowers, dripping water, etc., that math determines the observed phenomena of science. Even in apparently haphazard systems, the source remains as deterministic principles by nonlinear dynamics. (This is what you should know as chaos theory) And the shibboleth of "the butterfly effect" is an epitome of the need to comprehend the governing mathematics of systems. Take biological adaption and evolution for example. Some biologists believe that DNA and genetics is the sole shaper of organisms. This does not appear to be fully adequate alone, because then we would in turn need to explain why biology followed symmetries and patterns. But as he notes on pp. 137 "Maybe evolution started with the mathematical patterns that occurred naturally, and fine-tuned them by natural selection." By opening our horizons of our attempts to comprehend the universe fully in our quest for absolute knowledge of nature's numbers, the final sentence in Stewarts work admirably states the scientist's philosophy with the same type of mere simplicity that Mother Nature holds at her core, "We may never get there. But it will be fun trying." Gotta love that.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quantity vs. Quality, January 29, 2003

By 

Albert Swanson (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nature's Numbers: The Unreal Reality of Mathematics (Science Masters Series) (Paperback)

Natures Numbers is an oddity in that it is a serious overview of mathematics that contains no serious mathematicsat least in the traditional formalized sense, in spite of the titles play on natural numbers. There seem to be two reasons for this. The first is that Ian Stewarts presumed audience is a non-technical one. In this regard, I would like to point out that it is always a tough editorial decision how much to dilute a books subject matter for an undefined readership. The impossible trick is to neither condescend to the readers nor to lose them as their metaphorical eyes grow translucent coverings. So, no demerits here: Its a bit unfair for armchair critics to take potshots from any easy ambush position.

Secondly, Stewart is genuinely interested in, and purposely pursues a mathematics that is about qualities rather than quantities. However, we do not learn of Stewarts intent in the main body of the text. Morphomatics is discussed in the epilogue, but it is more fully explicated in Stewarts next opus, Lifes Other Secret: The New Mathematics of the Living World. Indeed, as it covers most of the same material but without development, Natures Numbers seems to be a kind of long-form abstract for Lifes Other Secret.

Thus, it is a valid question why a reader would go for Natures Numbers, when Lifes Other Secret says the same things and more (plus, in the discussion of oscillators, the debate is more up-to-date). So, in this review I am compelled to dock Stewart a star. This pains me, however, as I feel strongly that Stewarts un-stereotypical writing style and sense of story should be broadly encouraged. Probably the culprit here is the publisher, as some other books in the (Science Masters) series suffer from the same abstract-y problem.

Still, if you have no knowledge of what mathematics is all about in the real world and you thought you didnt care, Natures Numbers could be the book for you.