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Karl Sabbagh

Riemann Hypothesis Paperback – May 26, 2004

by Karl Sabbagh (Author)

24 customer reviews

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Since 1859, when the shy German mathematician Bernhard Riemann wrote an eight-page article giving a possible answer to a problem that had tormented mathematical minds for centuries, the world's greatest mathematicians have been fascinated, infuriated, and obsessed with proving the Riemann hypothesis. They speak of it in awed terms and consider it to be an even more difficult problem than Fermat's last theorem, which was finally proven by Andrew Wiles in 1995.

In The Riemann Hypothesis, acclaimed author Karl Sabbagh interviews some of the world's finest mathematicians who have spent their lives working on the problem--and whose approaches to meeting the challenges thrown up by the hypothesis are as diverse as their personalities.

Wryly humorous, lively, accessible and comprehensive, The Riemann Hypothesis is a compelling exploration of the people who do math and the ideas that motivate them to the brink of obsession--and a profound meditation on the ultimate meaning of mathematics.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Karl Sabbagh is the author of seven books, including A Rum Affair (FSG, 2000). He lives near Stratford-upon-Avon in England.

Paperback: 342 pages
Publisher: Fsg Adult; First edition (May 26, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0374529353
ISBN-13: 978-0374529352
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 24 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,234,293 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1772 in Mathematics History

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David Schulman

Disappointing: overly dumbed-down and hard to read due to poor print quality

May 12, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Though the subject matter itself is interesting, Sabbagh's treatment of it is not to my liking and is hampered by several glaring errors in arithmetic which also showcase inadequate proofreading. In addition - and I'm almost shocked to have to say this of a book published in 2004 - the typography is of very poor quality. In many cases, it's bad enough to render equations (especially ones containing superscripts or subscripts) unreadable. The text looks to me like the result of 1960s-era phototypesetting, not the digital typography I'd expect from a technical book published in the last 35 years.

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Gary C. Marfin

Ready for prime time

November 30, 2003

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I think potential readers of this intriguing book need to bear in mind the following: (1) you do not need to understand Riemann's hypothesis to enjoy this book and (2) Mr. Sabbagh does a very fine job of outlining Riemann's hypothesis in layman's terms. Riemann's hypothesis is not easily grasped; what Sabbagh wants to do is to enhance your understanding of it. There is no pretense here that the hypothesis in all its complexity is being conveyed. In fact, near the book's end, he concedes that "you know almost nothing [about R's hypothesis] compared to what there is to know. The hypothesis itself is an outcome of Riemann's zeta function which is the sum of the series 1 + 1/2^s +1/3^s...1/n^s, which means 1 + 1/2^a+ib + 1/3^a+ib (where i is an imaginary number). All sorts of values are possible, but the values of interest center on the Riemann zeta function when it becomes zero. These zeroes, as its turns out, fall on what is known as the "critical strip" and their graph is linked to the fluctation of the primes, which are themselves the building blocks for all the other numbers. The hypothesis is that all the "significant" zeroes line on the critical strip. The proof has become the Mount Everest of mathematics, but it remains unscaled. Many mathematicians, who perhaps found the hypothesis disarmingly approachable, have died before reaching the summit.
Sabbagh does want you to understand the hypothesis, but he is also trying to delve into the community of mathematicians generally -- what they are like as people -- in an effort to make them more accessible as well. Inevitably, in this area, Sabbagh often reads like an anthropologist documenting the ritualistic "abnormalities" of some primitive Amazonian sub-culture. What I found surprising is not that Sabbagh finds that the thought processes of mathematicians rarely intersect with that of non-mathematicians; rather what I found striking were the similarities with the "rest of us." They can be collaborative yet guarded, brave yet insecure, intuitive but distrustful of intuition. Several he finds are lousy at simple computations (but brilliant on abstractions). They are a colorful lot, but they are not high IQ aliens from another world. The portrait of Louis de Branges is especially fascinating and forms a strong sub-plot within Sabbagh's text.
I don't plow through many books like this, but I do recommend The Riemann Hypothesis. Like Sarah Flannery's "In Code" (which has an excellent chapter on prime numbers), The Riemann Hypothesis is suited for, and ought to be attractive to a wide audience.

18 people found this helpful

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YOUTH STREAM

Five Stars

March 3, 2017

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

good book

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Nihal Mehta

Buy Prime Obsession Instead!!

May 12, 2003

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

In this tome about one of the most celebrated conjectures in Mathematics today, there are actually more words attributed to some person not fathoming why the multiplication of two negative numbers yields a positive number than there are to Andrew Wiles and Fermat's Last Theorem. The author spends far too much time on basic concepts while ignoring the major aspects of the Riemann Hypothesis theory. If I wanted basic concepts, I would have read other books. Consequently, this book turns out to be a real disappointment. I returned my copy back to Amazon and instead ordered Prime Obsession. You will learn a lot more from Prime Obsession!

15 people found this helpful

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Mike Blaszczak

Approachable, but Lost my Trust

May 22, 2003

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

As a math hobbyist, I've been very eager to learn more about the Riemann Hypothesis. I ordered this book a couple weks ago, and fell ill this week -- so I had some time to spend reading.
I didn't get very far before I found a rather glaring error. On page eighteen, the author explains one method for showing that there's no largest prime number. He asserts that:
(2 * 3 * 5 * 7 * 11 * 13 * 17 + 1) / 7
is equal to
2 * 3 * 5 * 7 * 11 * 13 * 17 + (1/7)
which is not correct. The left-hand term actually evaluates to
2 * 3 * 5 * 11 * 13 * 17 + (1/7).
Maybe I'll revise my review after I read more; perhaps the book really does deserve my trust. But after an early blunder like this in a simple topic, maybe I won't read any further.
Less astute readers might not have caught this and later become confused. Maybe, in the deeper topics, I won't be able to proof the text and become confused or disillusioned by other errors.

16 people found this helpful

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