The Millennium Problems: The Seven Greatest Unsolved Mathematical Puzzles Of Our Time Edition Unstated Edition

by Keith J. Devlin (Author)

39 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0465017300

ISBN-10: 0465017304

Why is ISBN important?

Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Added to

Unable to add item to List. Please try again.

Condition: Used - Acceptable

In Stock. Sold by ScanLister, Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

87 Used from $1.01

FREE Shipping on orders over $25.

Deliver to France

Turn on 1-Click ordering

In Stock.

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

This item ships to France. Want it Thursday, Oct. 18? Order within and choose AmazonGlobal Priority Shipping at checkout. Learn more

List Price: $16.99
Save: $3.51 (21%)

47 New from $13.48

Deliver to France

Turn on 1-Click ordering

More Buying Choices

47 New from $13.48 87 Used from $1.01

134 used & new from $1.01

See All Buying Options

Free Two-Day Shipping for College Students with Amazon Student

In 2000, the Clay Foundation announced a historic competition: whoever could solve any of seven extraordinarily difficult mathematical problems, and have the solution acknowledged as correct by the experts, would receive 1 million in prize money. There was some precedent for doing this: In 1900 the mathematician David Hilbert proposed twenty-three problems that set much of the agenda for mathematics in the twentieth century. The Millennium Problems--chosen by a committee of the leading mathematicians in the world--are likely to acquire similar stature, and their solution (or lack of it) is likely to play a strong role in determining the course of mathematics in the twenty-first century. Keith Devlin, renowned expositor of mathematics and one of the authors of the Clay Institute's official description of the problems, here provides the definitive account for the mathematically interested reader.

Frequently bought together

Total price: $45.84

Buy the selected items together

This item:The Millennium Problems: The Seven Greatest Unsolved Mathematical Puzzles Of Our Time by Keith J. Devlin Paperback $13.48
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details
Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics by John Derbyshire Paperback $17.96
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details
Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem by Simon Singh Paperback $14.40
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Customers who bought this item also bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

John Derbyshire

181

Paperback
$17.96
Simon Singh

338

Paperback
$14.40
Marcus du Sautoy

68

Paperback
$14.99
Arthur Jaffe and…

2

Hardcover
$32.00
John Stillwell

4

Hardcover
$18.26
Clifford A. Pickover

140

Paperback
$13.56

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The quality of mathematical exposition is high, a sense of excitement is strongly conveyed." -- Nature

About the Author

Keith Devlin is the Dean of the School of Social Science at St. Mary's College, Moraga, California, and a Senior Researcher at the Center for the Study of Language and Information at Stanford University. He is the author of 22 books, one interactive CD-ROM, and over 65 technical research papers in mathematics. His voice is heard regularly on National Public Radio, on such programs as "Weekend Edition," "Talk of the Nation," "Science Friday," "Sounds Like Science," and "To the Best of Our Knowledge." His previous books include Life by the Numbers, the companion to a PBS series that aired in April and May, 1998; Goodbye Descartes: The End of Logic; and The Language of Mathematics: Making the Invisible Visible.

Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Basic Books; Edition Unstated edition (October 16, 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0465017304
ISBN-13: 978-0465017300
Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 39 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #743,907 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #60 in Books > Science & Math > Mathematics > Infinity
- #677 in Books > Science & Math > Mathematics > History
- #1478 in Books > Textbooks > Science & Mathematics > Mathematics > Statistics

Would you like to tell us about a lower price?
If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support?

Be the first video

Your name here

Customer reviews

Write a customer review

See all 39 customer reviews

Top customer reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

A. Menon

Good introduction to the current frontier given inevitable constraints

October 21, 2009

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

As time passes math tends to get further and further out of the reach of most people (in fact as one gathers from the book that mathematicians themselves lose track of their colleagues techniques and progress to a non-trivial degree). This book is an attempt to shrink some of that distance and is an entertaining summary of the spirit of the current (though one problem has been solved) most noted problems in math- to a large degree, the modern day equivalent of Hilbert's list from a century ago.

It is always tough for authors to strike a balance between describing the problem and its history versus going describing the various paths that a solution might be found on. This book minimizes the solution potentials and their descriptions, for good reason, as the problems are modern day math and would require specific graduate training to even attempt parts of the solution (exept maybe the P NP problem) and instead focuses on more of the historical side of things and how the questions were motivated and became prominent.

To me its always nice for a working mathematician to spend the time to try to describe the spirit of a problem. This book does a great job where it can, as the problems are spelled out very nicely- towards the end of the book, the goal of heuristically describing the problem becomes close to impossible (one learns the author needed weeks to understand the problem himself). I recommend this to all who want to try to an elevated view of current problems and what mathematicians are working on (and solving).

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Not Helpful

Comment

mrliteral

How to make a million dollars

June 12, 2005

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Want to make a fast million? It's just sitting out there, and all you have to do is solve a math problem. Only one of seven. What could be easier?

Actually, as Keith Devlin points out in his smart little book, there are few things that could be more difficult. The math problems in question were chosen by the Clay Foundation and represent some of the significant ideas in math today. Even understanding the problems are a chore, let alone trying to solve them, but Devlin does a good job in explaining them on a layman's level.

At least Fermat's Last Theorem could be easily understood; however, it is now proven, and thus not one of the problems in question. Instead we have things like the Riemann Hypothesis and the P vs. NP Problem and perhaps most exotic, the Hodge Conjecture, which Devlin says states: "Every harmonic differential form (of a certain type) on a non-singular projective algebraic variety is a rational combination of cohomology classes of algebraic cycles." I have a degree in math and I can barely understand that. Devlin is hard-pressed to sketch out even the bare ideas behind it.

Some of the problems are easier to explain, but no less difficult to solve. As Devlin asserts, you can't go into this for the money. Chances are you would need a doctorate in math just to get started, and even then, you might work on one of these problems for decades without solving it. But the purpose of the award is to pique mathematical interest, and in that sense, it will work, drawing more people into the field. And in this generally math-averse and math-ignorant world, that can only be a good thing.

And this book is a good thing too. Given the complex nature of the material discussed, Devlin does a good job of explaining with a light touch, even admitting occasionally that some of the material is beyond even him. This book may not be a fast ticket to a million dollars, but it is nonetheless rewarding in its own way.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Not Helpful

Comment

Man Kam Tam

A General Introduction to the Official Problem Book

March 8, 2008

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

The goal of Keith Devlin's "The Millennium Problems: The Seven Greatest Unsolved Mathematical Puzzles of Our Time" is "to provide the background to each problem, to describe how it arose, [to] explain what makes it particularly difficult, and [to] give you some sense of why mathematicians regard it as important." "In May 2000 ... the Clay Mathematical Institute (CMI) announced that seven $1 million prizes were being offered for the solutions to each of [the] seven unsolved problems of mathematics..."

Devlin's book is a "general introductions to ... the official book on the problems..." "... readers ... wishes to ... solve one of the Clay Problems should read the definitive description ... in the CMI book." "The official CMI book consists primarily of detailed and accurate descriptions of the seven problems..." Keith Devlin was asked "to provide short introductory accounts of the problems to make the book more accessible to mathematicians...journalists...readers..." "To read my [Keith Devlin's] book, all you need...is...high school knowledge of mathematics...You will also need sufficient interest in the topic."

The book has eight chapters. Chapter zero is the general introduction to the problems. Chapter one is about the Riemann Hypothesis. Riemann suggests that for Riemann's Zeta function to be zero, the roots have the form ½ + bi for some real number b. Chapter two is about Yang-Mills Theory and the Mass Gap Hypothesis. The Yang-Mills equations describe all of the forces of nature (electromagnetic force, the weak nuclear force, and the strong nuclear force) other than gravity. The hypothesis provides "an explanation of why electrons have mass." The problem asks for "missing mathematical development of the theory, starting from axioms." The third chapter is about computer (The P Versus NP Problem). "Computer scientists divide computational tasks into two main categories: Tasks of type P can be tackled effectively on a computer; tasks of type E could take millions of years to complete. Unfortunately, most of the big computational tasks that arise in industry and commerce fall into a third category, NP, which seems to be intermediate between P and E. But is it? Could NP be just a disguised version of P? ... no one has been able to prove whether or not NP and P are the same." Chapter four is about the Navier-Stokes Equations. The equations describe "the motion of fluids and gases--such as water around the hull of a boat or air over an aircraft wing." They are partial differential equations (PDE). "To date, no one has clue how to find a formula that solves these particular equations." Chapter five is about the Poincare Conjecture. "If you stretch a rubber band around the surface of an apple, you can shrink it down to a point by moving it slowly, without tearing it and without allowing it to leave the surface...if you imagine that the same rubber band has somehow been stretched in the appropriate direction around a doughnut, then there is no way of shrinking it to a point without breaking either the rubber band or the doughnut...when you ask the same shrinking band idea distinguishes between four-dimensional analogues of apples and doughnuts...no one has been able to provide an answer." Chapter six is about the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture. The conjecture suggests that "there are infinitely many rational points on E [the elliptic curve] if and only if L(E,1)=0." Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer "creates" an counting device L(E,1) for rational points. Chapter seven is about the Hodge Conjecture. "The basic idea was to ask to what extent you can approximate the shape of a given object by gluing together simple geometric building blocks of increasing dimension ... The Hodge conjecture asserts that for one important class of objects (called projective algebraic varieties), the piece called Hodge cycles are, nevertheless, combinations of geometric pieces (called algebraic cycles)."

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Not Helpful

Comment

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway

This item: The Millennium Problems: The Seven Greatest Unsolved Mathematical Puzzles Of Our Time

Set up a giveaway

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

John Derbyshire

181

Paperback
$17.96
Marcus du Sautoy

68

Paperback
$14.99
Arthur Jaffe and…

2

Hardcover
$32.00
Simon Singh

338

Paperback
$14.40
Keith Devlin

58

Paperback
$20.70
Peter Winkler

16

Paperback
$23.95

Pages with related products. See and discover other items: math puzzle, math puzzles, mathematics puzzle, mathematics puzzles

The Millennium Problems: The Seven Greatest Unsolved Mathematical Puzzles Of Our Time Edition Unstated Edition

Turn on 1-Click ordering

Turn on 1-Click ordering

Frequently bought together

Customers who bought this item also bought

Sponsored products related to this item (What's this?)

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Product details

Related Video Shorts (0)

Be the first video

Customer reviews

Filter by popular topics in reviews

Top customer reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Most recent customer reviews

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

The Millennium Problems: The Seven Greatest Unsolved Mathematical Puzzles Of Our Time Edition Unstated Edition

Sorry, there was a problem.

Sorry, there was a problem.

Buy used On clicking this link, a new layer will be open $7.50 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

Turn on 1-Click ordering

Buy new On clicking this link, a new layer will be open $13.48 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

Turn on 1-Click ordering

Frequently bought together

Customers who bought this item also bought

Sponsored products related to this item (What's this?)

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Product details

Related Video Shorts (0)

Be the first video

Customer reviews

Filter by popular topics in reviews

Top customer reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Most recent customer reviews

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Buy used On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

$7.50 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

Buy new On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

$13.48 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open