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Title: The Mathematical Universe : An Alphabetical Journey Through the Great Proofs, Problems, and Personalities by William Dunham ISBN: 0-471-17661-3 Publisher: Wiley Pub. Date: February, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95

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Average Customer Rating: 4.61 (23 reviews)

Rating: 4
Summary: Broad Coverage, but Fewer Proofs than Dunham's Other Works
Comment: In this follow-on to his excellent "Journey Through Genius", William Dunham once again breathes life into a variety of mathematical topics. Whereas "Journey" was arranged around 12 great mathematical theorems, this book is arranged around the 26 letters of the alphabet. Some chapters cover the work of individuals (e.g., "Euler", "Knighted Newton", "Lost Leibniz", and "Russell's Paradox"), while others describe important mathematical results (e.g., "Isoperimetric Problem", "Spherical Surface", and "Trisection"). Still others, such as "Mathematical Personality" and "Where are the Women?", address social aspects of the field.

As in the previous book, Dunham's descriptions are entertaining and enlightening. The main difference is that this book has broader coverage. As a result, it tends to omit more of the proofs, which I found disappointing, but perhaps that will make it of interest to a wider audience. For people with a deeper interest in mathematics, I recommend you read either "Journey Through Genius" or "Euler: The Master of Us All", another Dunham masterpiece that includes detailed proofs throughout.

Rating: 4
Summary: Wonderful Journey Through The Greatest Of Arts
Comment: William Dunham has exercised wonderful judgement in a book this thin, making sure that maths, history, biography, and personalities appear in good measure.

There is one chapter for each letter of the alphabet ranging through Arithmetic, Knighted Newton, Mathematical Personality, and culminating in Z ( a chapter on complex or "imaginary" numbers). Even a chapter titled "Where are the women?"! Also, see the chapter on Bertrand Rusell. It will hardly take you an hour or two to read a chapter and you can read almost at random

You need not be intimidated if you do not want to delve deeply into maths. The author has provided just about enough mathematical material in terms of proofs, calculations, diagrams (interspersed with wry humour) The material is not too dense even for the non-technical reader, though you must of course, have the patience to follow a train of thought to its conclusion.

Personally, it represented a return to the wonderful world of maths after a long hiatus, after explorations of such formal (Hall & Knight, SL Loney) and informal (George Gamow, Douglas Hofstafdter, Roger Penrose) scientific writing in my student days.

Some of the pardonable omissions are: 1) I would have liked to see full length chapters on some of my personal favorites such as Gauss, Cauchy, and Hilbert

2) On the utility of prime numbers and number theory, the author seems to have missed out on applications in cryptography

The editing and presentation is excellent. The book is very affordable. Buy two copies, one for your bookshelf, and one for your nephew (niece!)- the budding math prodigy in your family

Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent
Comment: Excellent book that gives us a synopsis of the history of maths from early days. The only criticism I found (and no doubt other readers and the author) is that by virtue of the title, we are limited to one piece as per each letter of the alphabet. I personally would have liked to see the Z chapter written on Zero.

That apart, quite an entertaining read and highly recommended. Dunham should write some more.

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