Visions of Infinity: The Great Mathematical Problems
*Starred Review* Few of us share Stewart’s mathematical skills. But we relish the intellectual stimulation of joining him in exploring mathematical problems that have pushed even genius to the limit. We thrill, for instance, to the ingenuity of a great Chinese mathematician coming tantalizingly close to proving the centuries-old Goldbach Conjecture. And we feel the human meaning of mathematical achievement when a triumphant British analyst weeps before television cameras after finally proving a seventeenth-century algebraic theorem. We feel that meaning again when a brilliant Russian mathematician retreats into reclusive isolation, distressed because of initial skepticism toward his groundbreaking work on a nineteenth-century riddle. But high-level mathematics stirs deep emotions largely because it taps into the mind’s deepest impulses. Stewart repeatedly shows how a trivial mathematical curiosity can open up vital new conceptual insights. Readers learn, for example, that the apparently inconsequential four-color problem has led investigators deep into theoretical physics and has compelled fundamental rethinking of what constitutes a mathematical proof in a computerized age. Proofs incorporating computer-generated calculations may strike old-school mathematicians as unsatisfying, but Stewart assures readers that mathematics still depends on human investigators and that such investigators will not soon run out of daunting mathematical problems. A bracing mental workout for amateur mathematicians. --Bryce Christensen