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This is an amazing book which enlightened and enthused me about the Pythagorean theorem.
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Euclid in the Rainforest: Discovering Universal Truth in Logic and Math
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Like Douglas Hofstadter’s Gödel, Escher, Bach , and David Berlinski’s A Tour of the Calculus , Euclid in the Rainforest combines the literary with the mathematical to explore
logic—the one indispensable tool in man’s quest to understand the world. Underpinning both math and science, it is the foundation of every major advancement in knowledge since the time of the ancient Greeks. Through adventure stories and historical narratives populated with a rich and quirky cast of characters, Mazur artfully reveals the less-than-airtight nature of logic and the muddled relationship between math and the real world. Ultimately, Mazur argues, logical reasoning is not purely robotic. At its most basic level, it is a creative process guided by our intuitions and beliefs about the world.
logic—the one indispensable tool in man’s quest to understand the world. Underpinning both math and science, it is the foundation of every major advancement in knowledge since the time of the ancient Greeks. Through adventure stories and historical narratives populated with a rich and quirky cast of characters, Mazur artfully reveals the less-than-airtight nature of logic and the muddled relationship between math and the real world. Ultimately, Mazur argues, logical reasoning is not purely robotic. At its most basic level, it is a creative process guided by our intuitions and beliefs about the world.
352 pages, Paperback
First published January 1,2004
This edition
- Format
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352 pages, Paperback
- Published
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July 25, 2006 by Penguin Publishing Group
- ISBN
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9780452287839
- ASIN
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0452287839
- Language
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English
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Rating(4.2 / 5.0, 25 votes)
5 stars
12(48%)
4 stars
6(24%)
3 stars
7(28%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
0(0%)
25 reviews All reviews
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Pretty good. Liked the parts about infinity and sets. Very related to my job. Was never gripped though and I felt it meandered in parts, hence the 4.
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Deep math thinking.
Rereading that paragraph again.
Renewed 5 times!
Check it out for yourself.
Rereading that paragraph again.
Renewed 5 times!
Check it out for yourself.
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It's amazing book I have seen
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Euclid in the Rainforest is a personal meditation on the nature of truth and how human's determine the veracity of any statement or idea. As a math professor, Mazur apparently has taught this book as a course on logic and plausible reasoning (but maybe not with as much of the memoirs style personal stories thrown in). His conclusions while not earth shattering are worth pondering. His main point seems to be that there are valid reasons for striving towards any formulation of the truth whether that is proving some conjecture about a mathematical object or considering the best course of action in life. While different endeavors and requiring different forms of reasoning with different degrees of certainty they are connected in that they are both human endeavors for explaining and predicting the world in which we live.
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While some of the mathematics were beyond me, this book was well-written and enjoyable to read. The broad co concepts, like infinity and logic, were discussed coherently with interesting anecdotes.
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I stopped reading after this passage: "It was Fredericka, who quietly came from behind to whip the dead octopus around me. I panicked but quickly realized that she was pulling me closer for a kiss on the lips. Her naked breasts pressed against my chest."
I'm not against naked lady dead-octopus-whipping, but I was looking forward to reading about math, and the math bits weren't really that coherent. And they had too many mistakes and misstatements.
Here's an unflattering review, which I agree with: https://www.maa.org/press/maa-reviews...
I'm not against naked lady dead-octopus-whipping, but I was looking forward to reading about math, and the math bits weren't really that coherent. And they had too many mistakes and misstatements.
Here's an unflattering review, which I agree with: https://www.maa.org/press/maa-reviews...
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Fascinating look into the world of mathematical understanding and past theoretical discoveries
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