We see that javascript is disabled or not supported by your browser - javascript is needed for important actions on the site. Read more

What's New - Home - Login

Member $avings: $81,747,693.41 | Books Available: 732,378 | Members Online: 244

Swap Used Books - Buy New Books at Great Prices!

How To Swap Books Sign Up Search submenu

PBS Market (New Books)

Gift Buying Guide

Book Browser Advanced Search Books Posted Today Member Book Reviews Award Winning Books NYT Best Sellers Amazon Best Sellers Most Traveled Copies Club Wish List

Discussion Forums Book Lists

Club Lists My Book Lists My Watched Lists Create a List

Blog Donations

School Donation Program In Memory of... Military Donation Program Friends of PBS

Box-O-Books Maps The Eclectic Pen Fun Stuff

20 Questions Sudoku Bookmark Creator

Top 100

Requests Posts Swappers Referrers Reviewers

Pulse of PBS Spread The Word

Invite Friends Bookmarks Facebook Page Facebook App More Ways...

Photo Gallery Recipes Club Tag Cloud Member Testimonials

Help Center submenu

How To Swap Books Browse Help Docs Ask the Librarian PBS Member Icons Live Help

Kiosk

PBS Market (New Books) Go Shopping Buy Credits Buy PBS Money Upgrade Membership Gift Certificates Transfer Credits

Need Help?

Search - Poincare's Prize: The Hundred-Year Quest to Solve One of Math's Greatest Puzzles

Poincare's Prize The HundredYear Quest to Solve One of Math's Greatest Puzzles
Author: George G. Szpiro

With a reclusive and eccentric hero, dramatic turns, and a million-dollar payoff, Poincare's Prize is the stuff of great fiction. Amazingly, the story unveiled in it is true. — In the world of math, the Poincare Conjecture was a holy grail. Decade after decade the theorem that informs how we understand the shape of the universe defied every effor... more »t to prove it. Now, after more than a century, an eccentric Russian recluse has found the solution to one of the seven greatest math problems of our time, earning the right to claim the first one-million-dollar Millennium math prize.

George Szpiro begins his masterfully told story in 1904 when Frenchman Henri Poincaré formulated a conjecture about a seemingly simple problem. Imagine an ant crawling around on a large surface. How would it know whether the surface is a flat plane, a round sphere, or a bagel-shaped object? The ant would need to lift off into space to observe the object. How could you prove the shape was spherical without actually seeing it? Simply, this is what Poincare sought to solve.

In fact, Poincare thought he had solved it back at the turn of the twentieth century, but soon realized his mistake. After four more years' work, he gave up. Across the generations from China to Texas, great minds stalked the solution in the wilds of higher dimensions. Among them was Grigory Perelman, a mysterious Russian who seems to have stepped out of a Dostoyevsky novel. Living in near poverty with his mother, he has refused all prizes and academic appointments, and rarely talks to anyone, including fellow mathematicians. It seemed he had lost the race in 2002, when the conjecture was widely but, again, falsely reported as solved. A year later, Perelman dropped three papers onto the Internet that not only proved the Poincare Conjecture but enlightened the universe of higher dimensions, solving an array of even more mind-bending math with implications that will take an age to unravel. After years of review, his proof has just won him a Fields Medal, the “Nobel of math,” awarded only once every four years. With no interest in fame, he refused to attend the ceremony, did not accept the medal, and stayed home to watch television.

Perelman is a St. Petersburg hero, devoted to an ascetic life of the mind. The story of the enigma in the shape of space that he cracked is part history, part math, and a fascinating tale of the most abstract kind of creativity.

ISBN-13: 9780525950240
ISBN-10: 0525950249
Publication Date: 6/21/2007
Pages: 320
Rating:

Currently 3.3/5 Stars.

3.3 stars, based on 2 ratings

Publisher: Dutton Adult
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

Genres:

Nonfiction >> Education >> General
Science & Math >> General
Science & Math >> Mathematics >> General
Science & Math >> Mathematics >> Geometry & Topology >> Topology
Engineering & Transportation >> Professional Science >> Mathematics >> Geometry & Topology >> Topology
Engineering & Transportation >> Education >> General

Back to the Top ↑

Search - Poincare's Prize: The Hundred-Year Quest to Solve One of Math's Greatest Puzzles

Loading...