Surreal Numbers

by Donald E. Knuth

Paperback, 1974

Status

Available

Call number

512.7

Library's review

Indeholder "1. The Rock", "2. Symbols", "3. Proofs", "4. Bad Numbers", "5. Progress", "6. The Third Day", "7. Discovery", "8. Addition", "9. The Answer", "10. Theorems", "11. The Proposal", "12. Disaster", "13. Recovery", "14. The Universe", "15. Infinity", "16. Multiplication", "Postscript".

Pudsig

bog. Knuth præsenterer sine hovedpersoner, Alice og Bill, for en klippe med inskriptioner om et talsystem og lader dem så udforske teorien, lidt i stil med Proofs and Refutations.
Vi følger deres glæde ved at opdage teorien og deres frustrationer, når de løber i en blindgyde eller bare går i stå.
Knuth har skrevet den som eksempel på hvad han mener der mangler i uddannelsessystemet for matematiks vedkommende.

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Publication

Addison-Wesley Professional (1974), Paperback, 128 pages

Description

Shows how a young couple turned on to pure mathematics and found total happiness. This title is intended for those who might enjoy an engaging dialogue on abstract mathematical ideas, and those who might wish to experience how new mathematics is created.

User reviews

LibraryThing member trurl

The book is a dialogue where the characters rediscover the theory of surreal numbers. As a mathematical introduction to the subject, the book is inferior to Conway's On Numbers and Games, which covers more and is more in style of a classical mathematics text. The dialogues are too technical to have

any literary value. If the book has any value, it has value as a recording of the process of mathematical discovery. (Although, for a working mathematician the methods presented are rather self-evident.)

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1 more

LibraryThing member nocklebeast

The best math book ever. (It's not boring. It has sex in it.)

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