Itemize Books Toward Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture: A Novel of Mathematical Obsession
| Original Title: | Ο θείος Πέτρος και η Εικασία του Γκόλντμπαχ |
| ISBN: | 1582341281 (ISBN13: 9781582341286) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Apostolos K. Doxiadis
Paperback | Pages: 209 pages Rating: 4.02 | 4253 Users | 324 Reviews
Particularize Of Books Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture: A Novel of Mathematical Obsession
| Title | : | Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture: A Novel of Mathematical Obsession |
| Author | : | Apostolos K. Doxiadis |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 209 pages |
| Published | : | February 3rd 2001 by Bloomsbury USA (first published 1992) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Science. Mathematics. Literature. Novels. Cultural. Greece. Mystery. Philosophy |
Rendition Concering Books Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture: A Novel of Mathematical Obsession
In this critically acclaimed international bestseller, Petros Papachristos, a mathematical prodigy, has devoted much of his life trying to prove one of the greatest mathematical challenges of all time: Goldbach's Conjecture, the deceptively simple claim that every even number greater than two is the sum of two primes. His feverish and singular pursuit of this goal has come to define his life. Now an old man, he is looked on with suspicion and shame by his family-until his ambitious young nephew intervenes.Seeking to understand his uncle's mysterious mind, the narrator of this novel unravels his story, a dramatic tale set against a tableau of brilliant historical figures-among them G. H. Hardy, the self-taught Indian genius Srinivasa Ramanujan, and a young Kurt Gödel. Meanwhile, as Petros recounts his own life's work, a bond is formed between uncle and nephew, pulling each one deeper into mathematical obsession, and risking both of their sanity.
Rating Of Books Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture: A Novel of Mathematical Obsession
Ratings: 4.02 From 4253 Users | 324 ReviewsRate Of Books Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture: A Novel of Mathematical Obsession
This is a short book--a fast and easy read. The story describes how a good mathematician sank into an obsession that swallowed up his life. The storyteller's mathematician friend, Sammy, mentions that the trail of a mathematical quest will be littered with intermediate, published results on a variety of topics. So, why didn't Uncle Petros publish his intermediate--but important--results? Interestingly, I do not remember another novel with as many footnotes as this one! (Actually, I don'tI didn't have any preconceptions for this book, my only previous knowledge was that it is about mathematics (obviously!) which, to be fair, means I'm already in favour before I turn the front page! Apostolos Doxiadis has quite cleverly comprised the story of his Uncle Petro's mathematical life into this charming novel without going into too much detail about the mathematics itself making it unambiguous for the non-mathematician to read (or a beginner like me). I particularly liked the way the
What stayed with me, long after I had read A Sense of the Mysterious: Science and the Human Spirit by Alan Lightman, was the tone of regret, that powerful, haunting emotion. He writes of his own regrets in discovering in his thirties that his chosen life was over. He was a physicist, he no longer had any expectation of doing anything that mattered.When I directed an astrophysics conference one summer and realised that most of the exciting research was being reported by ambitious young people in
This is more of a short story than a novel. On the surface it is about the fictional mathematical prodigy Petros Papachristos. His life goal has been to prove one of the oldest unsolved problems of number theory, Goldbach's Conjecture. This states that every even integer greater than two is the sum of two primes. Petros nephew tells the story. First of all, mathematical axioms, theories and proofs do take up a significant portion of the text. For me, much of the mathematical reasoning went in
I really enjoyed this novel. It's mathematical without being overly specific and tedious, which makes it a great read for many people and not just those who appreciate math. This story was very cleverly written. You never know the name of the narrator, which seems kind of strange but works really well. It also blends in mathematical history very well, including many well known mathematicians. This is a very fast read and very enjoyable.
This is an amazing book! Most people would consider a novel centred on maths rather uninteresting. I have always liked maths, though I prefer algebra to geometry and calculus and other more complicated things. I also like books about scientists because I know scientists and I understand how their minds work (most of the time). Also, I really enjoy mystery stories and that's what science is all about, after all, solving mysteries. The only thing I didn't like was the ending, but considering the
Take a look at what the other reviewers have said. Overwhelmingly they were seduced by the apparent centrality of narrative, that is Uncle Petros, the mathematical prodigy, and his fixation on solving the Goldbach Conjecture. But that was not the key issue of the novel. That key issue was stated two-thirds into the story - That humankind can aspire to solve everything by reason, but practically speaking, it is the lesson of Icarus that is the bottom line. "Set yourself achievable goals" may seem
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