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A Brief History of Mathematics
- Complete Series
- Narrated by: Marcus du Sautoy
- Length: 2 hrs and 13 mins
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Publisher's summary
This ten-part history of mathematics reveals the personalities behind the calculations: the passions and rivalries of mathematicians struggling to get their ideas heard. Professor Marcus du Sautoy shows how these masters of abstraction find a role in the real world and proves that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science.
He explores the relationship between Newton and Leibniz, the men behind the calculus; looks at how the mathematics that Euler invented 200 years ago paved the way for the internet and discovers how Fourier transformed our understanding of heat, light and sound. In addition, he finds out how Galois' mathematics describes the particles that make up our universe, how Gaussian distribution underpins modern medicine, and how Riemann's maths helped Einstein with his theory of relativity. Finally, he introduces Cantor, who discovered infinite numbers; Poincaré, whose work gave rise to chaos theory; G.H. Hardy, whose work inspired the millions of codes that help to keep the internet safe, and Nicolas Bourbaki, the mathematician who never was.
The BBC Radio 4 series looking at the people who shaped modern mathematics, written and presented by Marcus du Sautoy.
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Story
One of the great insights of science is that the universe has an underlying order. The supreme goal of physicists is to understand this order through laws that describe the behavior of the most basic particles and the forces between them. For centuries, we have searched for these laws by studying the results of experiments. Since the 1970s, however, experiments at the world's most powerful atom-smashers have offered few new clues. So some of the world's leading physicists have looked to a different source of insight: modern mathematics.
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Great story and narration, but lacks rigor...
- By James S. on 05-31-19
By: Graham Farmelo
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A Tour of the Calculus
- By: David Berlinski
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Were it not for the calculus, mathematicians would have no way to describe the acceleration of a motorcycle or the effect of gravity on thrown balls and distant planets, or to prove that a man could cross a room and eventually touch the opposite wall. Just how calculus makes these things possible and in doing so finds a correspondence between real numbers and the real world is the subject of this dazzling book by a writer of extraordinary clarity and stylistic brio.
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Top Poet among Mathemeticians
- By Kindle Customer on 05-27-14
By: David Berlinski
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Math Without Numbers
- By: Milo Beckman
- Narrated by: Soneela Nankani
- Length: 3 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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This is an audiobook about math, but it contains no numbers. Math Without Numbers is a vivid, conversational, and wholly original guide to the three main branches of abstract math - topology, analysis, and algebra - which turn out to be surprisingly easy to grasp. This audiobook upends the conventional approach to math, inviting you to think creatively about shape and dimension, the infinite and infinitesimal, symmetries, proofs, and how these concepts all fit together. Join this freewheeling tour of the inimitable joys and unsolved mysteries of this curiously powerful subject.
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please leave your politics at home
- By david malaguti on 09-23-23
By: Milo Beckman
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A Short Account of the History of Mathematics
- By: W. W. Rouse Ball
- Narrated by: Tony Shalhoub
- Length: 30 mins
- Original Recording
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In his soft yet captivating voice, award-winning actor Tony Shalhoub (Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Monk) calmly tells the tale of how the ancient Greeks formalized the study of mathematics based on Phoenician teachings.
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I was so exhausted & looking forward to falling asleep
- By t on 05-15-20
By: W. W. Rouse Ball
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How Music and Mathematics Relate
- By: David Kung, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: David Kung
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Original Recording
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Great minds have long sought to understand the relationship between music and mathematics. Both involve patterns, structures, and relationships. Both generate ideas of great beauty and elegance. Music is a fertile testing ground for mathematical principles, while mathematics explains the sounds instruments make and how composers put those sounds together. Understanding the connections between music and mathematics helps you appreciate both, even if you have no special ability in either field....
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No visuals provided! Very hard to follow without.
- By Anonymous User on 03-23-20
By: David Kung, and others
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No Calculator? No Problem!
- Mastering Mental Math
- By: Art Benjamin, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Art Benjamin
- Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins
- Original Recording
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No Calculator? No Problem! Mastering Mental Math , award-winning professor of mathematics and celebrated “mathemagician” Arthur T. Benjamin delivers 10 fun-filled lessons on how to do math in your head with confidence, accuracy, and speed - sometimes faster than a calculator. By the end of Professor Benjamin’s lessons, you’ll be able to add, subtract, multiply, and divide numbers faster than ever before. And with your newfound skills, you’ll soon find yourself amazing other people and, perhaps more important, yourself.
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Excellent but need PDF
- By Majeed on 10-15-19
By: Art Benjamin, and others
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Bernoulli's Fallacy
- Statistical Illogic and the Crisis of Modern Science
- By: Aubrey Clayton
- Narrated by: Tim H. Dixon
- Length: 15 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Aubrey Clayton traces the history of how statistics went astray, beginning with the groundbreaking work of the 17th-century mathematician Jacob Bernoulli and winding through gambling, astronomy, and genetics. Clayton recounts the feuds among rival schools of statistics, exploring the surprisingly human problems that gave rise to the discipline and the all-too-human shortcomings that derailed it.
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Rigorously Bayesian
- By Anonymous User on 01-25-22
By: Aubrey Clayton
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The Prime Number Conspiracy
- The Biggest Ideas in Math from Quanta
- By: Thomas Lin - editor, James Gleick - foreword
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
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These stories from Quanta Magazine map the routes of mathematical exploration, showing listeners how cutting-edge research is done, while illuminating the productive tension between conjecture and proof, theory and intuition. Listeners of The Prime Number Conspiracy are headed on "breathtaking intellectual journeys to the bleeding edge of discovery strapped to the narrative rocket of humanity's never-ending pursuit of knowledge," says Quanta editor-in-chief Thomas Lin.
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Better [more relevant] than you might expect.
- By James S. on 09-30-19
By: Thomas Lin - editor, and others
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Thinking Better
- The Art of the Shortcut in Math and Life
- By: Marcus Du Sautoy
- Narrated by: Mark Elstob
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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We are often told that hard work is the key to success. But success isn’t about hard work - it’s about shortcuts. Shortcuts allow us to solve one problem quickly so that we can tackle an even bigger one. They make us capable of doing great things. And according to Marcus du Sautoy, math is the very art of the shortcut. Thinking Better is a celebration of how math lets us do more with less.
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Very difficult to flow without diagrams
- By Khaled on 11-03-21
By: Marcus Du Sautoy
What listeners say about A Brief History of Mathematics
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Kiaf
- 08-22-24
The shoulders of mathematicians
Excellent narration. A quick understanding of mathematicians after Newton but before the second world war. Around Germany, Britain, and France. Plus India.
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- Michael Sisson
- 07-27-22
Wonderful
I loved the topic have always loved math, quite I defeating to learn of the men that created it. Wish there was another series.
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- Brother Bear
- 04-18-24
Short & Sweet!
Brief summaries of past giants in mathematics, and examples of their works and its importance in the sciences.
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- G. Fivas
- 02-17-23
A pleasing overview
I found this audiobook to be a pleasing overview of the historical development of mathematics.
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- Anonymous User
- 06-26-24
Brief but informative
Recommend, light book, very enthusiastic author, interestingly tells story of complicated topics without going into details.
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- geckogal
- 10-10-20
Sautoy is a Great Math Story Teller
I can spend hours listening to Dr. Marcus du Sautoy describe complex Math ideas, and I do. He has the knack of describe complex with everyday metaphors. Unfortunately, Sautoy is only looking at European mathematicians since Galileo. I am sure that other world cultures had important math breakthroughs during this time.
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- Anonymous User
- 02-01-23
Just give it a listen!
If you want to fall in love without math this is the book. Personally I plan on releasing to it again. Only problem being there should be a video accompanying it but I don’t think it takes much away from just how interesting math is. The narrator did a fantastic job and definitely keeps the story intriguing and I didn’t think i could say this about a book on math but I almost listened to it in one sitting because of how it stays interesting.
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- Dr. Robert Puff
- 12-19-20
Superb
Excellent. Another wonderful read on the history of mathematics. Dr. du Sautoy is an excellent communicator.
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- A. Toomey
- 06-27-22
A History... Starting with Calculus
I'm pleased to report, given the short length, this book does not cover the entire history of mathematics, but instead starts at the concepts which became calculus and moves forward chronologically from there. It covers a wide range of concepts and includes interesting stories of the mathematicians involved. The author is very expressive and easy to listen to. The examples are well explained and clear to understand even for those not initiated into the particular theory. There are numerous real-world connections presented of how the concepts are used in our day to day lives.
My one complaint is the repeated "title card" playing throughout. This is clearly due to the fact it was originally presented in another, episodic, format. This could have been removed in editing before being presented as a single audiobook without any loss of information and the individual episodes split into "Chapters" for those who wish easier navigation.
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- Amazon Customer
- 05-03-22
Excellent!
This was to come by and get your period I truly enjoyed listening to the entire thing. Wish there was more to listen to.
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