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David T. Ashley wrote:
"C" <cmiller5277@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1167519566.035640.307830@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hello all,
I'm going to be studying abroad next semester in Budapest,
Hungary, and thinking ahead for the 10+ hour plane ride I'm going to
have (along with loads of downtime the first week or so), I was
wondering if anyone could suggest an interesting math or physics book I
could read during that time. I'm not looking for any kind of textbook
or anything here, but still something intelligent that I can pick up at
a Barnes & Noble or Borders or something along those lines. I've seen
the book "Not Even Wrong" by Peter Woit a couple of places, has anyone
been fortunate enough to read that yet?
I highly recommend "A Mathematician's Apology":
http://www.amazon.com/Mathematicians-Apology-Canto-G-Hardy/dp/0521427061/sr=8-1/qid=1167520399/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-5757940-7791229?ie=UTF8&s=books
by Hardy.
It is a fascinating book ... it gives an insight into the way a serious
number theorist thinks. There is no real math in it. It is short (just
about right for a long plane ride, I think).
It has been years since I read it, but it was great. It tells how Hardy
originally came to meet Ramanujan,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1729_">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1729_(number)
I probably have remembered it wrong, but my recollection is that Hardy spent
one day a month reviewing all the odd mail he got. He had a large envelope
from a guy in India who was doing something menial for a living (Ramanujan)
but who had a lot of very insightful conjectures about integers. After
reading the material, which some would have not taken the time to try to
understand, Hardy decided he HAD to have Ramanujan as a graduate student.
The book is fascinating. It is every bit as amazing as reading, say, the
writings of a serial killer. Hardy viewed the world a lot more plainly than
most others. There are quotes in it like (and I'm probably getting this one
wrong), "The vast majority of people are good at precisely nothing, so it
matters little to society what career they choose". (Probably true, but not
the thing you'd want a high-school guidance counselor to say.)
I read this book years ago. I really ended up deciding that while Hardy
was a great mathematician, he had a really lousy philosophy of life.
Stephen
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