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From preeminent math personality and author of The Joy of x, a brilliant and endlessly appealing explanation of calculus—how it works and why it makes our lives immeasurably better.
Without calculus, we wouldn’t have cell phones, TV, GPS, or ultrasound. We wouldn’t have unraveled DNA or discovered Neptune or figured out how to put 5,000 songs in your pocket.
Though many of us were scared away from this essential, engrossing subject in high school and college, Steven Strogatz’s brilliantly creative, down-to-earth history shows that calculus is not about complexity; it’s about simplicity. It harnesses an unreal number—infinity—to tackle real-world problems, breaking them down into easier ones and then reassembling the answers into solutions that feel miraculous.
Infinite Powers recounts how calculus tantalized and thrilled its inventors, starting with its first glimmers in ancient Greece and bringing us right up to the discovery of gravitational waves (a phenomenon predicted by calculus). Strogatz reveals how this form of math rose to the challenges of each age: how to determine the area of a circle with only sand and a stick; how to explain why Mars goes “backwards” sometimes; how to make electricity with magnets; how to ensure your rocket doesn’t miss the moon; how to turn the tide in the fight against AIDS.
As Strogatz proves, calculus is truly the language of the universe. By unveiling the principles of that language, Infinite Powers makes us marvel at the world anew.
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Showing 7 featured editions. View all 7 editions?
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1
Puissance infini: Comment le calcul infinitésimal révèle les secrets de l'univers
Jan 07, 2021, QUANTO
Paperback
in French
2889153797 9782889153794
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2
Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe
Apr 14, 2020, Mariner Books
paperback
0358299284 9780358299288
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3
Infinite Powers : The Story of Calculus: The Language of the Universe
2020, Atlantic Books, Limited
in English
1786492970 9781786492975
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4
Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe
2019, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Hardcover
1328879984 9781328879981
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5
Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe
2019, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
in English
132888001X 9781328880017
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6
Infinite Powers : The Story of Calculus: The Most Important Discovery in Mathematics
2019, Atlantic Books, Limited
in English
1786492946 9781786492944
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7
Infinite Powers: The Story of Calculus - the Language of the Universe
2019, Atlantic Books, Limited
in English
1786492962 9781786492968
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- Created May 17, 2020
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March 10, 2021 | Edited by AgentSapphire | Merge works |
May 17, 2020 | Created by Mek | Imported from Better World Books record |