About this item
Pulsing with drama and excitement, Infinitesimal celebrates the spirit of discovery,innovation, and intellectual achievement--and it will forever change the way you look at a simple line.On August 10, 1632, five men in flowing black robes convened in a somber Roman palazzo to pass judgment on a deceptively simple proposition: that a continuous line is composed of distinct and infinitely tiny parts. With the stroke of a pen the Jesuit fathers banned the doctrine of infinitesimals, announcing that it could never be taught or even mentioned. The concept was deemed dangerous and subversive, a threat to the belief that the world was an orderly place, governed by a strict and unchanging set of rules. If infinitesimals were ever accepted, the Jesuits feared, the entire world would be plunged into chaos.
About the Author
Amir Alexander is a writer, historian, and mathematician living in Los Angeles.
His latest book, Infinitesimal: How a Dangerous Mathematical Theory Shaped the Modern World, brings to life the fierce struggles surrounding the infinitely small in the 17th century. At stake, he shows, was not just a mathematical concept, but the shape of the modern world, its social hierarchies and political order. The book is coming out in April of 2014, and will also be published in the UK, Japan, Brazil, and Romania.
In his previous book, "Duel at Dawn" (2010) , he offered a look at three romantic young mathematicians - Galois, Abel, and Bolyai - and showed how their mathematical breakthroughs were inseparable from their short and tragic lives and from the legends that grew around them. Writing in the New Criterion, Martin Gardner called the book, "a marvelous history."
Amir's first book, "Geometrical Landscapes," showed how early mathematicians came to view their research as a heroic voyage of exploration, setting the stage for modern mathematics. Published in 2002, it was called "an exceptional, seminal work" by Choice magazine.
Amir has taught history, philosophy, and the history of science at Stanford and UCLA, served on the editorial board of the journal Isis, and published extensively in academic journals. He is a contributor to the New York Times' 'Science Times' section, and his many popular articles on space-related topics have been extremely successful with the general public and have been translated into more than a dozen languages.
