Overview

"Do you want to learn about the most beautiful concept ever invented by humankind? In this book, best-selling author and mathematician Haim Shapira will inspire you with his humorous and engaging exploration of infinity.Written in clear, simple language and aimed at a lay audience, this book also offers some strategies that will allow readers to try their ability at solving truly fascinating mathematical problems. Infinity is a deeply counter-intuitive concept that has inspired many great thinkers. In this book we will meet many sages, both familiar and unfamiliar: Zeno and Pythagoras, Georg Cantor and Bertrand Russell, Sofia Kovalevskaya and Emmy Noether, al-Khwarizmi and Euclid, Sophie Germain and Srinivasa Ramanujan. The world of infinity is inhabited by many paradoxes, and so is this book: Zeno paradoxes, Hilbert's ""Infinity Hotel"", Achilles and the gods paradox, the paradox of heaven and hell, the Ross-Littlewood paradox involving tennis balls, the Galileo paradox and many more.Aimed at the curious but non-technical reader, this book refrains from using any fearsome mathematical symbols. It uses only the most basic operations of mathematics: adding, subtracting, multiplication, division, powers and roots - that is all. But that doesn't mean that a bit of deep thinking won't be necessary and rewarding. Writing with humour and lightness of touch, Haim Shapira banishes the chalky pallor of the schoolroom and offers instead a truly thrilling intellectual journey.Fasten your seatbelt - we are going to Infinity, and beyond!"

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9781786781840

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Haim Shapira was born in Lithuania in 1962 and immigrated toIsrael in 1977, where he earned a PhD in mathematical genetics for hisdissertation on Games Theory and another PhD for his research about themathematical and philosophical approaches to Infinity. He teaches mathematics,psychology, philosophy, and literature. Haim is an author of seven best-sellingbooks. Shapira is not trying to makehis readers agree with him, but simply encourages them to enjoy thinking. He isone of Israel's most popular andin-demand speakers and giveslectures on creativity and strategic thinking, existential philosophy andphilosophy in children's literature, happiness and optimism, nonsense andinsanity, imagination and the meaning of meaning, as well as friendship andlove. He is also an accomplished pianist and an avid collector of anythingbeautiful.

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