Ian Stewart

Ian Stewart presents a mix of games, puzzles, paradoxes, brainteasers and riddles. He mingles these with forays into ancient and modern mathematical thought, mathematical jokes and enquiries into the great mathematical challenges of the present and past.

There are some mathematical problems whose significance goes beyond the ordinary - like Fermat's Last Theorem or Goldbach's Conjecture - they are the enigmas which define mathematics. This book explains why these problems exist, why they matter, what drives mathematicians to incredible lengths to solve them and where they stand in the context of mathematics and science as a whole.

Ian Stewart's up-to-the-minute guide to the cosmos moves from the earth and the planets to the galaxy and the universe. He describes how galaxies, stars and planets form, why stars implode, how everything began, and how it's going to end. He considers parallel universes, fine-tuning of the cosmos, whether life on earth will be snuffed out by a comet, and what extra-terrestrial life may be like. He provides crystal clear accounts of gravity, spacetime,...

Ian Stewart explores the astonishing properties of numbers from one to ten to zero and infinity, including one figure that, if you wrote it out, would span the universe. He looks at every kind of number you can think of - real, imaginary, rational, irrational, positive and negative - along with several you might have thought you couldn't think of. He explains the insights of the ancient mathematicians, shows how numbers have evolved through the ages,...