Recensioni

A MATHEMATICIAN'S APOLOGY

by Godfrey Hardy

This is the only book with Maths as central theme that I can suggest the reading of. The author entwines very well Math with other, and more general reflections about man and his choices. In this book Hardy analyzes the reason why someone decides to become a mathematician. Obviously not because of the useful aspect of it, judged useless through the book, but for two human characteristics: ambition and tendency. Starting from the statement that it's hard to have more than one predisposition, he stresses the fact that it would be such a pity if someone inclined to Math did something that doesn't involve the complete use of his own gift the best way possible. Then, following his gift, may he be a mathematician.

Brando Bigliardi 4BLscBase A.S. 2013/2014

THE IMPOSSIBLE EQUATION

by Mario Livio

What can palindromes, the animal kingdom, esthetics, music, the Theory of Relativity and the subatomic world have in common? The symmetry. "Symmetry is placed at the crossroads among science, art, and perceptive psychology". And not only this: "Symmetry is one of the most important tools to decode nature's pattern". And what is the ultimate language, beyond every ambit, with whom we can describe this symmetry? The theory of the groups, introduced by the 20-years-old mathematician Galois, while he was looking for a formula for the solution of an "impossible" equation. Mario Livio upholds this thesis in a tale that entwines not only the stories of famous mathematicians, like Galois, the romantic mathematician, and Abel, the poor mathematician, but also curiosity and incursions in the Physics', Biology's and Anthropology's world. It's a book for who is already in love with Math, that can charm even patient readers, intrigued by a discipline where arise ideas, just at first cold, conceived by people that live their emotion through and through.

Teacher Valentina Fabbro