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    The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved: How Mathematical Genius Discovered the Language of Symmetry
    The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved: How Mathematical Genius Discovered the Language of Symmetry
    The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved: How Mathematical Genius Discovered the Language of Symmetry
    Audiobook11 hours

    The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved: How Mathematical Genius Discovered the Language of Symmetry

    Written by Mario Livio

    Narrated by Tom Parks

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    What do Bach's compositions, Rubik's Cube, the way we choose our mates, and the physics of subatomic particles have in common? All are governed by the laws of symmetry, which elegantly unify scientific and artistic principles. Yet the mathematical language of symmetry—known as group theory—did not emerge from the study of symmetry at all, but from an equation that couldn't be solved.

    For thousands of years mathematicians solved progressively more difficult algebraic equations, until they encountered the quintic equation, which resisted solution for three centuries. Working independently, two great prodigies ultimately proved that the quintic cannot be solved by a simple formula. These geniuses, a Norwegian named Niels Henrik Abel and a romantic Frenchman named Évariste Galois, both died tragically young. Their incredible labor, however, produced the origins of group theory.

    The first extensive, popular account of the mathematics of symmetry and order, The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved is told not through abstract formulas but in a beautifully written and dramatic account of the lives and work of some of the greatest and most intriguing mathematicians in history.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateNov 6, 2018
    ISBN9781543656220
    Author

    Mario Livio

    Mario Livio is an internationally known astrophysicist, a bestselling author, and a popular speaker who has appeared on The Daily Show, 60 Minutes, and NOVA. He is the author of the bestsellers The Golden Ratio, Brilliant Blunders, and Galileo. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

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    Reviews for The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved

    3.5/5

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    • 4/5
      While the concept of symmetry is fascinating I think that it's application to particle physics may be like applying circles to planetary motions. Nature just isn't symmetric. This book includes a great history of the mathematics of Group Theory.
    • 1/5
      This book would make a good biography of Abel and Galois but is really a book about maths and not a maths book (if you can see the distinction). We get the intimate details of the two mathematicians' lives but their actual discoveries seem to be an addendum to the book as a whole. If you want a popular history and have a basic mathematical knowledge this is for you but I wouldn't recommend it if you want to exit the process knowing something about Galois theory.
    • 4/5
      In Chapter One, Mario Livio promises to open our eyes to the magic of symmetry through the language of mathematics. To do so, he first acquaints us with group theory of modern algebra. A group is any collection of elements (they need not be numbers) that have the properties of (1) closure, (2) associativity, (3) an identity element, and (4) an inverse operation. The fact that this simple definition leads to a theory that unifies all symmetries amazes even mathematicians. Livio give us a little of the history of algebra, beginning with the ancient Greeks and Hindus, who solved the general quadratic. The story of the solution of the general cubic is a fascinating one involving allegations of cheating and libel among 16th century Italian mathematicians. Moreover, the solution required the invention of imaginary numbers. Once the cubic was solved, the solution or the quadratic quickly followed, but the quintic remained a mystery. Even Euler and Gauss were stumped by the quintic, and they began to think the problem was insoluble. In fact, the work of two very young mathematicians, Niels Henrik Abel and Evariste Galois, proved that there could be no general solution to the general form of the quintic equation. The solution proved to be a surprise in that it depended on the relations among the coefficients of the variables. Only those quintics with a proper symmetry among the coefficients can be solved by purely algebraic operations. Livio does not actually show why the previous statement is true, probably because it requires real math. Nevertheless, the conclusion is pretty startling even to a math tyro like me. The book gets a bit bogged down in its biographical sections, devoting more time to Galois’s life than I found interesting. Nevertheless, it is worth reading.(JAB)
    • 3/5
      I read picked this book because I have since my early algebra days been interested in the quintic (e.g. x^5 + 2x^4 + … + 1). It presented a very good explanation of the history that led up to its ultimate proof that it’s impossible to solve in the general case using standard arithmetic operators and extraction of roots. Although it covered that well, it kind of went off on many tangents to fields that sort of had to do with symmetry. Perhaps I should have got a book focused more — but all around it was interesting.
    • 4/5
      First 5 chapters give a general history of mathematics centered around the solution to the quintic. It took a proof based on group theory to show it couldn’t be solved using basic operations. In depth focus on Abel and Galois. Chapters 6-8 much more interesting and includes a nice discussion of groups and symmetry in quantum physics. Some quotes:"The theory of groups is a branch of mathematics in which one does something to something and then compares the result with the result obtained from doing the same thing to something else, or something else to the same thing." Pg. 180 (actually quoting James R. Newman)"The unexpected link between permutations and icosahedral rotations allowed Klein to weave a magnificent tapestry in which the quintic equation, rotation groups, and elliptic functions were all interwoven." – pg. 197"Simple groups are the basic building blocks of group theory in the same sense that prime numbers are the building blocks of all the integer numbers" – pg. 224