The great mathematical problems: Marvels and Mysteries of Mathematics
Ian Stewart
Regularities of prime numbers and Fermat's theorem, Poincaré's hypothesis and Kepler's spherical symmetry, π enigma and orbital chaos in celestial mechanics. Many of us have only vaguely heard about the mysterious and incomprehensible mysteries of modern mathematics. Meanwhile, paradoxically, the fundamental goal of this science is to reveal the inner simplicity of the most complex issues. English mathematician and popularizer of science, Professor Ian Stewart, helps the reader overcome the psychological barrier. In a fascinating and accessible way, he talks about the most difficult problems over which the greatest minds have struggled and continue to struggle, about the origins of such problems, about why they are so important and what place they occupy in the general context of mathematics and natural sciences. This book is a guide to the amazing and mysterious world of numbers, theorems and hypotheses, to the cutting edge of mathematical science, which is trying to solve the problems set before it millennia ago with new methods.
