Euclid in the Rainforest : Discovering Universal Truth in Logic and Math

Rating:
Summary: A beautiful and inspiring reading
Review: It is a rare occasion one happens upon such a beautiful and inspiring book. It's a work of art - as anyone who has ever tried to write anything from a simple essay, to a scientific paper - could tell you. This book is an amazing piece of writing, in which rigorous mathematical deduction and poetry dance together in perfect harmony.

I've never been to the Venezuelan rainforest, but mathematician Joseph Mazur made me feel as if I had taken an expedition up the Orinoco River in a hot 1960 summer. I have never been to Paris either, but I felt as if I was in Café Luxembourg while a famous professor explains a proof to a young American thirsty for knowledge.

The young American (young Dr Mazur) is the reason I loved this book, because his adventures and discoveries are so fascinating and true. Not only does he make me see what he sees (ah, all those wonderful places!), he also makes me feel and get excited about the same things he feels. There is much more going on than just trips all over the globe, and he tells you all about it.

Young Joseph Mazur and his friends travel and have a lot of fun while pondering mathematical theoretical questions and discovering the truth all around them. Every trip is an initiation into another chapter of history of mathematics, whether it is trigonometry, geometry, set theory or probability.

Euclid in the Rainforest is filled with interesting characters like Zeno, Achilles, Riemann, Cantor, and Dr. Mazur makes them all seem as real as the people in your hometown. Every time you meet on one of these characters you discover something new, they all teach something about logic, infinity and reality.

This book reminds me of a Bildungsroman, a journey of learning and self discovery, and yet you get the feeling that all that could happen today, it could very well be your own story:
"...anyone who loves to bring nature and humanity closer together will remain a logician of sorts; an observer who can deduct answers; a mathematician who can handle infinity; a scientist who can accept chance. A Euclid in the rain forest ".

Rating:
Summary: An awesome rainbow of understanding!
Review: This book is an utter joy to read. Mazur gently leads the reader into mathematics through delightful adventure stories. I confess that I bought the book for its cover after reading the accolades on the back jacket, something I rarely do; but how could anyone refuse such an interesting title? Just read the first few pages and you are in for a whirl of a ride through rainforests of wonderfully explained math, made easy by Mazur's gentle approach. This is a unique book-one that is poetically written with a constant reminder that math is everywhere. Open it anywhere and jump in for a delightful ride. The journey gets a bit bumpy somewhere near chapter 5, but if you hold on tight, the jaunt is worth it, for it comes out at a clearing under the awesome rainbows of understanding and delightful colors of literary satisfaction.

Rating:
Summary: The elegence of mathematics.
Review: This book might as well be called Love Stories about Mathematics. As as example, in the first few pages he is talking about a stranded truck in the Venezuelan jungle. How strong a winch do you need to pull the two ton truck up the hill? When you are pushing on the truck while being eaten by bugs, I don't know I'd think much about the simple trig problem. Or, in a horse race, from how far behind can a horse catch and pass the leading horse?

Dr. Mazur loves mathematics, math for itself, math just for its elegance. And he brings it across in this book. I can remember in my own math studies when I first got to differential calculus. It was like new worlds opening. It was like what other people tell me about the first time they heard Beethoven's Fifth.

What I could never have done was bring out the excitement, the fascination, the love that Dr. Mazur does in this book.