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Infinite Powers

How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe

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Infinite Powers

By: Steven Strogatz
Narrated by: Bob Souer
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About this listen

Without calculus, we wouldn't have cell phones, TV, GPS, or ultrasound. We wouldn't have unraveled DNA or discovered Neptune or figured out how to put 5,000 songs in your pocket.

Though many of us were scared away from this essential, engrossing subject in high school and college, Steven Strogatz's brilliantly creative, down-to-earth history shows that calculus is not about complexity; it's about simplicity. It harnesses an unreal number - infinity - to tackle real world problems, breaking them down into easier ones and then reassembling the answers into solutions that feel miraculous.

Infinite Powers recounts how calculus tantalized and thrilled its inventors, starting with its first glimmers in ancient Greece and bringing us right up to the discovery of gravitational waves. Strogatz reveals how this form of math rose to the challenges of each age: how to determine the area of a circle with only sand and a stick; how to explain why Mars goes "backwards" sometimes; how to turn the tide in the fight against AIDS.

As Strogatz proves, calculus is truly the language of the universe. By unveiling the principles of that language, Infinite Powers makes us marvel at the world anew.

©2019 Steven Strogatz (P)2019 Tantor Expeditions & Discoveries Mathematics World Solar System Math History
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Most relevant
best book ever loved it great for people who don't know alot àbout the subject

life changing

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Recommended for anyone with a basic to advanced knowledge of calculus. Well narrated with a descriptive story.

Great audiobook

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Excellent book, well narrated. Lots of anecdotes I haven't heard before, even with my keen interest in maths.
Just would have been great if a PDF was provided with a brief overview of the actual math sections involving math notation.
Steven Strogatz is an inspiring writer, I do recommend his other books as well.

inspiring

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The author did a great job in explaining this hard subject. It was clear even as an audio book, without seeing the written equations.

Managed to turn a heavy subject to a clear one

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It is truly an intellectual crime the way maths is taught in schools, and this, yet another great mathematics based story, so continually gripping in revealing how amazing our understanding of the universe and its workings is through the intellectual lens of maths, plus the fascinating odyssey humans and the star historical players have taken us on throughout history demonstrates how alive, engaging, enthralling and important mathematics truly is to humans, that our global education system fails to empart and provide the passion, knowledge and appreciation this subject deserves, makes it a crime of infinitely incalculable proportions!

Well done yet again Professor Strogatz, I am in complete awe at your work yet again, well done...

RE: "A Mathematicians Lament" -- has it so correct!!

And why school maths has it all wrong...

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good storyline for the why of calculus
plus the historical perspective
easy to stop and start without losing the plot

Excellent

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I found the story very interesting but my enjoyment was tempered by the robot that read it.

I would not listen to another audio book by this narrator.

Interesting story

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