Showing results by narrator "Eugenia Cheng" in All Categories

From imaginary numbers to the perplexing order of operations we all had drilled into us, Eugenia Cheng—mathematician, writer and woman on a mission to rid the world of maths phobia—brings us maths as we've never seen it before, revealing how profound insights can emerge from seemingly unlikely sources. Written with intelligence and passion, Is Maths Real? is a celebration of the true, curious spirit of the discipline.

At first glance, the concept of equality in maths seems unambiguous. When we see the equality sign, we think of 'solving for x' or balancing two sides of an equation or maybe even the many famous equations that make use of this elegant, innocuous symbol: =. But between those parallel lines lies a mathematical playground of choice and abstraction, leading to far greater insight than you could have dreamed.

Why the familiar equal sign isn’t just a marker of sameness but a gateway into math’s—and humanity’s—most profound questions Math is famous for its equations: 1 + 1 = 2, a2 + b2 = c2, or y = mx + b. Much of the time it can seem like that’s all mathematics is: following steps to show...