Infinite Powers
How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe
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Infinite Powers
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Narrated by:
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Bob Souer
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By:
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Steven Strogatz
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 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about Infinite Powers
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- noname
- 27-10-21
Beautiful and profound.
Strogatz' delicate and thoughtful storytelling brings the reader on an amazing journey. Please read this book!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Redd
- 22-01-22
Detailed and Fascinating
One of the best popular science books I have read, does not assume the reader is uneducated and explained many results. Incredible!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- astro_bard
- 09-09-21
Now I need to learn the calculus properly!
Very inspiring book! Can give you some idea about the variety of practical uses of calculus. Sounds like the one of most powerful mental models out there!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Eleanor
- 14-12-21
Brilliant!
This has really made me feel more confident with maths. I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 20-11-22
Difficult to follow as an Audible book
Struggled to envisualise all the triangles, slices through parabolas, etc in the early chapters. Bought the book and found the subject matter easier to follow with a few diagrams so that I could absorb it at my own pace! Not sure why I bought the Audible version.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Erich Graf
- 25-10-21
Incomplete audiobook
This is a frustrating audiobook… The original has been very lazily made into an audiobook, without providing the figures and tables that it relies on. The narrator says things ‘like look at the numbers in the left column’! Other audiobooks provide information from figures/tables in a PDF.
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3 people found this helpful