Word: livio
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...theory behind their calculations. The works of Plato, Euclid, and Newton, upon which all of modern science and commerce depend, are as much philosophical statements about the structure of the universe as they are mathematical treatises. In “Is God a Mathematician?” Mario Livio attempts to impress upon the reader this fundamental connection between math and philosophy while presenting a “greatest hits” summary of man’s foremost mathematical achievements...
...Livio concedes on his first page that the notion of God as a mathematician is “neither a philosophical attempt to define God… nor a shrewd scheme to intimidate math phobics.” Instead, Livio is trying to entice lay readers to crack open his book and appreciate the “omnipresence and omnipotent powers of mathematics.” Its focus is the impressive notion that “the same global, coherent mathematics” can be used by a wide variety of scientists, engineers, economists, and doctors to explain such seemingly...
...making over two millennia of high-level mathematical discoveries accessible to the reader who has never studied the more inscrutable and elaborate non-Euclidean geometry or knot theory. And it would seem that if anyone is primed for success in this difficult endeavor, it’s Livio, who is both an astrophysicist and the head of the Office of Public Outreach at the Hubble Space Telescope Institute. But while his approach is appealing to any curious reader, his inability to draw concrete conclusions is frustrating for even the most forgiving...
...Livio struggles to answer the fundamental question of whether mathematicians have “discovered” the universe’s laws or the laws of mathematics were “invented” by mathematicians. Reaching back to the sixth century B.C., Livio uses Pythagoras, Plato, and Archimedes to demonstrate that there is an intimate relationship between the most basic arithmetic and much more complicated and inaccessible abstract logic. Revelations abound, from the logical basis for counting, to the foundation of prime numbers, and the Pythagorean Theorem. But there are an equal number of instances where Livio?...
...occur soon or just as easily not--would release deadly gamma radiation, but the finely focused beam in which the rays travel means the danger is likely to pass us by. The fireworks, meanwhile, would be "the best star show in the history of modern civilization," says astronomer Mario Livio of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. But after many months, the light would flicker out, and Eta Carinae would be no more. [This article consists of a complex diagram. Please see hardcopy of magazine.] When Stars Die ? Our Sun ? Supernovas ? The Superstars