Significant Figures: The Lives and Work of Great Mathematicians by Ian StewartMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I was looking for an entertaining digression on the lives of famous mathematicians. I got that, but I also got a history of their findings, with some basic attempts to explain these findings. While I followed along with understanding for a while, I lost it around the time the author got to 1900. I’d say this explanation was responsible for about a fifth of the book, so I spent more time than comfortable awash at sea. Part of my issue is that I am a visual learner, and having tackled this as an audiobook was probably not the best bet. The narrator gamely described non-Euclidean geometry problems, infinite series, and the like, but this part of the book was more miss than hit for me. I did enjoy what I came for, though, the lives of the mathematicians. As can be imagined, the ancients aren’t as knowable as the moderns (although their math is clearer). But overall, I found this a good book. I learned a little bit, and was entertained a little bit, and I appreciated the “mid level” review of concepts these men and women were working on.
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