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Part of a four-volume set which presents the mathematician's collected works. This volume contains personal recollections and mathematical commentaries by Bott's students and colleagues, as well as two autobiographical sketches, depicting his childhood and his early years as a mathematician. ... Read more

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A novel about the extraordinary life of the 19th century French mathematican Evariste Galois, a prodigy who made fundamental discoveries at the age of 18, was imprisoned for his republican beliefs at 19, and who died at 20 in a mysterious early morning duel.Amazon.com Review
The French Mathematician is a fictional memoir ofEvariste Galois, the mathematical genius who made innovations inalgebra before his untimely death in 1832. Galois narrates the book,describing how he sought solace in "the order and certainty ofgeometry" during the social and political upheaval in France at thetime. The book chronicles his adolescence, his growth as amathematician, his political awakening, and his death in a duel. TomPetsinis teaches math at a university in Australia, and this is thefirst of his books to be published in the United States. The bareoutline of Petsinis's book is interesting, but unfortunately TheFrench Mathematician is somewhat overburdened with flowerylanguage and hallucinatory dream sequences. When Galois works hard ona math problem, he tends to fall into a reverie, like this: "My heartwas now beating faster than usual. No longer Evariste Galois, I amimpersonal, at one with the eternal mind responsible for mathematics,impelled forward to discover the mystery at the center of thelabyrinth.But just as the solution is within reach, I am distractedby the scent of chamomile." A scantily clad temptress interrupts theyoung genius's reverie during this hallucination and severalothers. Even though Galois struggles to separate himself from thedistractions of the material world, a love affair ultimately brings onhis demise.Evariste Galois was probably a fascinating, difficultperson, but the budding mathematician Petsinis describes in this bookis not a very likable or interesting character--he's a sort ofhumorless and bitter teen. --Jill Marquis ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

A Genius too advanced for his time
Reading the story told in 1st person about the tragic life of Galois, there were few persons who contributed to Galois's misfortune:

1. Cauchy whose selfishness to block Galois's papers 'intentionally';
2. Poisson whose ignorance caused Galois's total disappointment in academia, pushed him to the fire of revolution;
3. Ecole Polytechnique's CONCOURS Entrance Examiners who failed Galois for 2 years;
4. Ecole Normale Superieure Director who expelled Galois;
5. The Jesuit who caused his father's suicide;
6. The coquette french lady who used Galois to make her Fiancee jealous, which led to the fatal duel.

It is ironical that Ecole Normale Sup is now the highest Math institution in France, apologized for the mistake ofexpelling Galois only after 100 years.

'X' (Ecole Polytechnique's nick name) produced the Group Theory only 14 years after Galois's death.

One important person in Galois Math career was his teacher Louis Richard from Lycee Louis-le-Grand. 20 years later Richard produced another great mathematician Charles Hermite (proved e transcendental), whose German student Lindermann (proved pi transcendental) was the 'ancestor' of German Gottingen mathematicians. Funny thing was Hermite entered 'X' as last student, passed by a thin line, almost repeated Galois's failure- Hermite was asked to quit after 1 year in 'X' !

Conclusion: The Concours (Entrance Exams) could not detect Math genius ! Today the 'bloody' Concours still exits in France as fierce competition entering to the elite Grandes Ecoles (the prestigious 'X' still being the toughest). How many more young genius like Galois will the Concours be denying outside the wall of Math ?

A bit wild for me
I'm going to tell you like it is:

I went in with the information given by ET Bell when reading about this curious character and came out of this book wondering what the hell? I looked on the back of the book - fiction. Thank God. Founding a religion on X? I had to check because some people are actually that crazy.

Tom runs wild with imagination with Evariste Galois. It's a nice story for the most part, but there are some parts in this book where you just sit and wonder if Petsinis was bored, drunk, or a combination of the two when writing some of the stuff in the book.

Galois, the man --
-- but almost nothing of Galois the mathematician.

Galois founded a branch of math that still bears his name, the study of Galois fields. They're in use everywhere today, from the nearest cell phone or DVD to the most distant interplanetary probe. But the book barely mentions his mathematical achievements and certainly doesn't describe them, so let's move along.

Galois himself has all the makings of a great romantic figure. It's a matter of historical fact that was mathematical prodigy, with important work published during his short life. It's also true that he died in a duel at age 21, after spending his final night organizing his mathematical notes for posterity. That, plus simply living through a time of intense political upheaval, let alone being involved in it, makes him a character quite able to capture the imagination. Petsinis' imagination has been quite completely captivated.

If anything, there may be a bit too much imagination in this rendering of Galois' life. It's told in the first person, from Galois' own point of view, for which historical justification is thin at best. With so little fact at hand, Petsinis has created a wildly emotional character. In this presentation, Galois seemed quite incapable of moderation in any feeling, driven continually between white-hot intensity and blackest depression. Every page seemed to sizzle with overheated passion for math, for his politics, for his family, or for what he had for breakfast - I was tempted to set an ice pack on the book more than once.

Given all that was obviously fabricated in the cause of a good story, I'm not sure how much to trust any of the other facts that might have historical reality. How much was his mathematical career actually affected by perceptions of his politics? The paranoid view here suggests that the mathematical establishment conspired to create a wall of silence around the firebrand's work during his lifetime. On the whole, inertia and absent-mindedness look like equally good explanations.

I find this a fair (if wildly expressive) novel, a questionable biography, and a disappointing tribute to the mathematician and his mathematical achievements. It is very tempting to romanticize Galois the man, and Petsinis has fallen completely for that temptation.

//wiredweird

Unsympathetic protagonist, but a well-done novel
This fictionalized account of mathematician Evariste Galois's life ushers us directly and intimately into the mind of one whose discoveries continue to influence present-day nuclear physics and genetic engineering.

Having had his early education at home under the tutelage of his literary-minded mother, fifteen-year-old Evariste Galois is sent to Paris to complete his education.A sensitive, arrogant genius, he detests the school, the teachers, and all the other students.Then he is exposed to mathematics for the first time and knows he has found that thing that so few of us ever do: his calling.To Evariste, mathematics is its own reward, a refuge of logic in a chaotic world.It is the key to unlock the secrets of the universe.It is a new and superior religion.He vows he will be the first to solve the quintic, a complex equation that has confounded many great minds.

There are obstacles in his path to this goal.First, he must struggle to suppress his own emerging sexuality.Then, there are the schoolmates who continually goad and harass him to join their Republican groups.Less easily ignored are the grievous social inequities and turmoil surrounding him.When his father dies, an alleged suicide, Evariste at last begins to question his singular devotion to mathematics.

Evariste tells his own story, addressing himself to an imaginary biographer who shadows him throughout the book, experiencing events as he does, all in present tense.While this type of narration can be off-putting, Petsinis utilizes it respectably and often with great drama.He adeptly conveys to the reader information that the self-absorbed and oblivious protagonist himself misses.Petsinis's prose is rich with original and evocative metaphors and similes, and his flair for verb choice gives the story a distinctively realistic feel.

Egotistical and insolent, Evariste is difficult to like at the outset.Yet the reader soon glimpses the fragile and idealistic heart of an insecure young man possessed of remarkable mental gifts.As the story unfolds, the reader comes to understand the noble soul of Evariste Galois -- his consuming desire to give his life to a meaningful cause and to attain immortality through his work.

Genius distracted
There are many types of genius - obscure genius like that of the mathematician Ramanujan which defies analysis, persistent genius like JS Bach who produced an endless stream of inspired work through his long life, blocked genius like that of Einstein who produced a work of unquestionable genius but then - despite his qualities of innovation and analysis - was unable to progress with his next major theory through a significant period of his life (of course, no-one else has yet managed to achieve what he attempted).And the absent-minded professor is such an archetype.But Galois - the subject of this novel - shows himself to be the distracted genius.What could he have achieved if he had been supported properly by his peers - mentored as Ramanujan was?What might he have achieved if he had lived in a more stable political environment?

I enjoyed this novel although at times I thought it was a little long for the story it was telling.And Galois was depicted as such an unattractive self-assured but doubting person. I particularly didn't like his attitude towards people - especially women - as portrayed in the novel, anyway.It seemed that the negative in human behaviour had such a powerful influence that the positive - and surely he must have encountered some - was swept aside.But that would lead to, say, never eating an orange because one day one came across a bad one.

But I do have a philosophical objection to what this novel is - or isn't.Although I was attracted to the idea of dramatising the life of a mathematician because I believe it is imperative that we overcome the cultural acceptance of an inability to do mathematics - even a pride in not being asble to do mathematics - that seems to be all around me.And one step in this direction is to put people back into the subject.Who were Cauchy and Poisson whose names are attached to theorems and processes - and all the others so named.Cauchy and Poisson I mention because they are minor characters in 'The French Mathematician', and I hope Mr Petsinis has not done them an injustice with the bad press he has given them.

In 2000 I attended a seminar in Orlando, Florida.My wife and I took our two young boys (aged 4 and 6) with us so that they could experience some of the States, including, of course, Disneyland and Universal Studios. But later, when we reached NASA, we had to try and assure tham that this was real - not just another theme park.And then NASA undid the good work by showing a 3D movie of life in a space station - in the next century.Reality was confused with make believe again.What does this have to do with 'The French Mathemtician'?Well, it seems to me that the historic novel as this is - it is not history, a biography - is rather like a theme park.It does have elements of the real but these are so buried in the author's imagining that it becomes difficult to determine what is reality, how close the imagining comes to the way things really were.I enjoyed reading Mr Petsinis' realisation of the life of Galois and I hope I have a proper perspective on the man's life, and the times he lived in, but I do have doubts.

One word of advice for people who might read this novel hoping to also get some insights into Evariste Galois's mathematics - there is no mathematics in this novel. ... Read more

Product Description
From America's wittiest writer on mathematics, a lively and insightful book on the workings of stock markets and the basic irrationality of our dreams of wealth.

Can a renowned mathematician successfully outwit the stock market? Not when his biggest investment is WorldCom.

In A Mathematician Plays the Stock Market, best-selling author John Allen Paulos employs his trademark stories, vignettes, paradoxes, and puzzles to address every thinking reader's curiosity about the market-Is it efficient? Is it random? Is there anything to technical analysis, fundamental analysis, and other supposedly time-tested methods of picking stocks? How can one quantify risk? What are the most common scams? Are there any approaches to investing that truly outperform the major indexes?

But Paulos's tour through the irrational exuberance of market mathematics doesn't end there. An unrequited (and financially disastrous) love affair with WorldCom leads Paulos to question some cherished ideas of personal finance. He explains why "data mining" often leads to self-fulfilling beliefs, why "momentum investing" is nothing more than herd behavior with a lot of mathematical jargon added, why the ever-popular Elliot Wave Theory cannot be correct, and why you should take Warren Buffet's "fundamental analysis" with a grain of salt.

Like Burton Malkiel's A Random Walk Down Wall Street, this clever and illuminating book is for anyone, investor or not, who follows the markets-or knows someone who does. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (86)

A technical analysis bias
The book touches many aspects of the stock trading and the author show it by referring to his own experience of loosing money in WCOM during the 2000 crash. He shows the deceptiveness of the media, chatrooms, technical analysis, fundamental analysis and the common fallacies of the masses. But the author being a mathematician tries to find any mathematical correlation with stock market reality. The author agrees that there is more to stock market then the random walk theory and efficient market hypothesis. Though each of these theories have their partial truths and moments when they can be applied, exact timing of which hypothesis will work in the future is impossible to be certain of.

It is a fine book but i found that he as underestimated the technical analysis. Indicators such as the volume of stock traded can show the starting of a pattern of upward movement or downward in technical analysis. It has been nicely explained in Secrets for profitting in bull and bear markets by Stan weinstein. This book that i mention has gotten less attention as i would like but it shows how volume and 30 day average can really show the tread for atleast a couple of months.

I also found that there are select periods of stock growth that make the major moves in stock markets either upward or downwards. These are the periods when people really make money or loose everything. And it is during these times of collapse or exuberance that one needs to know what to do and one also needs to when to
ride with the boat of mass hysteria and when to get off the boat and go against the mass opinion.(shorting)

Over all from the mathematical point of view the author agrees that though math as a science is accurate its application to stock movements cannot be accurate. It can happen sometimes but not always. There are too many forces in play in the stock market. It is a chaos but during certain periods the mass psychology moves in certain directions such as the uptrends and downtrends. The downtrend of the recent collapse of the stock market( 2008) the DOW reached 6500from 14000 and the uptrend of 2009 the DOW came back to 10500. These are the major movements when real profits or losses incur. And it is during this time that technical analysis and knowledge of trend following and indicators is useful. Even otherwise volume indicator is in my opinion a very useful tool in technical analysis and trend following and also the 30 day average as mentioned in Stan's book.

The back logic is to identify these trends and use it for our advantage. Everything in the market cannot be understood because it depends a lot of factors some rational some irrational.

Overall its a good book to read to know the basics of the current theories and speculations in stock market.
It may help the beginner to understand the forces in play and a precaution before losing one's shirt.

Don't marry this book
This book is boring, dull, and useless.Frankly I'm surprised that any reviews discuss the writers' sense of humor as "witty"; "feeble" is more apt.He dazzles the reader with plenty of mathematical theories on game theory and such, and with various academic theories on stock prices, but ultimately his long term holding of a stock that was declining, Worldcom, shows his lack of understanding of the simplest rule for not losing money --- don't marry a stock.He has nothing valuable to say about stocks, no new insight, nothing that has not been said before.Don't marry this book.

Informative and Humorous
This book is excellent. Part mathematics, part common sense and humor. The author explains many ideas and concepts in simple and understandable language. Good for non-finance people and younger students learning about math and the stock market. Enjoyable

Another Random Book
If you like math games and paradoxes this is a fun book. Unfortunately it claims to be about the market and, like every math and physics guy's book about the market it claims that stock movements are completely random.Of course, that is because all of these people insist on using selection criteria that tells them nothing about the stock they are buying.Most bought during the bubble, lost money and therefore the market must be random or they -- smart people that they are -- would have figured it out.They never seem to have thought about what business their company was in or looked at things like long term earnings and dividend payments.They obsess with prices or simply buy stocks at random from tips.HINT:If a company makes and sells things you can check on like cheese or refrigerators and has been paying dividends steadily they MUST be making money.Following numbers only like P/e ratios, price etc can be like picking your dates by their phone numbers.Instead, actually go look at them. Same with stocks. Stick with what you can see and looks good and stay away from ones that smell bad.

Well written, witty
I enjoyed reading this book.The information was presented in a way that the non-mathematically inclined person can understand. ... Read more

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In the 17th century, the small but culturally and intellectually eminent city of Basel was the home of one of the most prominent mathematical families of all time, the Bernoullis, and their friend, protege, and master Leonhard Euler. The author chronicles their lives and achievements at a time when modern analysis and its applications to physics burst on the scene and created a methodological framework for modern science. Written for young adults, this book conveys the excitement of a scientific culture that impacts our life to this day and will serve as an inspiration to gifted young people to devote their lives to scientific pursuits. ... Read more

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Professor Walter Ledermann is one of the great algebraists of the twentieth century. His memoirs begin with life in pre-war Germany, the murder of several members of his family, and of the joy he found in mathematics and music. As the story of his remarkable life unfolds, we are entranced by tales of Scotland during the war and of academic life in Manchester and Sussex. His memoirs contain numerous entertaining, and often hilarious anecdotes of his encounters with famous mathematicians and physicists, such as Issai Schur, Heinz Hopf, Max Plank, Erwin Schroedinger, Edmund Whittaker, Alec Aitkin, Max Born and Alan Turing. ... Read more

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John von Neumann and Norbert Wiener were mathematician-scientists, both child prodigies born near the turn of the century. As young men each made profound contributions to abstract mathematics. ... Read more

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Evariste Galois' short life was lived against the turbulent background of the restoration of the Bourbons to the throne of France, the 1830 revolution in Paris and the accession of Louis-Phillipe. This new and scrupulously researched biography of the founder of modern algebra sheds much light on a life led with great intensity and a death met tragically under dark circumstances. Sorting speculation from documented fact, it offers the fullest and most exacting account ever written of Galois' life and work. It took more than seventy years to fully understand the French mathematician's first mémoire (published in 1846) which formulated the famous "Galois theory" concerning the solvability of algebraic equations by radicals, from which group theory would follow. Obscurities in his other writings - mémoires and numerous fragments of extant papers - persist and his ideas challenge mathematicians to this day. Thus scholars will welcome those chapters devoted specifically to explicating all aspects of Galois' work. A comprehensive bibliography enumerates studies by and also those about the mathematician. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An excellent and enjoyable account...
of one of the strangest chapters in the history of mathematics. For those who know of Galois' life only from E.T.Bell's telling this work will hold surprises and serve to part his overly romantic fog with the clear light ofsolid scholarship. ... Read more

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This explorative insight into the life and legacy of the famous Polish mathematician reveals his background and focuses on current research inspired by Stanislaw's vision. The text includes two pieces written by Stanislaw and personal conversations on John von Newmann and Paul Erdos. ... Read more

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The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Virginia; Zanthoxylum clava-herculis; Biography ... Read more

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The autobiography of mathematician Stanislaw Ulam, one of the great scientific minds of the twentieth century, tells a story rich with amazingly prophetic speculations and peppered with lively anecdotes. As a member of the Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1944 on, Ulam helped to precipitate some of the most dramatic changes of the postwar world. He was among the first to use and advocate computers for scientific research, originated ideas for the nuclear propulsion of space vehicles, and made fundamental contributions to many of today's most challenging mathematical projects.With his wide-ranging interests, Ulam never emphasized the importance of his contributions to the research that resulted in the hydrogen bomb. Now Daniel Hirsch and William Mathews reveal the true story of Ulam's pivotal role in the making of the "Super," in their historical introduction to this behind-the-scenes look at the minds and ideas that ushered in the nuclear age. An epilogue by Franoise Ulam and Jan Mycielski sheds new light on Ulam's character and mathematical originality. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Great autobiography remembered years later
I read this in 1982 or 83; now it's 2010.That's plenty of time to forget many books and their content, and I'm a heavy reader, but this one stands out especially in my memory, even though the details have faded.Among autobiographies and memoirs of scientists, this was outstanding.The inside look at how mathematicians think was helpful to me as a grad student later on.

Wonderful Book
Ulam was a brilliant mathematician whose work had a powerful influence far beyond the development of nuclear weapons. He had a front-row seat to the Manhattan project, where his mathematics played a major role. Later, he was co-leader, along with the much better known Edward Teller, of the design of the first thermonuclear weapon. Hans Bethe called him the father of the H-bomb.

It may seem odd to say of someone who was instrumental in inventing weapons of mass destruction, but what comes across strongly in Ulam's memoir is his zest for life and his humanity. When recounting the development of the atom bomb, Ulam does not come across as having a political or ideological axe to grind, unlike so many who write on these topics. To my thinking, this gives his account more weight.

This book is for anyone interested in the history of the Manhattan Project, the effort to develop the H-bomb, and the personalities involved in these endeavors. Even if you aren't, it is an entertaining read.

Confessions of a math fashion-victim
Confessions of a math fashion-victim

Towards the end of his celebrated autobiography that was published in 1976, mathematician Stanislaw Ulam makes a striking remark about the way mathematics is presented:

'This was more agreeable than the present style of the research papers or books which have so much symbolism and formulae on every page. I am turned off when I see only formulas and symbols, and little text. It is too laborious for me to look at such pages not knowing what to concentrate on. I wonder how many other mathematicians really read them in detail and enjoy them.'

To wit, these are the words of someone who really has enjoyed mathematics and has been engaged in the highest ranks of the subject for almost all of his life.

For me this is quite a relevant statement, since I started studying mathematics at the University of Leiden (The Netherlands) in the year 1975. And for me it was like Ulam describes. Lectures in mathematics almost entirely involved the stating of theorems and the subsequent proofing of them. Little was said about the meaning of what was proofed, why it would be interesting, or even what the essential idea of a proof was; most of the time no background or context of any kind was given. A semester of Lebesgue integration theory was given without even referring to the problems that had arisen with more basic forms of integration like the Riemann-Stieltjes Integral. It made a lot of the matter less exiting than it could have been. And to be honest, most of the proofs stayed quite unintelligible: one could follow the details but kept missing the big picture.

The point however is, that it only now becomes clear to me that I have been a fashion victim, that what I perceived as the way mathematics was done period, was only a relatively new style of writing and teaching, a fashion that had been en vogue for only a few decades yet.

This reflection of Stanislaw Ulam is confirmed by Davis & Hersh in their 1981 book The Mathematical Experience. In a section on the philosophy of mathematics they remark:

'The formalist style gradually penetrated downward into undergraduate mathematics teaching and, finally, in the name of the new math, even invaded kindergarten'. (p.344)

And they continue with the observation that the formalist style might have had its longest time. Actually I am not sure that such a thing will happen. At least some of the formalism seems to me related to a certain machismo between mathematicians; the shorter and the less intuitive the proof, the better the mathematician.

In their section on Teaching and Learning Math, Davis & Hersh give an example of the contrast between a short formal proof and a more elaborate and a more intuitive one. It is about the 'two-pancake problem', the problem of cutting two pancakes in halves by cutting only once in a straight line. And the pancakes are not on top of each other. The example of the two-pancake problem is put in the context of the contrast between what is called 'the logic of scientific discovery' and that of 'the logic of scientific justification'. The latter being a streamlined version of the former, a logically tight presentation with all hurdles and frustrations left out. It is a linear 'success only' story, told in a highly stylized language, ideally that of formal logic.

Now such a linear success story has only one goal, and that is to bring home the message of success. Formal proofs do that, but with the same price paid as with other success stories: because of the lack of drama it is difficult to get engaged by them and the insights that the storyteller gained in his struggles are not the focal point of the story, only the message of success is.

So I think there is something to say for a math education (if not math itself) where insights from storytelling are used to bring home the insights of the great mathematicians.

math autobiography and atomic bomb history
this is one of the few books i've read twice. i'm fascinated by brilliant minds like ulam, oppenheimer, feynman, and von neumann. it's one of the best science biographies/autobiographies and is very easy to read. lots of time is spent on the atomic and hydrogen bomb projects and the great minds/peculiar personalities involved. it's been 15 years since i read it, but now that i've found it again, i'll reacquaint myself with these great and interesting minds. it's not a math book by any means, but a book about brilliant men that do math. they definitely listen to a different drummer.

An examined life
Before I start, let me say that, for me at least, this is one of the most fascinating and entertaining books I've ever read.But I'm a special case, as you'll see...

Stan Ulam was head of the math department at U. of Colo., Boulder, where I was a doctoral candidate circa 1970.I hardly knew him to speak to, but heard about his participation in the Manhattan Project, and that many of those connected with it considered him to be the "father of the H-bomb" rather than Edward Teller.Having already been put off by the dryness and lack of application of a great deal of the math I'd studied, I was intrigued on hearing that a pure mathematician could have played such a central part in that effort.That, and the book's title, convinced me to buy it, even though I was an impoverished grad student.

There are many reasons why I love this story, but I think foremost is the picture of a gregarious, open, and sometimes mischievous man who was also bright enough to hold his own with the leading scientific minds of the 20th century.The sketches of the many famous people he worked with are priceless -- for example, Enrico Fermi, Richard Feynman, George Gamov.And especially John von Neumann, possibly the most brilliant mathematician of that time, certainly the most diverse and prolific (he practically invented the computer industry that I now work in).Having tried to read his work on game theory, it's especially comforting to me to hear Ulam refer to him as "Johnny".

My struggles with some of the math mentioned in the book give it special meaning to me, but this is not a technical book at all, and I hope that aspect won't be off-putting to non-mathematicians.Ulam was simply trying to give an honest picture, through the lens of his own experiences and friendships, of how people become mathematicians, of how essential group efforts are to progress in science and math, and of the staggering accomplishments that can result when people push the limits of thought.This book is about history and humankind, by one of the brightest and most thoughtful individuals who ever lived. ... Read more