Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Is Math Real?: How Simple Questions Lead Us to Mathematics' Deepest Truths

Is Math Real?: How Simple Questions Lead Us to Mathematics' Deepest Truths

Cheng, Eugenia

Paperback

General MathematicsHistory & Philosophy of Science

Publisher Price: $18.99

ISBN10: 154160671X
ISBN13: 9781541606715
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: Jan 7 2025
Pages: 336
Weight: 0.65
Height: 1.00 Width: 5.40 Depth: 8.20
Language: English

One of the world's most creative mathematicians offers a brilliant and mesmerizing (Popular Science) new way to look at math--focusing on questions, not answers

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and a New Scientist Best Book of the Year

Where do we learn math: From rules in a textbook? From logic and deduction? Not really, according to mathematician Eugenia Cheng: we learn it from human curiosity--most importantly, from asking questions. This may come as a surprise to those who think that math is about finding the one right answer, or those who were told that the dumb question they asked just proved they were bad at math. But Cheng shows why people who ask questions like Why does 1 + 1 = 2? are at the very heart of the search for mathematical truth.  

Is Math Real? is a much-needed repudiation of the rigid ways we're taught to do math, and a celebration of the true, curious spirit of the discipline. Written with intelligence and passion, Is Math Real? brings us math as we've never seen it before, revealing how profound insights can emerge from seemingly unlikely sources.   

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