Details
Symmetry and the Monster
One of the greatest quests of mathematics
14,99 € |
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Verlag: | OUP Oxford |
Format: | |
Veröffentl.: | 18.05.2006 |
ISBN/EAN: | 9780191517662 |
Sprache: | englisch |
Anzahl Seiten: | 272 |
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Beschreibungen
Imagine a giant snowflake in 196,884 dimensions... This is the story of a mathematical quest that began two hundred years ago in revolutionary France, led to the biggest collaboration ever between mathematicians across the world, and revealed the 'Monster' - not monstrous at all, but a structure of exquisite beauty and complexity. Told here for the first time in accessible prose, it is a story that involves brilliant yet tragic characters, curious number 'coincidences' that led to breakthroughs in the mathematics of symmetry, and strangecrystals that reach into many dimensions. And it is a story that is not yet over, for we have yet to understand the deep significance of the Monster - and its tantalizing hints of connections with the physical structure of spacetime. Once we understand the full nature of the Monster, we may well haverevealed a whole new and deeper understanding of the nature of our Universe.