Reviews

"[A] lively history. . . . A must for math buffs."--Kirkus Reviews

"An amazing book! Hugely enjoyable. Du Sautoy provides a stunning journey into the wonderful world of primes."--Oliver Sacks

"Exceptional. ... A book that will draw readers normally indifferent to the subject deep into the adventure of mathematics."--Booklist (starred review)

"Fascinating."--Washington Post Book World

"No matter what your mathematical IQ, you will enjoy reading The Music of the Primes."--Keith Devlin, Stanford University, author of The Millennium Problems: The Seven Greatest Unsolved Mathematical Puzzles of Our Time

"This fascinating account, decoding the inscrutable language of the mathematical priesthood, is written like the purest poetry."--Simon Winchester, author of The Professor and the Madman

"This is a wonderful book about one of the greatest remaining mysteries in mathematics."--Amir Aczel, author of Fermat's Last Theorem and The Riddle of the Compass

[A] lively history. . . . A must for math buffs. --Kirkus Reviews

An amazing book! Hugely enjoyable. Du Sautoy provides a stunning journey into the wonderful world of primes. --Oliver Sacks

Exceptional. ... A book that will draw readers normally indifferent to the subject deep into the adventure of mathematics. --Booklist (starred review)

Fascinating. --Washington Post Book World

No matter what your mathematical IQ, you will enjoy reading The Music of the Primes. --Keith Devlin, Stanford University, author of The Millennium Problems: The Seven Greatest Unsolved Mathematical Puzzles of Our Time

This fascinating account, decoding the inscrutable language of the mathematical priesthood, is written like the purest poetry. --Simon Winchester, author of The Professor and the Madman

This is a wonderful book about one of the greatest remaining mysteries in mathematics. --Amir Aczel, author of Fermat's Last Theorem and The Riddle of the Compass

"Fascinating." -- Washington Post Book World

The quest to bring advanced math to the masses continues with this engaging but quixotic treatise. The mystery in question is the Riemann Hypothesis, named for the hypochondriac German mathematician Bernard Reimann (1826-66), which ties together imaginary numbers, sine waves and prime numbers in a way that the world's greatest mathematicians have spent 144 years trying to prove. Oxford mathematician and BBC commentator du Sautoy does his best to explain the problem, but stumbles over the fact that the Riemann Hypothesis and its corollaries are just too hard for non-tenured readers to understand. He falls back on the staples of math popularizations by shifting the discussion to easier math concepts, offering thumbnail sketches of other mathematicians and their discoveries, and occasionally overdramatizing the sedentary lives of academics (one is said to be a "benign Robespierre" whose non-commutative geometry "has instilled terror" in his colleagues). But du Sautoy makes the most of these genre conventions. He is a fluent expositor of more tractable mathematics, and his portraits of math notables-like the slipper-shod, self-taught Indian Srinivasa Ramanujan, a mathematical Mozart who languished in chilly Oxford-are quite vivid. His discussion of the Riemann Hypothesis itself, though, can lapse into metaphors ("By combining all these waves, [Riemann] had an orchestra that played the music of the primes") that are long on sublime atmospherics but short on meaningful explanation. The consequences of the hypothesis-a possible linkage to "quantum chaos," implications for internet data encryption-may seem less than earth-shaking to the lay reader, but for mathematicians, the Riemann Hypothesis may be the "deepest and most fundamental problem" going. 40 illustrations, charts and photos. (Apr.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

"[A] lively history. . . . A must for math buffs."--Kirkus Reviews
"An amazing book! Hugely enjoyable. Du Sautoy provides a stunning journey into the wonderful world of primes."--Oliver Sacks
"Exceptional. ... A book that will draw readers normally indifferent to the subject deep into the adventure of mathematics."--Booklist (starred review)
"Fascinating."--Washington Post Book World
"No matter what your mathematical IQ, you will enjoy reading The Music of the Primes."--Keith Devlin, Stanford University, author of The Millennium Problems: The Seven Greatest Unsolved Mathematical Puzzles of Our Time
"This fascinating account, decoding the inscrutable language of the mathematical priesthood, is written like the purest poetry."--Simon Winchester, author of The Professor and the Madman
"This is a wonderful book about one of the greatest remaining mysteries in mathematics."--Amir Aczel, author of Fermat's Last Theorem and The Riddle of the Compass
[A] lively history. . . . A must for math buffs. --Kirkus Reviews
An amazing book! Hugely enjoyable. Du Sautoy provides a stunning journey into the wonderful world of primes. --Oliver Sacks
Exceptional. ... A book that will draw readers normally indifferent to the subject deep into the adventure of mathematics. --Booklist (starred review)
Fascinating. --Washington Post Book World
No matter what your mathematical IQ, you will enjoy reading The Music of the Primes. --Keith Devlin, Stanford University, author of The Millennium Problems: The Seven Greatest Unsolved Mathematical Puzzles of Our Time
This fascinating account, decoding the inscrutable language of the mathematical priesthood, is written like the purest poetry. --Simon Winchester, author of The Professor and the Madman
This is a wonderful book about one of the greatest remaining mysteries in mathematics. --Amir Aczel, author of Fermat's Last Theorem and The Riddle of the Compass
"Fascinating." -- Washington Post Book World