According to Stewart, ‘Equations have hidden powers. They reveal the innermost secrets of nature.’ The author has integrated several nuggets of knowledge and tidbits of trivia in every chapter to make it more engaging for the reader. For example, it is pointed out that the Babylonians knew about the 3-4-5 right triangle at least a thousand years before Pythagoras. Pythagoras theorem is used in surveying and navigation and eventually led to the growth in many other mathematical fundamentals like Euclidean geometry. Stewart elucidates the importance of each equation by mentioning its uses in the modern world, like while logarithms are generally not employed now that we have inexpensive calculators and computers, but many measurements like sound, radioactive decay and earthquakes still employ logarithms. Calculus, invented by Sir Issac Newton, helps in incorporating the movement of the solar system bodies into one mathematical equation. The equation I could relate to most was Claude Shannon’s information theory which indicates the amount of information contained in a
According to Stewart, ‘Equations have hidden powers. They reveal the innermost secrets of nature.’ The author has integrated several nuggets of knowledge and tidbits of trivia in every chapter to make it more engaging for the reader. For example, it is pointed out that the Babylonians knew about the 3-4-5 right triangle at least a thousand years before Pythagoras. Pythagoras theorem is used in surveying and navigation and eventually led to the growth in many other mathematical fundamentals like Euclidean geometry. Stewart elucidates the importance of each equation by mentioning its uses in the modern world, like while logarithms are generally not employed now that we have inexpensive calculators and computers, but many measurements like sound, radioactive decay and earthquakes still employ logarithms. Calculus, invented by Sir Issac Newton, helps in incorporating the movement of the solar system bodies into one mathematical equation. The equation I could relate to most was Claude Shannon’s information theory which indicates the amount of information contained in a