The Mathematical Universe: An Alphabetical Journey Through the Great Proofs, Problems, and Personalities

Fantastic book and so interesting! I would recommend it!

Used as a gift. I have my own copy and wished to share it with a friend who lives out of state. The book is informative and entertaining to those who are mathematically inclined, mixing history and technical concepts.

This is my least favorite Dunham book, and not because it is for the non-math masses.This book does not really seem to have any real organization to it as his other works. And his writing is targeted to appeal to the pedestrian reader he tries a bit hard to be amusing.It almost seems that Dunham is out of his comfort zone trying to write for the masses and not turn people off with the math.Yes there is the math in the book, but it really is nothing of interest to the math student or math types. Unlike Journey through Genius, where he does not seem to worry about whether he lost the average reader and writes more towards the math crowd who want the math and historical.In his other works he really does a great job of presenting the topics in a cohesive manner which develops the context and almost tells a story. In this book the organization is almost random.The 5 stars is because for the masses, this is an easy read and hopefully will entice readers to really go back and at least try to develop a deeper understanding of math.Also, Dunham does have his favorites and he makes that clear in his books. Everyone will have their favorites in a subject so broad with such a long history of great discovery.

I really enjoyed Journey through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics, so was looking forward to peeling the cover off this book, however i was a little disappointed to find repeated text from the earlier book. That Ramanujan is missing is surprising (only mentioned in a passing reference to discuss gender imbalance). It would have been nice to have heard a little about this mathematical phenomenon, even if to just discuss the number 1729, if his theorems were deemed to difficult for a general audience. For these 2 points it loses a star.Dunham utilizes his gift for giving clear expositions in an entertaining and engaging manner. Another good read.

Enjoyable as a quick dip into a range of different fields of mathematics. Unfortunately, the Kindle version suffers from many, many typos misformatting in the mathematical equations. In some cases they are completely illegible, and the reader is left to guess what a symbol was supposed to have been.

This book was an incredible addition to my mathematical reading. The format is an alphabetical chapter list of mathematical topics. It was a great way to organize each thought and topic. The topics range from arithmetic to algebraic and many, many in between. He helped me link some things historically and fundamentally that I had already been practicing, which led to an even better understanding of many "basic" (not always simple) mathematical proofs. I am so happy I purchased this book, and would recommend it for the layman and and the pro.

I love the manageable pieces and the choice of topics. A chapter on pi and a chapter on e for example are just what hope find. I'm not disappointed as math books go, this is page turner.

Much easier subject matter than some of this author's other books. If you're interested in studying mathematics, you might pick this one up to see what it's about. If you like it, read "Journey Through Genius" next.

The content of the book is absolutely fascinating; I believe that, like Morris Kline, William Dunham is a fantastic writer of subjects related to mathematics;The book is a delight to read: you learn about the Fundamental Theory of Arithmetic and get a proof of why there is an infinite number of primes in the 1st chapter!However... turning to the quality of the "hardcover"... my lord! What a piece of garbage!I opened it and the 1st page almost came flying out. All other pages are slowly coming out after turning them once. The pages are glued together, not sewn.Therefore, I extend a very large middle finger to John Wiley & Sons for charging almost 40 EUR for such a terrible product.

mi e' piaciuto il metodo della ricerca dimostrativa e la curiosita'delle notizie intorno agli oggetti matematici e ai loro protagonisti.avrei solo preferito che fosse un po' piu' approfondito .Ma capisco gli scopi dell'autore.

日本でいうとおおよそ中学と高等学校で習う数学を説明している．あとは少しだけ伝記（ラッセルとかコワレフスカヤ（ただしアルファベット表記では異なる））もある．数式による表現は抑えられている．文章は英語を母語にしない人にも親しめるものでないかと思う（英語を仕事上必要としないし，英語教育にも無関係な人間の感想）．初等的な内容に徹しているため私には食い足りなかった．この否定的な感想はあくまで個人的なものである．

Very good book for a beginner.

Mathematics underpins almost everything in our technological society, from computers to machines to communications, and is essential to the functioning of that society. Yet it is a closed book to the vast majority of us. William Dunham is one of a small select band of people: professional mathematicians who can also write in a very entertaining way.In just 26 alphabetic chapters, he takes us through some of the basic theorems of mathematics, and the lives of some of the extraordinary men (and occasional women) who have created this wondrous repository of mathematical knowledge.One of his chapters does ask the difficult question why there have not been more great female mathematicians. Their number has been few, it's true, although they have also included some of the very greatest and original thinkers among their number like Emmy Noether.If you want to get a clever youngster interested in mathematics, then this is the book to do it. But it's also a great book for the adult non-mathematician to learn a little about this strange and entrancing world.