From Barnes & Noble
In Unknown Quantity, John Derbyshire sets out to construct an accessible survey of algebra's development over 3,000 years. With a keen sense of readers' fear of formulas, he navigates a path from Sumerian and Babylonian clay bookkeeping to the manifolds used by Andrew Wiles to solve Fermat's Last Theorem.
From the Publisher
For curious nonmathematicians and armchair algebra buffs, John Derbyshire discovers the story behind the formulae, roots, and radicals. As he did so masterfully in Prime Obsession, Derbyshire brings the evolution of mathematical thinking to dramatic life by focusing on the key historical players. Unknown Quantity begins in the time of Abraham and Isaac and moves from Abel's proof to the higher levels of abstraction developed by Galois through modern-day advances. Derbyshire explains how a simple turn of thought from "this plus this equals this" to "this plus what equals this?" gave birth to a whole new way of perceiving the world. With a historian's narrative authority and a beloved teacher's clarity and passion, Derbyshire leads readers on an intellectually satisfying and pleasantly challenging journey through the development of abstract mathematical thought.
New Scientist
The story of algebra is the story of civilization itself. Unknown Quantity buzzes with rivalries, frustrations, and breakthroughs ... a first-rate account.
American Scientist
A reader who wants to learn some theory of equations and modern algebra in a relatively painless way will find this book attractive. The explanations of many algebraic topics are accessible and clear, especially those of the following: how Vieta's new general symbolic notation demonstrates the relations between roots and coefficients of polynomials; symmetric polynomials and solvability; the roots of unity; how Paolo Ruffini's proof of the unsolvability of the quintic worked; how studying permutations of roots of polynomial equations gave rise to group theory; how linear transformations and matrices are related; the nature of quaternions and octonions; what an invariant is; an introduction to algebraic geometry; what a vector space is; and what the differences are between groups, division rings and fields. Those explanations also make clear why mathematicians cared about these problems and how these concepts were used. The anecdotes...certainly make the book fun to read. -- Judith V. Grabiner
Publishers Weekly
This book's title is deceiving, for Derbyshire offers a very real and very entertaining survey of the development of algebra. "Real" and "imaginary" refer to types of numbers, and Derbyshire (Prime Obsession) opens with a basic primer on the various flavors of numbers and polynomials before looking at algebra's development over 3,000 years. As he explains how algebraic notation wended its way from Sumerian scratches on clay to such contemporary mathematical structures as Calabi-Yau manifolds (used by Andrew Wiles to solve Fermat's Last Theorem), Derbyshire introduces readers to the colorful figures who made contributions: Hypatia, whose death in Alexandria at the hands of an angry Christian mob marked the end of mathematics in the ancient world; 19th-century mathematician Hermann Grassmann, who published a 3,000-page translation of the ancient Hindu text the Rig Veda after his work on vector spaces was ignored; and Emanuel Lasker, more famous as the longest-reigning world chess champion than for his contributions to ring theory. This book will appeal to readers who relished the rigorous mathematical discursions interspersed with informal historical vignettes of David Berlinski's A Tour of the Calculus, but less mathematically inclined readers more interested in the history of science will also enjoy it. (May) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
National Review columnist Derbyshire follows up Prime Obsession with a similar book on the historical development of algebraic principles. As a mathematician, linguist, systems analyst, and critic, he interweaves historical insight and biographical sketches into a book that is both compelling and easy to follow. The story line delves into algebraic principles concentrating on mathematical abstractions, historical narratives, and the development of mathematical ideas. Derbyshire moves quickly through the contributions of select mathematicians (not a complete who's who in algebra), including Diophantus, Descartes, Bernhard Riemann, and David Hilbert. The text-complete with mathematical primers, solved problems, figures, and historical vignettes-is written at a high school level for a general audience interested in recreational mathematics. Recommended for all school and public libraries and mainly undergraduate academic libraries.-Ian Gordon, Brock Univ. Lib., St. Catharines, Ont. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
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