Cover of Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics

Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics

In 1859, Bernhard Riemann, a little-known thirty-two year old mathematician, made a hypothesis while presenting a paper to the Berlin Academy titled "On the Number of Prime Numbers Less Than a Given Quantity." Today, after 150 years of careful research and exhaustive study, the Riemann Hypothesis remains unsolved, with a one-million-dollar prize earmarked for the first person to conquer it. Alternating passages of extraordinarily lucid mathematical exposition with chapters of elegantly composed biography and history, Prime Obsessionis a fascinating and fluent account of an epic mathematical mystery that continues to challenge and excite the world.

Themes
technology
Audience
adult
Length
long · 422 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Journey through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics Shares mathematics, math, science
  2. An Imaginary Tale: The Story of the Square Root of Minus One Shares mathematics, math, science
  3. The Music of the Primes: Searching to Solve the Greatest Mystery in Mathematics Shares math, mathematics, science
  4. The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved: How Mathematical Genius Discovered the Language of Symmetry Shares math, mathematics, science

“People who read Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics tend to reach for these next.”

  1. e: the Story of a Number
  2. The Princeton Companion to Mathematics
  3. Men of Mathematics
  4. The Riemann Hypothesis: The Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics

“If you want more of the same (science about technology), start with these.”

  1. Einstein's Cosmos: How Albert Einstein's Vision Transformed Our Understanding of Space and Time
  2. Magnificent Principia: Exploring Isaac Newton's Masterpiece
  3. The Universe and Dr. Einstein
  4. Einstein and the Quantum: The Quest of the Valiant Swabian

“If it was the math that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. The Mathematical Universe: An Alphabetical Journey Through the Great Proofs, Problems, and Personalities
  2. The Math Book: From Pythagoras to the 57th Dimension, 250 Milestones in the History of Mathematics
  3. Mathematics for the Nonmathematician (Books Explaining Science)
  4. A History of π

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Stalking the Riemann Hypothesis: The Quest to Find the Hidden Law of Prime Numbers
  2. Mathematical Mysteries: The Beauty and Magic of Numbers
  3. The Honors Class: Hilbert's Problems and Their Solvers
  4. Gamma: Exploring Euler's Constant