Significant Figures: The Lives and Work of Great Mathematicians

A celebrated mathematician traces the history of math through the lives and work of twenty-five pioneering mathematicians

In Significant Figures, acclaimed mathematician Ian Stewart introduces the visionaries of mathematics throughout history. Delving into the lives of twenty-five great mathematicians, Stewart examines the roles they played in creating, inventing, and discovering the mathematics we use today. Through these short biographies, we get acquainted with the history of mathematics from Archimedes to Benoit Mandelbrot, and learn about those too often left out of the cannon, such as Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (c. 780-850), the creator of algebra, and Augusta Ada King (1815-1852), Countess of Lovelace, the world's first computer programmer.

Tracing the evolution of mathematics over the course of two millennia, Significant Figures will educate and delight aspiring mathematicians and experts alike.

• A Most Elegant Equation: Euler’s Formula and the Beauty of Mathematics
• The Quantum Labyrinth: How Richard Feynman and John Wheeler Revolutionized Time and Reality
• The Calculus Story: A Mathematical Adventure
• The Beauty of Numbers in Nature: Mathematical Patterns and Principles from the Natural World (The MIT Press)
• The Last Man Who Knew Everything: The Life and Times of Enrico Fermi, Father of the Nuclear Age
• Reverse Mathematics: Proofs from the Inside Out
• Ten Great Ideas about Chance
• The Mathematics Lover’s Companion: Masterpieces for Everyone
• The Prime Number Conspiracy: The Biggest Ideas in Math from Quanta (The MIT Press)
• Exact Thinking in Demented Times: The Vienna Circle and the Epic Quest for the Foundations of Science