Tuesday, September 13, 2022

Book Review: A divine language : learning algebra, geometry, and calculus at the edge of old age.



Alec Wilkinson, staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, recently wrote about his quest to study math later in life. Here is a link to his September 6, 2022, article: How Mathematics Changed Me | The New Yorker. He started his quest five years ago at age 65. He also writes about this in his book, A divine language : learning algebra, geometry, and calculus at the edge of old age. I have the book on order and look forward to reviewing it.

From his article, I understand much of what Wilkinson learned during his quest as I started this math blog late in my life. This blog started as a Covid project two years ago when I was 61. We both learned strangeness of different types of infinities, mystery of design of our world, and how God in unknowable.

11/8/2022 Update - my local library got this book, and I just finished it. Wilkinson included stories about many of my favorite mathematicians. I liked that he was able to interview Chris Ferguson, who won $1,000,000 in the World Series of Poker in 2000, shortly after earning his PhD from UCLA. 

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