SUMMARY - It All Adds Up: The Story Of People And Mathematics By Mickael Launay

Book excerpt: *By reading this summary, you will discover that the history of mathematics has nothing to envy to the discovery of the New World. It is also thrilling and surprising! The numbers we use every day, the shapes we draw, the theorems our children learn are all the result of a stroke of genius from one of our distant ancestors and have survived centuries of questioning, to make our lives easier today. Are you ready to go back in time to meet those who did the mathematics? *You will also discover that : most mathematical theorems have been developed from very concrete problems drawn from everyday life; the history of mathematics has been transformed by prodigious men and women who have revolutionized this discipline; mathematical theories sometimes take a long time to be accepted by the scientific community. *The author recounts that he set up his stand at the small summer market of La Flotte-en-Ré, between a stall of African braids and another of cell phones. The place seemed unusual to him: that's good, he likes to do math in unlikely places. He should be happy to see the wide-eyed eyes of schoolchildren or their grandparents who realize, by practicing origami or solving its riddles, that mathematics can be exciting. But deep down he feels sorry for himself. Why does this discipline have such a bad press, as it is at the origin of so many things? Why is it so scary? It is time to tame it through a novel and to discover the great steps that made its history ...