In Pursuit of the Unknown

Symbolism is a language in itself. Symbolism, communicates tonnes of information to the cohort. People belonging to several backgrounds relate to Symbolism in different ways. But for those involved heavily in quantitative science, one form of symbolism is predominantly mired into their thought processes. This symbolism relates to, agrees upon, disproves hypotheses or leaves it all in a deadlock situation. As a manifestation of this form of symbolism, equations have survived the odds of multiple centuries and 17 of those survivors have been brought into the limelight in Ian Stewart’s engaging book, “In Pursuit of the Unknown – 17 Equations That Changed the World”, which is insightful journey into the world of equations. Like how cells form the building blocks describing the structure and function of all biotic factors at a rudimentary level, equations seem to be their counterparts in quantitative science. Mathematics as the language of science is expressed in the form of equations. From the mathematician author’s perspective, the book beautifully blends math and history by way of describing the origin of the most significant equations that shook the world – that revolutionized mankind, for better and for worse. The author paints a comprehensive picture of all the stories and myths surrounding each of the 17 equations, the mathematicians & scientists involved in arriving at the intellectual breakthrough, the panegyrists and the naysayers, the geographical and cultural setting that the invention of the equation revolves around.

Ranging from the ever-famous Pythagoras’s Theorem relating the three sides of a right-angled triangle, the book subtly traverses upon the likes of logarithms as our initial step towards speedy calculations, square root of minus one as the key to complex numbers, the evolution of topology as the study of geometric properties unchanged by continuous deformations, Euler’s formula for polyhedra and normal distribution as one of the key players in probability and statistics. The author also portrays a few more striking equations that left an indelible impact in the development of human civilization. The story of the apple falling down leading to Newton’s law of gravitation is said to be for the most part, well, just a story. The importance of gravity in the working of GPS, surveying the earth, sending artificial satellites is how the author has emphasized on one of the most fundamental forces of nature. Interestingly, all of Newton’s invention of the calculus and gravity happened during the disastrous bubonic plague period of the 17^th century London. It’s intriguing to note that this duration of social depression had lead to remarkable scientific breakthroughs. The author also  highlights Einstein’s general theory of relativity as a reasonable depiction of reality, Shannon’s information theory that lead to the technological revolution in today’s communication and Fourier’s heat equations that eventually paved the way for developing the theory of Fourier transforms which are now the basis for most of signal and image processing. One more very interesting note about the financial crisis of 2008 has been attributed to the Black - Scholes equation. Calling it a double – edged sword, the author elaborates that this equation was responsible for the virtual cash transactions. The uncontrollable situation of trillions of virtual money had resulted in inflation.

 Every chapter starts out with a layman’s description of each term of the equation in hand along with its application in a punchline. The style of talking about math equations that are being applied in day-to-day life in a story-telling format is really stimulating and enjoyable. It vaguely brings back fond memories of high school and undergraduate mathematics. This book reminds us that, even as they are most often underrated, looked upon with a morbid fear of them being complicated; equations have played an undeniably significant role in shaping the world as it is today. They will continue to play a pivotal role in any quantitative scientific discovery. 

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