A bit simple but pleasant book, which could have dug a lot deeper to give insight but still worth an airplane read. ( )

جميل أن أرى أهم المعادلات التي درستها تفصيلاً في الجامعة موضوعة بهذا الشكل الأنيق مع أمثلة ذكية تشرح تأثيرها في حياتنا. ( )

Really interesting. I thought that it would mostly be about the mathematics of the formulas, but a lot is actually of the physics and applications of them. Not exactly what I expected but still really interesting. It is also partly a history book, in terms of how and when the equations were developed and applied.

Some things that I especially liked: how Pythagora's theorem was used in surveying (it is easier to measure angels than distances), how much work multiplication of large numbers by hand is, and how logarithms help (I guess I knew this, but had forgotten), the importance and application of topology. In the Quantum Weirdness the author has a good argument against there being multiverses. The chapter on Information Theory is good - it is something I studied at university, and the description in the chapter is quite good.

I am deducting half a star because of the last chapter (on Black-Scholes Equation). This is also something I have read a lot about before, and there are two things that bother me with it: the financial crisis of 2008 had several caused. One was to use the equation even though the simplifying assumptions were no longer true. However, other big causes were the incentives the banks had to make housing loans to people that couldn't afford them, and the expectation that the banks would get bailed out (these other two reasons are not covered). Also, it would have been nice with some intuition on why the Black-Scholes formula works. The best explanation I have read about that is in [b:The Complete Guide to Capital Markets for Quantitative Professionals|330112|The Complete Guide to Capital Markets for Quantitative Professionals|Alex Kuznetsov|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348821609l/330112._SX50_.jpg|320688] on pages 272 - 280.

In summary, 4.5 stars - very interesting! ( )

Vous qui avez peur des équations, et vous qui croyez déjà les connaître, ne passez pas votre chemin ! Venez découvrir la beauté et la force insoupçonnées de cette création purement humaine amorcée voilà des millénaires... Les équations ont changé le monde. Chacune d’entre elles possède une histoire extraordinaire que l’auteur nous fait découvrir ici, dans un langage accessible à tous et plein d’humour. E = MC2, le théorème de Pythagore, l’équation de Schrödinger... Avec les équations, nous pouvons rêver aux trous noirs, aux voyages interplanétaires, au Big Bang, et espérer, car le magnifique patrimoine de l’humanité qu’elles constituent ne s’érode pas. Ce sont des géantes sur les épaules desquelles nous pourrons éternellement grimper pour créer notre avenir. Un ouvrage enthousiasmant !

[3.75 / 5] There's a great deal of discussion on whether this book is good or not. I believe this is because unlike other books promoting mathematics, this one *does* assume that you have some **working knowledge** on mathematics. However, I found it very illuminating regarding the history of maths, and how they are much more than just a series of meaningless, useless symbols.

I found the last chapter to be very boring and skipped about half of it. The rest is a very good read on how math lives, how it's created and how (despite the opinions of many know-it-all schoolers) it is used in daily life. ( )