A Certain Ambiguity: A Mathematical Novel
by Gaurav Suri /
2007 / English / PDF
11.1 MB Download
While taking a class on infinity at Stanford in the late 1980s,
Ravi Kapoor discovers that he is confronting the same
mathematical and philosophical dilemmas that his mathematician
grandfather had faced many decades earlier--and that had landed
him in jail. Charged under an obscure blasphemy law in a small
New Jersey town in 1919, Vijay Sahni is challenged by a skeptical
judge to defend his belief that the certainty of mathematics can
be extended to all human knowledge--including religion. Together,
the two men discover the power--and the fallibility--of what has
long been considered the pinnacle of human certainty, Euclidean
geometry.
While taking a class on infinity at Stanford in the late 1980s,
Ravi Kapoor discovers that he is confronting the same
mathematical and philosophical dilemmas that his mathematician
grandfather had faced many decades earlier--and that had landed
him in jail. Charged under an obscure blasphemy law in a small
New Jersey town in 1919, Vijay Sahni is challenged by a skeptical
judge to defend his belief that the certainty of mathematics can
be extended to all human knowledge--including religion. Together,
the two men discover the power--and the fallibility--of what has
long been considered the pinnacle of human certainty, Euclidean
geometry.
As grandfather and grandson struggle with the question of whether
there can ever be absolute certainty in mathematics or life, they
are forced to reconsider their fundamental beliefs and choices.
Their stories hinge on their explorations of parallel
developments in the study of geometry and infinity--and the
mathematics throughout is as rigorous and fascinating as the
narrative and characters are compelling and complex. Moving and
enlightening,
As grandfather and grandson struggle with the question of whether
there can ever be absolute certainty in mathematics or life, they
are forced to reconsider their fundamental beliefs and choices.
Their stories hinge on their explorations of parallel
developments in the study of geometry and infinity--and the
mathematics throughout is as rigorous and fascinating as the
narrative and characters are compelling and complex. Moving and
enlightening,A Certain Ambiguity
A Certain Ambiguity is a story about what it
means to face the extent--and the limits--of human knowledge.
is a story about what it
means to face the extent--and the limits--of human knowledge.