Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe

Written by Steven Strogatz

Narrated by Bob Souer

Without calculus, we wouldn't have cell phones, TV, GPS, or ultrasound. We wouldn't have unraveled DNA or discovered Neptune or figured out how to put 5,000 songs in your pocket.

Though many of us were scared away from this essential, engrossing subject in high school and college, Steven Strogatz's brilliantly creative, down to earth history shows that calculus is not about complexity; it's about simplicity. It harnesses an unreal number-infinity-to tackle real world problems, breaking them down into easier ones and then reassembling the answers into solutions that feel miraculous.

Infinite Powers recounts how calculus tantalized and thrilled its inventors, starting with its first glimmers in ancient Greece and bringing us right up to the discovery of gravitational waves. Strogatz reveals how this form of math rose to the challenges of each age: how to determine the area of a circle with only sand and a stick; how to explain why Mars goes "backwards" sometimes; how to turn the tide in the fight against AIDS.

As Strogatz proves, calculus is truly the language of the universe. By unveiling the principles of that language, Infinite Powers makes us marvel at the world anew.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Aug 20, 2019
• ISBN: 9781630154769

Steven Strogatz

STEVEN STROGATZ is the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Applied Mathematics at Cornell University. A renowned teacher and one of the world’s most highly cited mathematicians, he has blogged about math for the New York Times and The New Yorker and has been a frequent guest on Radiolab and Science Friday. He is the author of Sync and The Joy of x. He lives in Ithaca, New York.  

Reviews for Infinite Powers

[Quynh Quynh · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Thank you for making Calculus enjoyable. It was beautifully expressed and I finally understand it in a way that’s non-threatening. Please write more

[Naval Gupte · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It is the best introduction and most intuitive explanation of concepts in Calculus , I've read/heard. Makes you think of Calculus from a very different perspective, and the discussion of the applications wonder about its beauty. I am definitely going to read it in its text format.

[Şeyma Doğan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

How can a book about Maths be so captivating?? I didn't want it to end, my heart's a little broken that it's over

[kelvin mwaniki · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Amazing read, I loved it. Would recommend it to anyone who loves calculus or math or is just intuitive and analytic

[steve02476 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great overall explanation of calculus by looking at its history. You won’t learn calculus from this book, but you do learn ABOUT it. I had first-semester calculus many decades ago, I’ve forgotten it all and this book didn’t bring it back to me either. But it was fun to read. My eyes certainly glazed over for some pages here or there, but the vast majority is very readable even if you had zero math background I think.

[waldhaus1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An exciting and enthusiastic overview of math and calculus. Told as a story with many clarifying examples. A PDF with illustrations would have enriched the audio book. At times getting my head around a description was challenging. The historical vignettes added a great deal to keeping interest going.

[vpfluke · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was absorbing book of the first order. I think a person to fully appreciate this book should have had first year college calculus, even though the prose here is very good and not difficult to explicate. At the end of the book is a quick look at: determinism and its limits, nonlinearity, chaos, the alliance between calculus and computers, complex systems, and artificial intelligence.

[jigarpatel-6 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In an accessible layman's introduction to calculus, Strogatz brings to life Newton's "standing on the shoulders of giants". This is less about formal proof, more about the thought processes of mathematicians from Archimedes to Leibniz. Mathematics is rightly depicted as a creative process: intuition comes first, then rigorous arguments.Application is stressed throughout: astronomy, mechanics, mathematical biology, chaos theory, etc. This is partly to reflect how discoveries were made, at least in the early development of infinity as a concept, but also to encourage students who struggle to appreciate the relevance of calculus.