Infinite Powers: The Story of Calculus - The Language of the Universe

By Steven Strogatz

Shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize 2019

A magisterial history of calculus (and the people behind it) from one of the world's foremost mathematicians.

This is the captivating story of mathematics' greatest ever idea: calculus. Without it, there would be no computers, no microwave ovens, no GPS, and no space travel. But before it gave modern man almost infinite powers, calculus was behind centuries of controversy, competition, and even death.

Taking us on a thrilling journey through three millennia, professor Steven Strogatz charts the development of this seminal achievement from the days of Archimedes to today's breakthroughs in chaos theory and artificial intelligence. Filled with idiosyncratic characters from Pythagoras to Fourier, Infinite Powers is a compelling human drama that reveals the legacy of calculus on nearly every aspect of modern civilisation, including science, politics, medicine, philosophy, and much besides.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Atlantic Books
• Release date: Jun 6, 2019
• ISBN: 9781786492968

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

[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.