Prime problem
A review of Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics, by John Derbyshire.
With the proof of Fermats Last Theorem in 1994, Derbyshire says, the Riemann Hypothesis is now the great white whale of mathematical research. Even before that, it was regarded by mathematicians as the more significant problemthough not as old as FLT, it is more central to mathematics and probably a good deal harder.
And harder to explain. Of the two new books offering an account for a popular audience, Prime Obsession and Karl Sabbaghs The Riemann Hypothesis (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux), Derbyshires offers the better insight. Sabbaghs is a well-written book with interesting stories from mathematicians working in the field, but Derbyshire is a talented expositor determined to make the reader understand some serious mathematics. A general reader with some memory of high school algebra who is willing to concentrate will come away with a grasp of...
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