Is Math Real?: How Simple Questions Lead Us to Mathematics' Deepest Truths

Description:

One of the world's most creative mathematicians offers a new way to look at math--focusing on questions, not answers    
  
Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize
A New Scientist Best Book of the Year   

"Brilliant." --Popular Science  

Where do we learn math: From rules in a textbook? From logic and deduction? Not really, according to mathematician Eugenia Cheng: we learn it from human curiosity--most importantly, from asking questions. This may come as a surprise to those who think that math is about finding the one right answer, or those who were told that the "dumb" question they asked just proved they were bad at math. But Cheng shows why people who ask questions like "Why does 1 + 1 = 2?" are at the very heart of the search for mathematical truth.    
  
Is Math Real? is a much-needed repudiation of the rigid ways we're taught to do math, and a celebration of the true, curious spirit of the discipline. Written with intelligence and passion, Is Math Real? brings us math as we've never seen it before, revealing how profound insights can emerge from seemingly unlikely sources.     
 

Review Quotes: "[Cheng] also succeeds in making the reader feel that not understanding something in mathematics isn't the same as being bad at it: rather, it is a clue that you are onto something deeper, the pursuit of which could reap rewards. The book is infused with personal ruminations that lighten the load and keep the tone conversational...Cheng wears her heart and politics on her sleeve, segueing seamlessly...from mathematics to social concerns...Nicely parried, while providing fodder for those who want to chew on this some more."--New Scientist