The Boy Who Loved Math
The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos
Book - 2013
1596433078



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Summary
Add a SummaryFor you see, there once was a boy who loved math. His name was Paul and he lived in Budapest, Hungary in 1913. As a child, Paul adored numbers, and theorems, and patterns, and tricky ideas like prime numbers. As he got older he grew to be the kind of guy who wanted to do math all the time! Paul was a great guy and a genius and folks loved having him over, but he was utterly incapable of taking care of himself. Fortunately, he didn’t have to. Folks would take care of Paul and in exchange he would bring mathematicians together. The result of these meetings was great strides in number theory, combinatorics, the probabilistic method, set theory, and more! Until the end of this days (when he died in a math meeting) Paul loved what he did and he loved the people he worked with. “Numbers and people were his best friends. Paul Erdős had no problem with that.”

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Add a CommentExcellent and VERY interesting book . Fascinating actually . Really enjoyed the story and would recommend this book .
NYPL Staff Pick
Awkward outsider Paul Erdős wasn't too good at taking care of himself. But with the help of great friends and his generous spirit Paul became one of the most influential mathematicians of his time. Complex illustrations show us the world as Paul saw it - with math everywhere!
Prior to reading this book I would have doubted a person could conceivably make an engaging biography chock full to overflowing with mathematical concepts. Now I can only stare in amazement at a story that could conceivably make a kid wonder about how neat everything from Euler’s map of Konigsburg to the Szekeres Snark is. This is one bio you do NOT want to miss. A stunner from start to finish.