After hibernation of about six months (like polar bears) I am back.. Recently I read a book called "A Certain Ambiguity" authored by Gaurav Suri and Hartosh Singh Bal. It is a mathematical novel. A fantastic book indeed and a must read for all math and philosophy lovers. It takes us on the tour of infinity and geometry, two most basic and ancient branches of mathematics, the concept of absolute certainty of thought and its foundations in mathematics, and finally non-Euclid's geometry.
All this comes forward through the wonderful story of Ravi and his bauji, an established mathematician of his era. The other characters of Nico, Claire, Adin are perfectly sketched and fit in perfectly in the plot of the story. The passion with which Nico takes the math classes and explaines the concepts of infinity to the class stands out. The journal entries and the communications of ancient mathematicians like Euclid, Pythagoras, Cantor are just amazing. The authors have really got it right.
One must read this book to understand the basic math and basic philosophy. Here I am reminded of another book "One, Two, Three, ..." whose author(s) I have forgotten. This is also a wonderful book which explains the concepts of infinity quite nicely.
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