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Infinitesimal

Amir Alexander

2014352 pagesabout 5–8 hours
2014
first published
  • 2014Farrar, Straus & Giroux · ENGISBN 9781429953924
  • 2014Oneworld Publications · ENGISBN 9781780745336
  • 2014Scientific American/Farrar, Straus and Giroux · 352 pages · ENGISBN 9780374176815
  • 2015Oneworld PublicationsISBN 9781780746425
  • 2015Scientific American · 368 pagesISBN 9780374534998

Explores "the epic battle over a mathematical concept that shook the old order and shaped the world as we know it. On August 10, 1632, five leaders of the Society of Jesus convened in a somber Roman palazzo to pass judgment on a simple idea: that a continuous line is composed of distinct and limitlessly tiny parts. The doctrine would become the foundation of calculus, but on that fateful day the judges ruled that it was forbidden. With the stroke of a pen they set off a war for the soul of the modern world"--

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