Get Your Free Audiobook
Add to cart failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Listen with Audible free trial
₹199.00/month
Buy Now for ₹703.00
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's Summary
Without calculus, we wouldn't have cell phones, TV, GPS, or ultrasound. We wouldn't have unraveled DNA or discovered Neptune or figured out how to put 5,000 songs in your pocket.
Though many of us were scared away from this essential, engrossing subject in high school and college, Steven Strogatz's brilliantly creative, down-to-earth history shows that calculus is not about complexity; it's about simplicity. It harnesses an unreal number - infinity - to tackle real world problems, breaking them down into easier ones and then reassembling the answers into solutions that feel miraculous.
Infinite Powers recounts how calculus tantalized and thrilled its inventors, starting with its first glimmers in ancient Greece and bringing us right up to the discovery of gravitational waves. Strogatz reveals how this form of math rose to the challenges of each age: how to determine the area of a circle with only sand and a stick; how to explain why Mars goes "backwards" sometimes; how to turn the tide in the fight against AIDS.
As Strogatz proves, calculus is truly the language of the universe. By unveiling the principles of that language, Infinite Powers makes us marvel at the world anew.
More from the same
Author
What listeners say about Infinite Powers
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story3 out of 5 stars
- Ganesh P
- 21-11-19
Excellent attempt to storify Calculus
Liked the way the book is organized, and it's an excellent attempt to storify Calculus & it has succeeded to a great extent. IAt middle of the book, it has become too difficult to follow as it was near to impossible to visualize the equations just by hearing.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Achal
- 30-10-19
Wonderful book!
The book is an excellent account of the history of Mathematics. It shows how the universe speaks to us in the language of maths and how calculus helps us connect it all. The oration (performance) is also amazing. For all the mathematically inclined, it’s a must listen :)
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Abhirama
- 23-01-22
Great listen
I prefer physical book than audio book because it is hard to imagine the equations in the mind
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- A Reader in Maine
- 21-02-20
Not written to be read aloud
Don’t get me wrong—this is a great book and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I highly recommend it. But in many parts, the performer has to read aloud some complicated equations that are tough to follow if you are, say, listening while driving. As a statistician, I was familiar with 80% of the concepts discussed and have heard of the rest, and I struggled at times.
I recommend buying the book to read, so one can slow down when needed, or listen to it with a pencil and paper handy.
That said, this book gave me many new insights and explanations that will inform my teaching going forward.
51 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 05-09-19
Elegant, clear, cutting edge.
If you're curious, but mathematically hopeless, this is splendid. I found the opening overview particularly illuminating, but throughout it joins history, to biography, to physics, to math in a clear but not condescending manner.
30 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story4 out of 5 stars
- David
- 29-05-20
GREAT BOOK! would be nice to have a PDF
If you enjoy math and Steven Strogatz... you're probably a nerd like me and have already read this or similar books many times, and you know its good. 😁
If you are just interested in math and want to hear it explained in an entertaining and informative, this is a great book to read.
it would benefit from a PDF for some illustrations, but even without that it is easy to follow.
27 people found this helpful
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars
- M. McCreary
- 10-02-20
Read the book
This is a great discussion of the development and use of calculus, but if you're not comfortable with the topic, the audiobook isn't the best way to read it. The narrator does a great job, but with so many equations in the text, it's just easier to read the hard copy.
17 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Tyler
- 29-12-19
Beautiful
As a young newly inspired fellow, I’ve been surprisingly driven to read and listen to such books as Strogatz’s here. It gorgeously weaves often difficult to imagine notions of mathematics into a web of relevance.
I am registered to take calculus in the next semester, and could not have imagined a better primer. I’m hooked. I am craving to learn more, and this book has teased the desire for advancement to an incredible degree. I’ve listed this book as one I must return to after actually learning to DO the calculus he dances around. But until then, I have only dreamy things to say about the book.
Narration is wonderful. As with any scientific / mathematic audio, there are tedious portions where it becomes difficult to follow given the nature of embedding equations and proofs into paragraphs. But this is, to me, apparent and obvious. I like to consider the portions of technical speak as a challenge to myself whether I can follow. I’ll repeat it several times until I understand or decide I’m not quite studied enough to understand more deeply than I do.
Mathematics is a language of translating “reality” into symbols and back again, judging their synergy along the way. To expect a book on mathematics NOT to contain technical paragraphs, is a mistake. I loved them.
If you are reading reviews looking for fuel to motivate your own decision, do it.
Especially if you are willing to be curious.
If you would like to learn.
And if you want to explore the universe, mathematics is nestled amongst the best available tools to do so.
Dive in. Enjoy.
15 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous
- 05-09-19
Great for those learning calculus
I'm in differential equations right now this is a good overview of the theories of calculus and covers aspects missed in lectures
14 people found this helpful
-
Overall3 out of 5 stars
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Eazy
- 15-05-20
Could really use an accompanying PDF
It sometimes talks about a graph or something visual and requires you to imagine it when it sounds like in the book you’d have the visuals. It would be so much better if the visuals were in an available pdf.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Julian G.
- 30-01-20
Great overbiew
I'm not a math person by trade although I do enjoy mathematics. This book is a great way to get a wide breadth idea of the history of calculus. I suggest this book to anyone who kind of wants to know about the math without getting too into the Weeds about how to do it. Beautifully written and excellently narrated.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars
-
Story4 out of 5 stars
- P. Sandwall
- 22-05-20
beware the reader
listening now and will finish because I'm a completionist but... this reader hurts my head, he feels like someone scratching a chalkboard. I'm actually not going to finish this, it's that painful. maybe a personal issue but damn.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 08-03-20
history
explains calculus but not heavy on math
Lots of illustrations. good for teaching anyone at any age
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall2 out of 5 stars
-
Performance2 out of 5 stars
-
Story2 out of 5 stars
- Erich Graf
- 25-10-21
Incomplete audiobook
This is a frustrating audiobook… The original has been very lazily made into an audiobook, without providing the figures and tables that it relies on. The narrator says things ‘like look at the numbers in the left column’! Other audiobooks provide information from figures/tables in a PDF.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 09-09-21
Now I need to learn the calculus properly!
Very inspiring book! Can give you some idea about the variety of practical uses of calculus. Sounds like the one of most powerful mental models out there!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Redd
- 22-01-22
Detailed and Fascinating
One of the best popular science books I have read, does not assume the reader is uneducated and explained many results. Incredible!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Eleanor
- 14-12-21
Brilliant!
This has really made me feel more confident with maths. I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to.
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
- noname
- 27-10-21
Beautiful and profound.
Strogatz' delicate and thoughtful storytelling brings the reader on an amazing journey. Please read this book!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Dirk Bertels
- 12-06-20
inspiring
Excellent book, well narrated. Lots of anecdotes I haven't heard before, even with my keen interest in maths.
Just would have been great if a PDF was provided with a brief overview of the actual math sections involving math notation.
Steven Strogatz is an inspiring writer, I do recommend his other books as well.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- David Sapsford
- 13-03-20
Excellent
good storyline for the why of calculus
plus the historical perspective
easy to stop and start without losing the plot
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 04-12-19
Great audiobook
Recommended for anyone with a basic to advanced knowledge of calculus. Well narrated with a descriptive story.
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Systems 157, Inc.
- 20-09-19
And why school maths has it all wrong...
It is truly an intellectual crime the way maths is taught in schools, and this, yet another great mathematics based story, so continually gripping in revealing how amazing our understanding of the universe and its workings is through the intellectual lens of maths, plus the fascinating odyssey humans and the star historical players have taken us on throughout history demonstrates how alive, engaging, enthralling and important mathematics truly is to humans, that our global education system fails to empart and provide the passion, knowledge and appreciation this subject deserves, makes it a crime of infinitely incalculable proportions!
Well done yet again Professor Strogatz, I am in complete awe at your work yet again, well done...
RE: "A Mathematicians Lament" -- has it so correct!!
