HomeSynergeiavol. 6 no. 1 (2020)

Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe

Enrique M. Ligot

 

Abstract:

Steven Henry Strogatz, Applied Mathematics professor at Cornell University, is a staunch advocate of making math more accessible to the public by writing books, with Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveal s the Secrets of the Universe (as his fourth work. Through his writing, he shows how math as a language helps us understand the world. Like other scientists, he stands on the shoulders of Galileo (1623 in Drake, 1957) who observed that: (Natural) philosophy is written in this grand book I mean the Universe which stands continually open to our gaze, but it cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and interpret the characters in which it is written. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometrical figures, without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it; without these, one is wandering around in a dark labyrinth. (pp. 237 8)