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Mathematical conversations. Selections from the Mathematical Intelligencer. (English) Zbl 0963.01012

New York, NY: Springer. vii, 488 p. (2001).
The scope of the first twenty years of The Mathematical Intelligencer is well captured by this representative collection of forty articles. Written for professional mathematicians, they cover social and historical aspects as well as past and current significant developments. The seven roughly equal sections are devoted to Interviews and Reminiscences, Algebra and Number Theory, Analysis, Applied Mathematics, Arrangements and Patterns, Geometry and Topology, and History of Mathematics. Here we encounter, for example, Steve Smale on the steps of Moscow University in 1966, Yuri Matijasevich collaborating with Julia Robinson on Hilbert’s tenth problem, Celtic knotwork, the mathematical strangeness of the Banach-Tarski theorem, space-filling curves and minimal surfaces, the deep connections between mathematics and physics, the resolution of monumental problems such as the Mordell and Bieberbach conjectures, speculation on who might have won the Fields Medals a century ago and a whimsical piece by Walter Kaufmann-Bühler on a proposal to establish a new German research facility in 1892.

MSC:

01A60 History of mathematics in the 20th century
00B60 Collections of reprinted articles
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