Professor Strogatz has me walking to Hawaii, understanding how little we own, and yet how the rich and poor agree on the distribution of wealth. We just don’t understand large numbers, really large numbers. I hope he excites your mind and makes you wander down paths that you had no intention of ever going nor had any idea existed. What a mathamatician!
His 6 part series in the Times has been fascinating:
Steven Strogatz on the Elements of Math
About the Column
Steven Strogatz, an award-winning professor, takes readers from the basics to the baffling in a 15-part series on mathematics. Beginning with a column on why numbers are helpful, he goes on to investigate topics including negative numbers, calculus and group theory, finishing with the mysteries of infinity.
Columnist Biography
Steven Strogatz is the Schurman Professor of applied mathematics at Cornell University. Among his honors are MIT’s highest teaching prize, membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a lifetime achievement award for communication of math to the general public, awarded by the four major American mathematical societies. A frequent guest on WNYC’s “Radiolab,” he is the author, most recently, of “The Joy of x,” which grew out of this Opinionator series, “The Elements of Math.” He lives with his wife and two daughters in Ithaca, N.Y. Follow him on Twitter @stevenstrogatz.