Big Math: The Hidden Codes That Run Our World (Copy)

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The epic story of how a handful of surprisingly simple mathematical ideas have sparked today’s technological breakthroughs—from Netflix’s recommendation algorithm to medical imaging to artificial intelligence and beyond—while also slipping further and further from our understanding, with potentially earth-shaking consequences.

It’s in every photo you post to Instagram, every Google search you make, and every answer you get back from ChatGPT. It routes our packages and planes, maps social networks, and predicts the weather. This is Big Math, and it is quietly running our world—while also reshaping it in ways we can’t yet comprehend. A toolkit of powerful ideas such as matrices and vectors, networks and optimization, Big Math allows humanity to tackle problems too vast to hold in our heads. Yet the tools themselves are not especially new or mysterious. We created them, and for most of their history we understood them and controlled them. But once we began supercharging them with computers to explore truly enormous systems, things changed.

Now, as celebrated mathematicians Steven Strogatz and Alex Townsend reveal in this dazzling and unsettling book, Big Math is beginning to drift beyond our grasp, even as it delivers greater gifts and power through machine learning and, soon, quantum computing. What happens when Big Math outgrows its creators—when it becomes something we no longer understand, but only witness? And how can we learn to live wisely with tools that grow stronger and stranger every day?

 

Praise

  • “Big Math is essential reading for our increasingly confused times: insightful, humane, and clarifying. It cuts through the flood of mystification around AI and it recenters the human in the equation. Steven Strogatz and Alex Townsend are as trustworthy as they are far-seeing.”
    — James Gleick, author of The Telephone: A New History
  • “Everyone has to reckon with the pervasive phenomenon that Strogatz and Townsend have christened Big Math—the hyper-connected, data-saturated, computer-assisted mathematical machinery governing everything from corporate boardrooms to politics to AI therapists. Written with warmth and generosity, Big Math is an invaluable gift for anyone who feels locked out of this present moment. This book illuminates a path to confidence in an increasingly mathematical brave new world.”
    — Janna Levin, author of Black Hole Survival Guide
  • “Your chatbot doesn’t want you to read this book—you might get a better understanding of how AI works and you could become the one in control. Through its vivid stories, Big Math traces how we got here and what’s at stake: human ownership of the future.”
    — Alan Alda
  • “Math just keeps getting bigger. Strogatz and Townsend, experts themselves in some of the largest-scale math problems in the world, provide a friendly and authoritative guide to the way math has scaled up, from the frontiers of quantum computing to the piles of boxes in Amazon’s warehouses.”
    — Jordan Ellenberg, author of How Not to Be Wrong
  • “A thrilling journey through the mathematics quietly and profoundly shaping modern life.”
    — Brian Greene, author of The Fabric of the Cosmos and Until the End of Time
  • “Strogatz and Townsend have done something I would have thought impossible: they’ve written a book about math that is absolutely overflowing with ideas and intuition, yet almost devoid of equations. The perfect book for our times, Big Math will captivate and enthrall any reader.”
    — Steven Levitt, coauthor of Freakonomics
  • “From launching rockets to recommending your next impulse purchase, the combination of powerful computers and novel mathematical techniques is shaping our world in unanticipated ways. We’re entering the Big Math era, and there is no going back. I can’t think of a better guide than this book, written by true experts in a way everyone can understand.”
    — Sean Carroll, author of The Biggest Ideas in the Universe series
  • “Big Math reveals how the miraculous technologies of our modern world are built on a foundation of profound and surprisingly beautiful mathematics. In this book, Strogatz and Townsend work their own miracle: their personable and down-to-earth writing makes even the most complex ideas completely accessible and thoroughly enjoyable. In short, Big Math is a colossal delight!”
    — Melanie Mitchell, author of Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans
  • “This mind-expanding book reveals the mathematics all around us. The math professors we should all have had, Strogatz and Townsend explain complex ideas beautifully, making them accessible to everyone. At times Big Math is unsettling, at times inspiring, but throughout it is empowering. I couldn’t put it down.”
    — Jo Boaler, Stanford professor, cofounder of youcubed, and author of Limitless Mind
  • “Big Math is Big Fun. Strogatz and Townsend tell the story of how a few unglamorous mathematical concepts, revved up with massive computational power, have changed the world. The subject is topical and fascinating, but what I loved most about this book is that it is so enjoyable to read. The text is lively, beautifully clear, and endlessly engaging. Math popularisation at its best.”
    — Alex Bellos, author of The Grapes of Math and Here’s Looking at Euclid
  • “We live in a world of equations and algorithms that most of us can neither see nor understand. Now we can do both. Big Math is a fascinating and engaging tour of the invisible structures on which modern life is built. Who knew math could be so easy … and so much fun?”
    — Daniel Gilbert, Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, author of Stumbling on Happiness
  • “I might still count on my fingers, but I loved Big Math . From stories about cancer risk prediction and space exploration to deep insights about big data, AI, and the forces shaping our world, I found myself charmed and captivated. This book has helped me appreciate the power of numbers in our lives—and the need to think deeply and responsibly about their implications as we move into the future.”
    — Maria Konnikova, author of The Biggest Bluff and Mastermind
  • “A compelling account of how math really is governing the powerful tools of modern life.””
    — Eugenia Cheng, author of How to Bake Pi and Is Math Real?
 

Infinite Powers

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Infinite Powers book cover
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A brilliant and endlessly appealing explanation of calculus—how it works and why it makes our lives immeasurably better.

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 (a phenomenon predicted by calculus). 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 make electricity with magnets; how to ensure your rocket doesn’t miss the moon; 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.

Praise

  • “In this tour de force, Steve Strogatz shares his love as well as his deep understanding of calculus and mathematics more generally. An elegant and ebullient book, Infinite Powers speaks to everyone, reminding us why mathematics matters in a practical sense, while all the time highlighting the cleverness and especially the beauty involved.”
    — Lisa Randall, Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Physics, Harvard University, and author of Warped Passages and Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs
  • “If calculus is the language of the universe, then Steven Strogatz is its Homer. With verve, insight, and simplicity, he explains the deep ideas underlying one of humankind’s greatest intellectual achievements. Infinite Powers is an incalculable pleasure.”
    — Daniel Gilbert, professor of psychology, Harvard University, and author of Stumbling on Happiness
  • “Are you one of those people who always said you’d someday learn calculus? Well, someday is here, thanks to Steven Strogatz’s wide-ranging, humane, thoroughly readable take on one of the greatest ideas our species has ever produced.”
    — Jordan Ellenberg, author of How Not to Be Wrong
  • “This is a glorious book. Steven Strogatz manages to unmask the true hidden wonder and delightful simplicity of calculus. Infinite Powers is a master class in accessible math writing and a perfect read for anyone who feels like they never quite understood what all the fuss was about. It had me leaping for joy.”
    — Hannah Fry, author of Hello World
  • “Warning: this book is dangerous. It will make you love mathematics. Even more, there is a nonzero risk it will turn you into a mathematician.”
    — Nassim Nicholas Taleb, former derivatives trader and author of The Black Swan
  • “This could be the most fascinating book I have ever read. If you have even the slightest curiosity about math and its role in this world, I implore you to read this amazing book. Every teacher, every student, and every citizen will be better for it.”
    — Jo Boaler, author of Mathematical Mindsets, professor of mathematics education, Stanford University, and co-founder of youcubed.org
  • “Steven Strogatz is a world class mathematician and a world class science writer. With a light touch and razor-sharp clarity, he brilliantly filters his deep knowledge of calculus into an engaging epic that tells the remarkable story of a mathematical breakthrough that changed the world—and continues to do so.”
    — Alex Bellos, author of Here’s Looking at Euclid and The Grapes of Math
  • “The world is a big thing made of an infinite number of infinitely small things. That’s the lesson of calculus, the most powerful mathematical technique ever invented. In this engaging book, Steven Strogatz illuminates the importance of calculus and explains its mysteries as only he can.”
    — Sean Carroll, author of The Big Picture
  • “Reading Infinite Powers, I was reminded why Steve Strogatz is, at present, the best mathematician among writers and the best writer among mathematicians.”
    — William Dunham, Bryn Mawr College, and author of Journey Through Genius and The Calculus Gallery
  • “Infinite Powers is simple, lucid, amusing, informative, and a pleasure to read. If you want to know where calculus came from, how it works, what it’s good for, and where it’s going next, this is the book for you.”
    — Professor Ian Stewart, author of Significant Figures
  • “A highly readable account of calculus and its modern applications—all done with the human touch.”
    — Dr. David Acheson, author of The Calculus Story
  • “An energetic effort that successfully communicates the author’s love of mathematics.”
    — Kirkus
  • “Far-ranging survey … clear and accessible … Strogatz successfully illuminates a notoriously complex topic and this work should enhance appreciation for the history behind its innovations.”
    — Publishers Weekly
 

The Calculus of Friendship: What a Teacher and a Student Learned About Life While Corresponding About Math

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The Calculus of Friendship is the story of an extraordinary connection between a teacher and a student, as chronicled through more than thirty years of letters between them. What makes their relationship unique is that it is based almost entirely on a shared love of calculus. For them, calculus is more than a branch of mathematics; it is a game they love playing together, a constant when all else is in flux. 

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Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order

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The tendency to synchronize may be the most mysterious and pervasive drive in all of nature. It has intrigued some of the most brilliant minds of the 20th century, including Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, Norbert Wiener, Brian Josephson, and Arthur Winfree.

At once elegant and riveting, Sync tells the story of the dawn of a new science. Steven Strogatz, a leading mathematician in the fields of chaos and complexity theory, explains how enormous systems can synchronize themselves, from the electrons in a superconductor to the pacemaker cells in our hearts. He shows that although these phenomena might seem unrelated on the surface, at a deeper level there is a connection, forged by the unifying power of mathematics.

* Translated into German, Italian, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese

* Featured on Amazon's list of Customers' Favorites in science for 2003

* Selected as a Best Book of the Year by Discover magazine in 2003

* Won the Anomalist Award for the best science book of 2003

* The Korean edition was named “Best Science Book of 2005” by the Ministry of Science & Technology Korea, and received the “Best Science Book Award” given by the Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics.

 

Praise

  • “The most exciting new book of the spring . . . Masterful . . . A gem.””
    — Popular Science
  • “A vivid, first-hand account of what it is like to be at the beginning of a scientific revolution.”
    — Focus
  • “Strogatz has just written a book arguing that the universe is an orderly place marked by harmony and cooperation. In an era of war, terror, and chaos, his viewpoint sounds a bit curious. But if Sync is, well, out of sync with global news, it’s certainly in tune with the scientific world.”
    — Newsweek
  • “Strogatz . . . is a first-rate storyteller and an even better teacher . . . Sync is a great read.”
    — Nature
  • “Every now and then you come across a science book that’s just fun and amazing to read.”
    — Leader-Post (Regina)
  • “Strogatz is a gifted and inspiring communicator whose book, Sync, offers a real sense of what it’s like to be at the beginning of Something Big.”
    — New Scientist
  • “Sync is a wonderfully lucid and thoroughly entertaining story of the emerging science of synchrony. Steven Strogatz, a leading researcher and renowned teacher, takes the reader on a thrilling ride.”
    — Brian Greene, author of The Elegant Universe, Professor of Physics and Mathematics, Columbia University
 

C-SPAN BookTV conversation with Alan Alda

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Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos: With Applications to Physics, Biology, Chemistry, and Engineering

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An introductory text in nonlinear dynamics and chaos, emphasizing applications in several areas of science, which include vibrations, biological rhythms, insect outbreaks, and genetic control systems. This bestselling textbook on chaos contains a rich selection of illustrations, with many exercises and examples.

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