In Pursuit of the Unknown: 17 Equations That Changed the World by Ian Stewart
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My enjoyment for this book can be described as the parabola of order two. It started off very strongly, became quite dry in the middle but finished off well towards the end. Highlights: Relativity, Pythagoras, i, Quantum mechanics and thermodynamics. Lowlights: Normal distribution, Euler’s law of polyhedra.

Each chapter is a mixture of, some problem or quaint curiosity, mathematical derivations and how the equation shaped the world. I often found myself looking forward to the latter. Even with a mathematical disposition it was tricky to follow the derivation at times.

Epiphanous moments included, rationalizing Schrödinger’s cat/Quantum Multiverse theory, the origins of the nuclear bomb, entropy’s arrow of time and AM/FM.

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