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Sum Stories: Equations and their Origins
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How long is the coastline of Britain? What is a rhombicuboctahedron? Which US president proved Pythagoras’s theorem?
These and many other intriguing questions are addressed in this lecture on renowned mathematical equations and their history. The selected equations span various areas of mathematics and cover a timeline of 4000 years, from early geometry to fractal art.
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References 1 and 2 are general books on equations, with reference 1 featuring mainly those from pure mathematics and reference 2 featuring several from applied mathematics and physics. References 3 to 7 are on the five equations featured in this lecture.
- Robin Wilson, Sum Stories: Equations and their Origins, Oxford University Press, 2025.
- Ian Stewart, 17 Equations that Changed the World, Profile Books, 2012.
- Eli Maor, The Pythagorean Theorem: A 4000-Year History, Princeton University Press, 2007.
- Mario Livio, The Golden Ratio: the Story of Phi, The World’s Most Astonishing Number, Broadway Books, 2002.
- David S. Richeson, Euler’s Gem: The Polyhedron Formula and the Birth of Topology, Princeton University Press, 2008.
- Robin Wilson, Combinatorics: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2016.
- Kenneth Falconer, Fractals: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2013.
This event was on Wed, 04 Jun 2025
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