Really enjoyed reading this ( )

Indeholder "Prologue", "1. Theaetetus's Icosahedron", "2. Galois: Death of a Genius", "3. Irrational Solutions", "4. Groups", "5. Sophus Lie", "6. Lie Groups and Physics", "7. Going Finite", "8. After the War", "9. The Man from Uccle", "10. The Big Theorem", "11. Pandora's Box", "12. The Leech Lattice", "13. Fischer's Monster", "14. The Atlas", "15. A Monstrous Mystery", "16. Construction", "17. Moonshine", "Notes", "Appendix 1: The Golden Section", "Appendix 2: The Witt Design", "Appendix 3: The Leech Lattice", "Appendix 4: The 26 Exceptions", "Glossary", "Index".
Indeholder en hel del historie, blandt andet at Frankrig sendte deres matematikere til fronten i første verdenskrig, mens tyskerne skånede deres. Göttingen blev derfor et smørhul, men det fik Hitler spoleret grundigt. John Horton Conway var usikker på sig selv som matematiker, men opdagelsen af tre ud af ialt 26 exceptions var startskuddet på en brillant karriere.

Voldsomt spændende uden at være teknisk. Giver lyst til at finde noterne om Lie algebraer frem igen. Forfatteren er god til at give overblikket over stoffet og hele tiden fortælle lidt om hvad der er i det næste kapitel.

Glimrende beskrivelse af historien bag opdagelsen af de 26 undtagelser og hvordan man beviste at der ikke var flere. ( )

One way to classify mathematics books written for the general public is to use an axis that ranges from historical to technical. Some books are great at explaining history but stay away from mathematical details and examples, whereas other books mention little history and instead focus on describing the mathematics. In between the two extremes are various combinations.

I thought this book was heavy on the history of who did what on the way to discovering the complex symmetry structure called “The Monster” and light on the mathematical details. This may have been the only way to present the material since the subject is very complex for anyone not working in the field. Still I like books that at least attempt to describe the mathematics, leaving it to me to judge when I’m in over my head. For example “Prime Obsession” by Derbyshire and “Fermat’s Enigma” by Singh both do a great job at giving the general reader a taste of the complexity of the mathematics being performed. I would recommend “The Equation That Couldn’t Be Solved” by Livio over “Symmetry and the Monster” for those wanting a layman’s intro to group theory. ( )

The story of the effort to classify all the finite simple groups, including the ~1980 nailing-down of the "monster" group whose size is the 54-digit number with prime factorization 2^46 · 3^20 · 5^9 · 7^6 · 11^2 · 13^3 · 17 · 19 · 23 · 29 · 31 · 41 · 47 · 59 · 71. By no means a textbook on group theory, but enjoyable enough reading.