A Certain Ambiguity: A Mathematical Novel |  | Authors: Gaurav Suri, Hartosh Singh Bal
Publisher: Princeton University Press
List Price: $27.95
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Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 206480
Media: Hardcover
Edition: First Edition
Pages: 292
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.1 x 1
ISBN: 0691127093
Dewey Decimal Number: 510
EAN: 9780691127095
ASIN: 0691127093
Publication Date: July 2, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
While taking a class on infinity at Stanford in the late 1980s, Ravi Kapoor discovers that he is confronting the same mathematical and philosophical dilemmas that his mathematician grandfather had faced many decades earlier--and that had landed him in jail. Charged under an obscure blasphemy law in a small New Jersey town in 1919, Vijay Sahni is challenged by a skeptical judge to defend his belief that the certainty of mathematics can be extended to all human knowledge--including religion. Together, the two men discover the power--and the fallibility--of what has long been considered the pinnacle of human certainty, Euclidean geometry. As grandfather and grandson struggle with the question of whether there can ever be absolute certainty in mathematics or life, they are forced to reconsider their fundamental beliefs and choices. Their stories hinge on their explorations of parallel developments in the study of geometry and infinity--and the mathematics throughout is as rigorous and fascinating as the narrative and characters are compelling and complex. Moving and enlightening, A Certain Ambiguity is a story about what it means to face the extent--and the limits--of human knowledge.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 7
 A remarkable little book August 21, 2009
Russell Y. Neches (Los Angeles, CA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you have studied mathematics or physics, then the topics that pin together this wonderful story will feel like old friends. In that sense, this book is a reunion. The unique thing about A Certain Ambiguity is that instead of meeting in an airless classroom, you get to hang out with your old friends at a cafe with pretty decent food and good coffee.
That's pretty cool.
 An Enjoyable Mix November 29, 2008
jlspublic (Florida)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I found this book to be a very enjoyable mix of plot, math, and philosophy. The overall arc of the story is not difficult to predict and the characters feel a little like they were written by mathemeticians (probably not a big surprise there!) but the story is enjoyable and the final quarter of the book develops solidly making it easy to forgive any earlier weakness. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys thinking while they read, and for some time after they finish.
Excellent debut, and written with feeling... May 26, 2008
P. Javangula (San Jose, CA USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
As a person that chose a career of poor person's mathematics i.e., Computer Science,
instead of Number Theory that I was pursuing at that time - it was pure unadulterated fun reading this book. It is very well researched, and presented
without ever losing the sense of tempo. The topic is completely non-trivial, and
as some others have mentioned, is a bit of a fantasy to think of a judge in small town NJ to take up Euclid's Elements or the complete parallels saga. It made for great reading though, and I congratulate the authors heartily. It appears that they dug deep into their sense of appreciation for mathematical beauty and the nature of truth that lay there, and it shows. Good luck, you appear to be very good writers - even without the mathematics. I wish you a great career in writing as well.
A Fantastic Debut - no ambiguity there! January 1, 2008
Siva Visveswaran (Rochester, NY USA)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
This is a well researched, deeply thought out and crisply written book that must be enjoyed over several readings - each of which can reveal a certain beauty, a certain paradox and a certain truth! The authors mostly stay with basic number theory & geometry concepts making it accessible to most readers. They have also kept the characters and the storyline somewhat simple and ideal. But through this simplicity they have explored rich mathematical & philosophical ideas that most of us certainly would have debated ourselves at some point in our lives. As in life, they do leave some apparent loose ends and ambiguities that can only be rationalized through conjectures they lay forth in the beginning of the book.
A fantastic debut that I hope brings enough commercial success to the publishers to encourage more such writing; not only from Suri and Bal but also from other mathematicians who have a story to tell!
A physicist's view November 25, 2007
Jorge Medrano (Houston, TX USA)
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
Generally speaking the book is excellent. It of course requires some previous familiarity with Math to fully follow the reasoning in the examples and/or demonstrations. Needless to say, the judge Taylor is way too good to be true. I very much doubt any judge in the '20s or at any other time would have gone to the trouble to understand rigorous reasoning, such as Euclides' "Elements." As a (retired) physicist however, I don't understand the emotional turmoil that Vijay and the judge himself went through when the Eddington's empirical proof that Einstein's view of space-time-gravitation in General Relativity, was right. They agonize over whether Euclides' fifth axiom is true or false. In my view, an axiom cannot be "false." It is a statement that you accept, to be able to build a logically consistent theoretical edifice, following rigorous mathematical reasoning. If you then find contradictions, it means the set of axioms is useless for that purpose, or that they are not logically independent. The question that bothers them is in reality whether that particular theoretical construct, Euclidean geometry, describes physical space in the Universe. And the answer, from a practical point of view, is a resounding "yes" - almost everywhere in the Universe. Only in the vicinity of very large concentrations of mass, such as stars, the curvature of space as described in the equations of General Relativity, has to be taken into account. Of course, I am not trying to trivialize General Relativity in any way; I am perfectly aware of the enormous importance of its new ideas, in particular its new explanation of Gravity, as curvature of space. But curvature is a local property; the Universe is not homogeneous and isotropic on small scales. So, what's all the fuss about the fifth postulate?
I am more or less aware of at least part of Godel's work, but I don't see anything in it that will change my "physicist's view."
Another part where I think things have been forced a little is toward the end, where it seems that both Vijay and the judge finally agree that both in Math and religion some things have to be taken on faith. I don't know of any version of the Philosophy of Mathematics that makes that claim. Please authors, correct me if I am wrong.
All in all however, I give the book four stars, with the caveat I said before; you will enjoy it the most, if you are familiar with Math.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 7
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