Free Download A History of Mathematical Impossibility by Jesper Luumtzen
English | April 26, 2023 | ISBN: 0192867393 | 304 pages | PDF | 7.27 Mb
Many of the most famous results in mathematics are impossibility theorems stating that something cannot be done. Good examples include the quadrature of the circle by ruler and compass, the solution of the quintic equation by radicals, Fermat’s last theorem, and the impossibility of proving the parallel postulate from the other axioms of Euclidean geometry. This book tells the history of these and many other impossibility theorems starting with the ancient Greek proof of the incommensurability of the side and the diagonal in a square.