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纽约时报畅销书籍

美国国家公共广播电台的《科学星期五》节目对其进行了专题报道

另一本数学科普畅销书《X的乐趣》The Joy of X的作者

 

本书的作者斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨拥有出众的数学才能，这在他的前一部作品《X的乐趣》中已被证明。这次斯特罗加茨给读者带来的精彩作品对微积分的解释充满了无穷吸引力，它讲述的是听上去就令人望而却步的微积分，如何在历史进程中影响我们的日常生活。

 

其实这种影响远远超出了人们的想象，如果没有微积分，这个世界就不会有手机，不会有电视，不会有卫星定位。人类不会解开DNA的结构之谜，也发现不了海王星，更不要说像现在这样轻轻松松随身携带5000首歌曲。

 

无论高中还是大学，微积分都是一门重要却令人心生畏惧的课程。但这是一本适合任何有兴趣的读者的作品，斯特罗加茨的文字呈现了一段极富创造力又极其接地气的学科历史，他告诉读者，微积分并不是复杂性集合体，微积分是关于如何让事情变简单的知识。它利用虚幻的“无穷”来解决现实世界中的问题，它把这些问题分解成相对简单的问题集合，然后把这些问题集合的答案重组成为原来那个问题的解决方案——听上去简直不可思议。

 

《无穷的力量》带着读者回忆了微积分面世的历史，讲述了微积分如何被发现，如何在古希腊时代闪现出它的第一道光芒，如何预言了重力波的存在并且带领人类发现了这种物理现象。斯特罗加茨向读者展示了这种数学形式是如何逐一掀起各个时代的挑战的，比如如何只用沙子和一根棍子得出一个圆的面积，如何解释火星偶尔出现的“倒退”现象，如何用磁铁发电，如何确保发射升空的火箭不会和月球擦肩而过，如何在人类与艾滋病的斗争中占据上风。

 

斯特罗加茨在全书开端这样写道：微积分是神的语言，宇宙使用的语言，也是一种像计算机语言一样设定了万物的操作系统。如果能秉承这样的态度对待这门学科，那这个世界应该会呈现出全新的趣味。

 

A New York Times bestseller

Featured on NPR's Science Friday

Named one of the 10 Best Books to Read this Spring by Amaz*n's Chris Schluep

 

From preeminent math personality and author of The Joy of x, a brilliant and endlessly appealing explanation of calculushow it works and why it makes our lives immeasurably better.

 

Without calculus, we wouldn't have cell phones, TV, GPS, or ultrasound.We wouldn't have unraveled DNA or discovered Neptune or figured out how to put 5,000 songs in your pocket.

 

Though many of us were scared away from this essential, engrossing subject in high school and college, Steven Strogatz's brilliantly creative, down to earth history shows that calculus is not about complexity; it's about simplicity.It harnesses an unreal numberinfinityto tackle real world problems, breaking them down into easier ones and then reassembling the answers into solutions that feel miraculous.

 

Infinite Powers recounts how calculus tantalized and thrilled its inventors, starting with its first glimmers in ancient Greece and bringing us right up to the discovery of gravitational waves (a phenomenon predicted by calculus). Strogatz reveals how this form of math rose to the challenges of each age: how to determine the area of a circle with only sand and a stick; how to explain why Mars goes ';backwards' sometimes; how to make electricity with magnets; how to ensure your rocket doesn't miss the moon; how to turn the tide in the fight against AIDS.

 

As Strogatz proves, calculus is truly the language of the universe. By unveiling the principles of that language, Infinite Powers makes us marvel at the world anew.

史蒂文·斯特罗加茨（StevenStrogatz），康奈尔大学应用数学教授，数学家，专栏作家。

Steven Strogatzis the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Applied Mathematics at Cornell University. A renowned teacher and one of the world's most highly cited mathematicians, he has blogged about math for the New York Times and The New Yorker and has been a frequent guest on Radiolab and Science Friday.