Mersenne

La vasta rete di scambi e di diffusione di novità, esperienze, conoscenze che coinvolge nel Seicento eruditi e 'savants' dei diversi paesi europei passa attraverso i corrieri. Ne dà conferma il carteggio Descartes, Beeckman, Mersenne. Il filosofo, il 'savant' calvinista, il Minimo erudito, personalità del tutto e in tutto differenti, sono legate dal 'commercium artium et scientiarum'. Il promotore dello scambio epistolare è l'infaticabile Marin Mersenne, il "curioso" che vuole penetrare tutti i segreti della natura e "portare a perfezione tutte le scienze". Le questioni di cui discutono il gentiluomo del Poitou, il magister calvinista nederlandese e il monaco parigino coprono grande parte delle scienze del tempo e sono altrettante stimolanti provocazioni nelle prospettive che propongono e nelle nuove teorie che tratteggiano.

To many laymen, mathematicians appear to be problem solvers, people who do "hard sums". Even inside the profession we dassify ourselves as either theorists or problem solvers. Mathematics is kept alive, much more than by the activities of either dass, by the appearance of a succession of unsolved problems, both from within mathematics-itself and from the in­ creasing number of disciplines where it is applied.

Authors: Fine, Benjamin, Rosenberger, Gerhard
A solid introduction to analytic number theory, including full proofs of Dirichlet's Theorem and the Prime Number Theorem
Concise treatment of algebraic number theory, including a complete presentation of primes, prime factorizations in algebraic number fields, and unique factorization of ideals
One of the few books to include the AKS algorithm that shows that primality testing is one of polynomial time
Many interesting ancillary topics, such as primality testing and cryptography, Fermat and Mersenne numbers, and Carmichael numbers

Prime Numbers: The Most Mysterious Figures in Math

Authors: David Wells
ISBN: 0471462349
Year: 2005
Publisher: Wiley

Ancient Airs and Dances (Italian: Antiche arie e danze) is a set of three orchestral suites by Italian composer Ottorino Respighi, freely transcribed from original pieces for lute. In addition to being a renowned composer and conductor, Respighi was also a notable musicologist.