Mathematics is beautiful, isn't it?

When I read the first sentence, I was so glad that the book was not like the previous books I’ve read that gave us information about mathematics; what it is, how it is used in biology, what are its deeper meanings, but this time, the book is actually a novel! *fireworks*. It has its own story. I didn’t have a hard time reading it.

The book is entitled “A certain ambiguity”. This book is a novel but still, mathematics is really inserted in every page of the book. The first sentences really amazed me since it was still the first part I was reading back then, not knowing that the next parts would still be as amazing as the first part. It was where Ravi Kapoor was given a calculator in his birthday and told by his grandfather to enter 3 random numbers in the calculator and enter the same numbers again so that he had a total of 6 digits. When his grandfather told him that the number would exactly be divisible by 13, I quickly got my calculator and tried the technique and it really was true! I was really surprised, I actually said “woah” (haha). I read again and knew that he wasn’t finished yet. He said that the answer that Ravi got can still be divided by 11 and then by 7, then he got the same answer to the original 3 numbers he entered in the calculator. I did that also and that was awesome. Because of Ravi’s curiosity, he tried to find out the principle behind those numbers and he succeeded. He found a solution and the pattern to it which made his grandfather very proud of him.

Anyway, that was just a nostalgic flashback of Ravi. He loves his grandfather, whom he calls Bauji, so much. His Bauji made him appreciate math even more. Bauji’s real name was Vijay Sahni. He died the next day after he gave the calculator to Ravi but his Bauji’s life story was still important in the story’s plot. Then, Ravi went to Stanford with his career in economics. He met a guy and became his buddy who named Peter. He also met Nico who was an amazing Math professor. Ravi took one of Nico’s classes which was the “Thinking about Infinity”. Nico also specializes in the field of Ravi’s Bauji. One time, Nico found a paper with a footnote saying that the author of the book, which was Ravi’s grandfather, conceived the main ideas developed in the paper while he was in the jail in New Jersey. Ravi was so curious thus, he researched about the reasons why his grandfather was imprisoned. He found lots of things; philosophical discussions on the nature of the truth, certainty and mathematics that his grandfather made in jail. He was jailed because of a blasphemy law in New Jersey. Ravi found out the secrets of his grandfather when he was still inside the jail. He knew that his Bauji was saying things that were against Christianity.

On the other side of the story, Ravi attends to Nico’s class where he found some friends there and accompanied him all the way. Nico lectures math topics where infinity has a very important role in each topic discussed. Nico was also a very brilliant man who also had the same interest in life with Ravi’s Bauji. Lots of topics were discussed in Nico’s class. These include Zeno’s paradoxes and the infinity of the primes, convergence of infinite sums, Godel’s incompleteness and the consistency theorems of Paul Cohen’s. I have observed that the topics discussed in the book were also discussed in the Story of Maths, particularly in the first video.

The jailhouse conversation of the Judge Taylor and Ravi’s grandfather covered a lot of space in the book which focused about the obvious method of mathematics, especially the Euclidean geometry. However, the emotional side of the mathematics that many mathematicians feel but cannot directly share to those who are non-mathematicians were exposed because of the continual focus on the comparison of the mathematical methods and the religion and, the questions and certainty in our everyday lives. Their conversation was very brilliant. About the Christianity, for me, it is real. Their theorems could not stop me from believing God is real. We just can’t see him, of course. God is in our hearts, right? He is everywhere. But still, every person has different views in life and I can’t blame Ravi’s grandfather for acting that way.

Nico helped Ravi pursue his chosen career which was being a Mathematician and fulfilling his grandfather’s wish for him. He just finally realized his desire to be one. This was also one of his uncertainties and it is clear for him now. Also, the book ended with a little love story in it where Ravi married Claire. Claire was also his friend and classmate in Nico’s “Thinking about Infinity” class.

The book contains a lot of interesting math. It deals with questions that the philosophers have struggled to focus and answer throughout the centuries. The philosophical connections are also well developed and believable. I could not definitely say that I enjoyed both the mathematical and philosophical parts but those were really smart to read. Like what I have said earlier, I was glad that the book was a novel and not a book about mathematics alone. The book is also inspiring. Inspiring in a sense that you can really reach your dreams and gain more knowledge while reaching it. To end this review, I can tell that the author somehow achieved his purpose where he wants to show that mathematics is beautiful. Yeah, it really is.*winks*