Proving Infinity

            I seriously did not expect to read a novel like this in my life. “A Certain Ambiguity” was one of those books which seemed to pull you in without you knowing about it. I mean, at the very beginning of the novel, I was tricked into getting my calculator and playing around with Bauji’s number game. I loved it for that, because not even math books can make me happily grab my calculator.

        This story is more on how Ravi Kapoor, the main character, wanted to know more about the mathematics that his grandfather loved. While he was young, his grandfather passed away, leaving him a huge sum of money that would lead him to a school in America.

            This is where I get to know the other characters of the book. I have to say, the authors did a good job in creating their characters. Peter was Ravi’s roommate who seemed to know where he was going in life. He was the one that persuaded Ravi to take Nico’s class. Nico was their teacher who did a great job in explaining infinity to his students. He was very considerate, and he loved to challenge his students from time to time. PK was a classmate of Ravi, who seemed relaxed but was actually good with mathematics. Adin is my favorite; he was one who wanted to find certainties in life and was more of a philosopher than a mathematician. He loves jazz and is not that good with it. Lastly there’s Claire, and even though not directly stated, she was the love interest of Ravi. She’s really good in math, and she can prove some theorems faster than anyone in their class. The character variety is good, but there are times where I find them a bit boring, due to a monotonous tone that I can sometimes sense.

Another thing I loved about the book was how they easily incorporated math concepts into the story. When Ravi started in Nico’s class, I felt like I was one of Nico’s students. It took me some time to realize that I was tricked into reading something math related. What I didn’t expect was how much I enjoyed it, especially that problem of the runner, where he has to cover an infinite number of half-distances. The authors did great on capturing me, but I thought that it was the only moment I would find fun in the book.

Turns out I was wrong. The case of Ravi’s grandfather was another amazing concept of the book. I, like Ravi himself, was shocked to find that Bauji has been in prison. It was due him being ‘blasphemous’, according to the point of view of the people of New Jersey. A strong argument in the book involved God’s infinity, which I firmly believed. It was quite uncomfortable to know that Bauji was an atheist, but like Judge Taylor, I tried to keep an opened mind. It was one of the author’s successes; handling sensitive arguments like this.

My favorite part was when Clair proved there is no greatest prime. It was funny to think that they discussed this in one of Peter’s party. It would seem unrealistic because, come on! Who would want to discuss mathematics during a party? But I really loved the way she proved it. My mouth was definitely hanging by the time she finished, and it took me a couple of seconds to fully appreciate it. Since I was alone in the room while reading this bit, I practically blabbered “Amazing! Wow! Awesome!” continuously for about 2 minutes. I was tricked again by the authors into slightly loving math. This is when I decided, “Hmmm, this book is good”.

Another favorite part of mine are the bits where the Judge and Vijay Sanhi discussed his situation. They were supposed to discuss whether Bauji was to be freed or to continue to trial, but it all ended up in mathematics, particularly geometry. It was fun though. I loved how Vijay Sanhi proved the Pythagorean theory using geometry. It left my mouth agape once again. I loved how the authors incorporated mathematics not just to the lecture parts of Nic, but even to Peter’s party and Bauji’s discussion with the Judge. It was quite entertaining to read the Judge being totally into it though. Most judges would probably tell him to proceed with why he committed blasphemy.

Another thing I love about this book is because it totally corresponded with the BBC: Story of Maths 4. It was good to watch it before reading the book, because the mathematicians involved in the book where the same ones we saw in the movie. After all, the book is mostly about infinity, and so was the movie. Good thing I saw Cantor in the movie, and because of this I was able to catch up to Nico’s lecture about how Cantor paired every integer with a fraction. His problem though, was whether there was infinity between the infinity of real numbers and the infinity of natural numbers. This was hard to grasp, even for Cantor.

As the story progresses, I got to read several transcripts about Sanhi and the Judge. One challenging transcript was te one about Euclid’s The Elements. This part made me understand more about the book, and why it was very importand for geometry. It is also where I learned the meaning of axioms. Apparently, axioms are self evident beginning principles, from which other truths come from. It was entertaining to see how Sanhi wanted to demonstrate to the Judge how he did not believe in God using geometry.

I also liked when Ravi and Claire would try to solve Nico’s problems together. It was like the author’s had no experience in trying to make love stories, probably because the main thought of the book was about math. I find it fun though, especially when they sought a set with a greater cardinality than that of real numbers.

The last part of the book was mostly about the 5^th postulate in Euclid’s book, and how various mathematicians, including themselves, found hard to prove or demonstrate. Around this part of the book, several mathematicians were mentioned, and those mathematicians were the same ones I saw in the BBC movie. Non-euclidean geometry was discussed as well, and I found a hard time trying to grasp it.

In the end, Bauji was released, and he still kept a friendship with Judge Taylor. Ravi finally was able to put his thoughts about his grandfather to rest. He also was offered a job in a bank, but he chose math over that because of his love for math, and possibly Claire.

I loved the book, and honestly it was more relaxing to read compared to the 2 previous books. What I really liked was how it captured me. It wasn’t like the others. Reading the previous books was like watching a documentary, but reading this book was like watching a movie. I also liked how they sometimes incorporate journals made by several mathematicians during their time. I don’t know if the journals they made were really genuine, but it was perfect the way they incorporated it into a particular part of the story. All in all, this book is great for getting people to read more about mathematics and infinity, and it helps in knowing more about the previous people who helped build a foundation for mathematics.