Great Calculations: A Surprising Look Behind 50 Scientific Inquiries by Colin PaskMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
...Can such a list be compiled without criticism for some oversight? Probably not. I encourage you to read it yourself and come up with your own necessary additions. What would you part with to keep it to fifty? For me, in a list that includes (rightly so), Archimedes’ insightful approximation of π must find room for Euler’s number e. I would even say this could replace the entry for Euler solving the Basel Problem, since that, essentially, could be a footnote to the exploration of π. Or, let it replace the valuation of annuities as calculated by Halley, better known for predicting his eponymous comet. This is the class of thoughts the book will raise with any reader, and rightly it should. The author directly tackles the subject of necessary omissions, both generally and at the conclusion of the topical chapters. The end of Chapter 8 “About Us” suggests there could have been more on DNA, modeling nervous system signal transmission and Turing’s “mathematically elegant work on pattern formation”. Of course, there are many surprising and appealing entries, such as World War II D-Day tide calculations based on work done by Lord Kelvin seven decades previous...
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