Ian Stewart’s books have really caught my attention nowadays.

After reading his book, " Letters to a

Young Mathematician", I gulped "Nature’s Numbers". The book is all about seeing nature from a
mathematician’s POV.

The book starts off with an introduction of nature and patterns. Patterns of form and Patterns of
movement are so widespread in the nature that it is difficult not to observe them. Ripples in the pond,
Stripes on Zebra tiger, movement of horses, elephants, mammals all happen based on a pattern.
Patterns posses beauty as well as utility. If one were to study the patterns, it would be the best thing to
leverage those patterns in our daily life applications. When such a complicated creature like Nature can
work with a pattern, it is certain that Pattern would work for a less complex purpose driven application.

Patterns are basically numerical patterns, geometric patterns, and movement (translation, rotation,
reflection) patterns. A mathematician’s instinct is to structure the process of understanding by seeking
generalities that cut across various sub divisions.A lot of physics proceeded with out the any major
advances in the mathematical world. For 200 years, calculus was in a different position. It was being
used with great success in Physics But the mathematicians were really concerned about what it really
meant. Thus there is a fundamental difference in the way of thinking of a mathematician. They tend to
ask WHY rather than HOW. HOW related questions are left to domain experts, be it physicists , chemists,
scientists etc Mathematicians concentrate on WHY and that opens a whole set of areas for people to
work on HOWs. For example snail develops a spiral shell, mathematician will be interested in the ways a
spiral is formed whereas how the snail makes the shell is matter of genetics / chemistry.

Is Mathematics about numbers, real , complex , functions, transformations, proofs, theorems etc..No ,
Math is about story telling. If you can take a natural phenomenon / application and can a tell an
effective story using some tools, that is what Math is all about

There is a chapter titled "From Violins to Videos", which is a beautiful summarization of the events
starting from the purposeless study of 1d strings on a violin to a very practical device tv. A lot of
physicists and mathematicians played a role in cracking the 1d wave equation of a violin string. jean le
rond d’alemert , euler, bernoulli all were instrumental in bringing about the solution for 1d waves. This
was extended to the vibrations of the surface of the drum which is a 2d. Finally it showed up in the areas
of Electricity and Magnetism. Michael Faraday and subsequently Maxwell came up with electromagnetic
forces which was a giant leap in the advancement of scientific understanding. Visible electromagnetic
waves with different frequencies produce different colors.
The book also deals with the pattern of movement. One complete chapter is dedicated to gait analysis
where trot, pace, bound, walk, rotary, gallop, traverse gallop and canter is analyzed.

Chapter 8 titled – "Do Dice Play God ?" is my favorite chapter of the book. It starts off by introducing a
concept called phase space which is nothing but a solution space that is obtained based on the initial
conditions. The chapter’s main theme is that random movements at the microscopic level can result in
deterministic movements at the macroscopic level. Also simple cause results in complex effects. One
superb example that’s given to justify the theme is the half life period. One can never say that at an
instant a particular atom will disintegrate or not, but one can always calculate half life period of an
elements. So, one knows the half life of an elements, with out knowing which half will disintegrate..Its
like the famous ad saying, I know my marketing ad budget gets me results but I do not know which half.

The last chapter is collection of 3 case studies – One , water from a tap , Two , a simulated artificial
ecology example, and the final one is that of petals in various flowers. Each of the case studies is a gem
that goes on tell that mathematical complexity results in simple patterns and it is well worth
understanding mathematical complexity , for it is such study that creates a better understanding of
nature’s patterns.

I am certain to read this book again at a later point of time

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Nature's Numbers, by Ian Stewart

Nature's Numbers by Ian Stewart is one of the most interesting and explanatory books I've ever read. It
starts by explaining how what seems to be a dream is a reality. It goes on about how using compounds
can produce any situation imaginable. It explains how maths is used in that universe and how maths is
used in this one.
Then the author explains how patterns are everywhere in our universe. He summarises this in the best
summary I have seen of a lesson I've had. He describes the maths which is used as a 'formal system of
thought for recognising, classifying and exploiting patterns.

The next chapter explains how a computer can show the evolution of things using mathematics. The
hook goes on to explain how mathematics is not only about numbers and explains how numbers could
have been found.

The fourth chapter goes into depth about differentiation and Newton's Laws were discovered. My
favourite chapter was the fifth chapter because it explains how a simple violin string vibrating can cause
a chain of thinking and discoveries that leads to the birth of television.

The following chapters explain things like chaos, which is apparently complicated and apparently
pattern-less behaviour that can be explained simply.

Reviewed by David Bray - 1999

Ian Stewart has put together a very interesting novel for those are particularly intrigued by physics and
also short delve into mathematics. Nature's Numbers is part of a series of books published by Science
Masters which leading scientists describe as the current state of knowledge in their subject. I believe
that other books from the Science Masters series may well be worth looking into.

Professor Ian Stewart explains new and unsuspected structures in the world around us.

"We live in a universe of patterns where every night the stars move in circles across the sky".
This was taken from the first two lines of the book and what an opening few lines they were. After
reading those lines it was difficult not to be curious to wonder what Mr. Stewart has to say for himself.
The first chapter states the uncontroversial idea that nature is full of patterns. It then leads on to
mathematics, linking the two aspects very nicely indeed. He shows a very insightful idea in the second
chapter. There is a diagram which shows a computer model of the evolution of the human eye. There
are in total 1829 steps, where each step in the computation corresponds to approximately 200 years of
biological evolution. It is something I had previously never heard of. About halfway through the book
there is a chapter on broken symmetry. This was very clear and well written and anyone could
understand this section. He talks about mirror images and tries to justify it with simple evidence.
Towards the end of the book there is a section which I found rather interesting. It was the formation of a
detached drop. It starts as a bulging droplet hanging from a surface then producing a narrow neck and
then eventually developed into a spherical drop.

There were some points about the book yet unfortunately there were also some not so very good points
about. Firstly I would like to say that Ian Stewart is a very inspiring chap who tries and succeeds in
explaining some very simple ideas into peculiar regularities. I have never read a book like this before the
content and the different views that Ian Stewart had to share were a pleasant surprise. The language
and the structure of the book was easy to understand and I found that there was a certain flow about
his writing. The only criticism I can possibly make is that I would have to read the book again to
thoroughly capture all Ian Stewart's talents.

Reviewed by Ashley Fard - 1997

© 2000/2001 Gosford Hill School - All Rights Reserved

"It appears to us that the universe is structured in a deeply mathematical way. Falling bodies fall with
predictable accelerations. Eclipses can be accurately forecast centuries in advance. Nuclear power plants
generate electricity according to well-known formulas. But those examples are the tip of the iceberg. In
Nature's Numbers, Ian Stewart presents many more, each charming in its own way.. Stewart admirably
captures compelling and accessible mathematical ideas along with the pleasure of thinking of them. He
writes with clarity and precision. Those who enjoy this sort of thing will love this book."—Los Angeles
Times

From Publishers Weekly

Defining mathematics as a system of thought for recognizing and exploiting patterns, Scientific American
math columnist Stewart takes readers on an exciting, lucid voyage of discovery as he investigates
patterns of form, number, shape and movement in the world around us. His examples range from water
dripping slowly from a tap to the symmetries of molecules, viruses and galaxies and from a snail's spiral
shell to biological evolution and the dynamics of solar systems. Making forays into the history of
mathematics and the role of mathematics in human culture, Stewart gives the reader an uncanny feel
for the way mathematicians think and provides a succinct yet remarkably broad overview extending
from the invention of numbers to unsolved problems that bedevil contemporary mathematicians and
cosmologists. His elegant narrative concludes with a look at today's emerging sciences of chaos and
complexity, which reveal that nature's seeming anarchy is bound by rules. Both novices and advanced
students will find this an enlightening and rewarding exploration. QPBC triple main selection, Library of
Science dual main selection, BOMC alternate.

Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Ian Stewart is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick and is well known for his writing
and broadcasting about mathematics for nonspecialists. He has written over 140 research papers on
such subjects as symmetry in dynamics, pattern formation, chaos, and mathematical biology, as well as
numerous popular books, including Letters to a Young Mathematician, Does God Play Dice?, What Shape
Is a Snowflake?, Nature's Numbers, The Annotated Flatland, and Flatterland. He was elected a Fellow of
the Royal Society in 2001. He lives in Coventry, England.
this fourth section, Emerson discusses the relationship between nature and language: Words represent
objects in nature; these individual objects signify spiritual realities; and nature symbolizes spirituality.

To explain how words represent natural objects, Emerson uses etymology — the origin and
development of words — to illustrate that abstract terms are derived from words for physical things.
According to this view, which has been discredited by modern linguists, language is a series of
metaphors, symbols representing other things. For example, at one time spirit evoked the word wind;
we use the word heart to express emotion; and head is often synonymous with reason. These meanings
are incorporated into our language to such a great extent that we forget the ways that words and their
meanings originate.

Nature, as the interpreter between people, supplies the language that people use to communicate with.
A river, for example, expresses the passage of time, and the seasons of the year correspond to the
stages of human growth. Emerson naively assumes that these correspondences are universal and
understood by all human beings. For example, he says that all people recognize that light and dark
figuratively express knowledge and ignorance, respectively. This theme of universal understanding is
emphasized further when he claims that each individual shares a universal soul linking that person to all
others, as well as to the whole of nature.

This point about language acting as an interpreter between people recalls the idea of creation in the
essay's introduction, where Emerson suggested that the act of creation and the vitality associated with
that act have been lost. Here, he provides a reason for this loss of creativity: We are too easily corrupted
by desires, including the desire for riches, for pleasure, and for power. Because these desires overly
complicate our lives, we become distanced from nature's restorative powers, and the vital act of
creation is lost: "New imagery ceases to be created," and words become tools that we use to deceive
each other.

In the third section of this chapter, Emerson discusses how nature assumes spiritual dimensions through
our use of language. The reasoning behind this claim is complex. Our human laws appear to mimic
nature's laws, yet over time we have blurred the distinction between our laws and nature's. However,
we cannot consider nature as something totally outside ourselves because "the whole of nature,"
Emerson states, "is a metaphor of the human mind," established so that we might have control over our
lives. For example, he equates laws of physics as equivalent to rules of moral conduct.
Another important theme in this essay concerns the question of accessibility. Discussing the relationship
between the intellect and nature, Emerson observes that the language used to make sense of the world
can be known by all of us, not just poets: "This relationship between the mind and matter is not fancied
by some poets, but stands in the will of God, and so is free to be known by all men." For those of us who
are unsure of just how nature will become accessible, he assures us that "by degrees" we can come to
understand nature and our relationship to it, and the world eventually will become "an open book" from
which all can read

Defining mathematics as a system of thought for recognizing and exploiting patterns, Scientific American
math columnist Stewart takes readers on an exciting, lucid voyage of discovery as he investigates
patterns of form, number, shape and movement in the world around us. His examples range from water
dripping slowly from a tap to the symmetries of molecules, viruses and galaxies and from a snail's spiral
shell to biological evolution and the dynamics of solar systems. Making forays into the history of
mathematics and the role of mathematics in human culture, Stewart gives the reader an uncanny feel
for the way mathematicians think and provides a succinct yet remarkably broad overview extending
from the invention of numbers to unsolved problems that bedevil contemporary mathematicians and
cosmologists. His elegant narrative concludes with a look at today's emerging sciences of chaos and
complexity, which reveal that nature's seeming anarchy is bound by rules. Both novices and advanced
students will find this an enlightening and rewarding exploration. QPBC triple main selection, Library of
Science dual main selection, BOMC alternate. (Aug.)

Mathematics has the power to open our eyes to new and unsuspected regularities in nature - the secret
structure of a cloud or the hidden rhythms of the weather. This book aims to equip the reader with a
mathematician's eye, changing the way we view the world.