Warwick maths professor’s book success

A book recently released by Ian Stewart, Professor of Mathematics at Warwick University, has proved to be a huge Christmas hit.

The book, entitled “Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities”, has gone on to sell over 36,000 copies since it was first published. Ideal as a gift, it includes clues to many of the world’s most puzzling mathematic mysteries, explanations of Fermat’s last theorem, the Poincaré Conjecture and the P=NP problem, an unsolved question in theoretical computer science for which a million dollar prize is on offer, feature among the many mathematical curiosities contained within the book.

Some of the material is taken from maths problems Professor Stewart thought of as a teenager. His interest in maths led him to read maths books and keep notes on the problems he found particularly interesting.

He said: “A lot of what I was reading about was what I wasn’t being told at school. I’ve kept the notebooks and there are about 10 of the 180 items from when I was 14.”

Professor Stewart, a recipient of the 1995 Michael Faraday Medal, awarded annually to the scientist or engineer who best endeavours to communicate science to the public, has also published a number of science-fiction related books over the years. Among others, he has collaborated with Terry Pratchett on three popular science books centred on Pratchett’s popular Discworld series of novels.