Then give her this book! It seems that almost all the reviewers had the same experience: we read this book at an early age, and it was so fascinating, so inspiring, and so magical that it directed us into math and science for the rest of our lives. In my case the book was loaned to me when I was about 12, by my best friend's father. As a result, when I wrote MY first math book (which cannot begin to compare with Gamow's!) thirty-five years later, I dedicated it to my friend's father in gratitude. The book explains how mathematics and science really works, in language which a young person with an eighth grade education can understand. Everyone thinks it takes a genius to understand relativity, but there are lots of fifteen-year-olds walking around with a decent understanding of Special Relativity simply because they read this book.
But don't be misled into thinking this book is just for young people. It's for anyone who thirsts for knowledge and understanding, anyone who realizes that it doesn't require an alien life form to understand physics and math. Gamow discusses some of the great unsolved problems in mathematics (at least two of which - the four-color problem and Fermat's Last Theorem - have been solved since the book was written), the theory of relativity, the usefulness of imaginary numbers (square roots of negatives), geometry of more than three dimensions, and many other topics which most people think are accessible only to those anointed with stratospheric IQ's. But Gamow's writing is so clear and entertaining that you'll come away wondering why EVERYBODY doesn't understand those topics.
A particularly vivid memory I have of the book is Gamow's demonstration that there are different sizes of infinity. He didn't originate the idea, of course; it was first thought of by a mathematician named Georg Cantor. But once again Gamow makes the mathematics so clear and accessible that I was enthralled. You will be too.
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