Dan Rockmore's book: Stalking the Riemann Hypothesis

Stalking the Riemann Hypothesis
Pantheon Books, New York, 2005
Dan Rockmore

As the stakes increase, Prime-Number theory Moves Closer to Proof
Wall Street Journal,Science Journal
Sharon Begley

The Proof: an interview with Dan Rockmore
New Hampshire Public April 12. 2005 John Walters

The WSJ review reports that "He is possibly the only radio math commentator in the US, regularly reading essays on the Vermont Public Radio, illustrating the subject's (mathematics) scope and range through real-life experiences" (As a long time VPR listener I can assure you he is the only one). You can find 29 of these commentaries here. They have jazzy titles like "Math, a love story", Halving Your Cake, The Rare Beuaty of Nine and could lead to interesting discussions in a math class after the students had lisened to one of them

With this book Dan attempts to describe the Prime Number Theorem and its history to the general public without using formulas. He does this by explaining the relevant mathematical concepts in terms of concepts famililer to his readers. For example the exponential function and rate of increase are discussed in terms of the spread of a rumor and the logarithm in terms of the Rickter scale. Density is described ifirst in terms of population density. remarking that the average number of people per square mile living in South Dekota is quite different from that of New Jersey. He then writes:

Similarly, we can ask how many prime numbers "live in the neighboood" of a particular number. Gauss's estimates imply that as we traipse along the number line with basket in hans, picking up primes, we will eventally acquaire them at a rate apporaching the reciprocal of the logarithm of the position that weve just passed.

.Along the way Dan gives a lively discussion of the mathematicians Euler, Gauss, Riemann and many others up to present day mathematicians working on solving the Riemann Hypothesis. He also gives the readers an understanding of what mathematics and mathematial research is all about.

Of course Retrieved from "http://chance.dartmouth.edu/chancewiki/index.php/Stalking_the_Riemann_Hypothesis"