Weirder Maths ― At the Edge of the Possible

Since there is something rather than nothing, could nothing exist?

Can you make the perfect labyrinth?

Does a quantum event have to be observed before it’s ‘real’?

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any stranger, David Darling and Agnijo Banerjee’s reveal ‘bubble maths’ has been studied since the second century, the counterintuitive world of quantum can be described perfectly by mathematics and the idea that maths and art couldn’t be further apart is utter nonsense.

From centuries-old conundrums to eccentric geniuses like Évariste Galois (he failed the entrance exams at École Polytechnique twice because he couldn’t explain how he’d arrived at his correct answers) to how the strangest maths connects to the everyday, Darling and Banerjee transform the bewildering into the beautiful, delighting us once again.

David Darling is a science writer and astronomer. He is the author of many books, including the bestselling Equations of Eternity and Mayday!: A History of Flight through its Martyrs, Oddballs and Daredevils. He lives in Dundee, Scotland.

Agnijo Banerjee is a maths prodigy and a student of Darling’s. At the age of thirteen he attained the highest possible score on Mensa’s IQ test andand in 2018 he won the Gold medal in the International Maths Olympiad, becoming the first person from the UK to obtain a perfect score in 24 years. As an individual performer he was joint number one in the world.