The Gravity of Math

"On November 25th, 1915, Albert Einstein published his field equations of general relativity and reinvented gravity. Rather than being some mysterious unseen force pulling objects together, gravity, Einstein told the world, is a manifestation of the curvature of space-time caused by the presence of massive objects. But Einstein's theory wasn't born in a vacuum, not even the vacuum of space. Instead, the theory of general relativity relies upon complicated geometry; Einstein worked closely with mathematicians Marcel Grossmann, David Hilbert, Tullio Levi-Civita, and others as he pieced together his theory of gravity. In The Gravity of Math, the writer Steve Nadis and mathematician Shing-Tung Yau tell the story of how our view of the universe has been shaped and informed by mathematics, particularly when it comes to the enigmatic workings of gravity. Mathematicians have played a pivotal role in investigating relativity and gravity, gaining insights on phenomena like black holes, gravitational waves, and the Big Bang - in some cases uncovering key results decades, or even a century, before any experimental or observational data became available. An insightful and comprehensive study, The Gravity of Math explores how our understanding of math has defined our understanding of the universe. Gravity's reach is ostensibly boundless, and so is that of mathematics, which can carry us to the edge of infinity and back"--