How Math Explains the World.pdf

ematics of Galois theory or quantum mechanics). As a result, there are

many references to Web sites in the appendix—but Web sites do disap-

pear, and I hope the reader will forgive the occasional reference to such a

site.

I hope that Hawking’s publisher is wrong. If he is right and the popula-

tion of the world is 6 billion, the thirty-third equation will reduce the po-

tential readership for this book to less than a single reader.

NOTES

1. “Give me but one firm spot on which to stand, and I will move the Earth.” The
   Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 2nd ed. (London: Oxford University Press, 1953),
   p. 14.


2. Pierre-Simon de Laplace, Theorie Analytique de Probabilites: Introduction, v. VII,
   Oeuvres (1812–1820).


3. G. H. Hardy,A Mathematician’s Apology, public-domain version available at
   http:// www .math .ualberta .ca/ ~mss/ books/ A %20Mathematician %27s %20Apology
   .pdf. This quote is from Section 10.


4. Ibid., Section 29.


5. No Ordinary Genius: The Illustrated Richard Feynman, ed. Christopher Sykes (New
   York: Norton, 1995).

Introduction xviii