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Pythagorean Crimes
Athens, 1929. Stefanos Kantartzis is found murdered, and Michael Igerinos, his best friend of 30 years, is being questioned by the police as the last person to see him alive. 

While looking at his dead friend’s body, Michael is immediately taken back to the late summer of 1900 when he and Stefanos first met in the crammed Sorbonne University lecture hall. The story of their friendship begins during the Second International Congress of Mathematics—an event that was to become a landmark for 20th century mathematical research.

At the root of this historically based work of fiction lies the question as to whether the solution to a mathematical problem could inspire such passion, so intense and perilous, as to drive someone to murder.

The story takes the reader behind the scenes of academia, into the world of Bertrand Russell, Hilbert, Poincaré, and Gödel, and through the streets of Bohemian Paris at the heyday of Montmartre, the Moulin Rouge, and the “Zut”—the infamous hangout of Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso, Max Jacob, and many other colorful characters.

Pythagorean Crimes follows in the tradition of popular mathematical fiction like Doxiadis’ Uncle Petros and Goldbach’s Conjecture and Martinez’ Oxford Murders. Yet brings with it old-world charm and the cultural richness of the social, political, scientific and intellectual circles of early 20th century France, Germany, and Greece.


 
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Pythagorean Crimes
Athens, 1929. Stefanos Kantartzis is found murdered, and Michael Igerinos, his best friend of 30 years, is being questioned by the police as the last person to see him alive. 

While looking at his dead friend’s body, Michael is immediately taken back to the late summer of 1900 when he and Stefanos first met in the crammed Sorbonne University lecture hall. The story of their friendship begins during the Second International Congress of Mathematics—an event that was to become a landmark for 20th century mathematical research.

At the root of this historically based work of fiction lies the question as to whether the solution to a mathematical problem could inspire such passion, so intense and perilous, as to drive someone to murder.

The story takes the reader behind the scenes of academia, into the world of Bertrand Russell, Hilbert, Poincaré, and Gödel, and through the streets of Bohemian Paris at the heyday of Montmartre, the Moulin Rouge, and the “Zut”—the infamous hangout of Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso, Max Jacob, and many other colorful characters.

Pythagorean Crimes follows in the tradition of popular mathematical fiction like Doxiadis’ Uncle Petros and Goldbach’s Conjecture and Martinez’ Oxford Murders. Yet brings with it old-world charm and the cultural richness of the social, political, scientific and intellectual circles of early 20th century France, Germany, and Greece.


 
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Pythagorean Crimes

Pythagorean Crimes

by Tefcros Michaelides
Pythagorean Crimes

Pythagorean Crimes

by Tefcros Michaelides

Overview

Athens, 1929. Stefanos Kantartzis is found murdered, and Michael Igerinos, his best friend of 30 years, is being questioned by the police as the last person to see him alive. 

While looking at his dead friend’s body, Michael is immediately taken back to the late summer of 1900 when he and Stefanos first met in the crammed Sorbonne University lecture hall. The story of their friendship begins during the Second International Congress of Mathematics—an event that was to become a landmark for 20th century mathematical research.

At the root of this historically based work of fiction lies the question as to whether the solution to a mathematical problem could inspire such passion, so intense and perilous, as to drive someone to murder.

The story takes the reader behind the scenes of academia, into the world of Bertrand Russell, Hilbert, Poincaré, and Gödel, and through the streets of Bohemian Paris at the heyday of Montmartre, the Moulin Rouge, and the “Zut”—the infamous hangout of Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso, Max Jacob, and many other colorful characters.

Pythagorean Crimes follows in the tradition of popular mathematical fiction like Doxiadis’ Uncle Petros and Goldbach’s Conjecture and Martinez’ Oxford Murders. Yet brings with it old-world charm and the cultural richness of the social, political, scientific and intellectual circles of early 20th century France, Germany, and Greece.


 

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781930972278
Publisher: Parmenides Publishing
Publication date: 10/20/2008
Series: Delete Ser.
Pages: 300
Product dimensions: 5.40(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range: 3 Months to 18 Years

About the Author

Tefcros Michaelides holds a PhD from Pierre et Marie Curie University in Paris, and was awarded “Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques” by the French Government. He is a Professor of Mathematics at Athens College, Greece. His published works include Mathimatika Epikera(A Mathematician’s View of Everyday Events), and numerous original studies on the role of mathematics in literature from antiquity to the modern era, and from Chinese texts to the newest science-fiction works. He has also translated many books into Greek, including A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, the widely acclaimed and successful The Parrot's Theorem by Denis Guedj, Timescape by Gregory Benford, and D’Alembert's Principle and Mobius Dick by Andrew Crumey.        

What People are Saying About This

Eli Maor

"Pythagorean Crimes is a masterly-told story of romance, art, history, political intrigue, and mathematics, all woven together in a thriller that will be sure to captivate you from the first page to the last."--(Eli Maor, Ph.D., Loyola University, Chicago, The Pythagorean Theorem: a 4,000-Year History and To Infinity and Beyond: A Cultural History of the Infinite)

Apostolos Doxiadis

"Tefcros Michaelidis sets his mystery of the murder of a Greek mathematics high-school teacher against the backdrop of the history of early modernism and the great philosophical questions at the heart of modern mathematics. It's a delightful synthesis, at once great fun to read and insightful, giving a rare side view of the cultural significance of Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem."--(Apostolos Doxiadis, Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture)

Richard D. McKirahan Jr

"Pythagorean Crimes is a complex murder mystery with a well developed plot and characters. As a bonus-and integral part of the story-it presents an accurate picture of the historical events in Greece and of Greek society in the early twentieth century as well as an eminently readable account of the revolution in mathematics that was taking place in that period and the passions it aroused."--(Richard D. McKirahan Jr., Pomona College, Edwin Clarence Norton Professor of Classics)

Mark Ryan

"A fun, interesting read. I especially enjoyed the encounters between the mathematicians and artists in Montmartre cabarets. The book is timely given the recent proof (in 2006) of the Poincare conjecture. Henri Poincare was one of the leading mathematicians at the Paris International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris in 1900 where the novel opens. Four years later he made his famous conjecture which then became one of the million dollar millennium problems in 2000. I recommend Pythagorean Crimes to anyone interested in the history of mathematics."--(Mark Ryan, The Math Center, Chicago, Illinois, Calculus For Dummies and Geometry for Dummies)

Amy Szczepanski

"This novel gives us a glimpse of what it was like to be an eager, young, and up-and-coming scholar during a time where intellectual pursuits were ripe for the picking.
Pythagorean Crimes shares what it's like to have a single-minded focus on a mathematical problem. This novel transports the reader (even one with no mathematical background) into a world where the pursuit of mathematical truth is an all-consuming force."--(Dr. Amy Szczepanski, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pre-Algebra (2008))

Andrew Crumey

"Like Denis Guedj's the Parrot's Theorem, or Apostolos Doxiadis's Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture, this book couches mathematical ideas in narrative form, offering the reader what amounts to a brief history of the subject. But it also shows a wealth of historical research, even having room for appearances by Picasso and Apollinaire, as it takes us from the rarefied atmosphere of the seminar room to the haunts of the Parisian demimonde."--(Dr. Andrew Crumey, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Author of Mobius Dick (2004), Mr. Mee (2000) and
Music, in a Foreign Language (1994))

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