The Wonderful World of Mathematics by Lancelot Hogben

And then by the time I got to be 15 or 16 and met calculus, all of a sudden my interest was aroused, because calculus was clearly incredibly powerful, it was certainly related to physics and space research, which was the original motivation, but I couldn’t make any sense of it. But I knew I needed to learn it, and I put a lot of effort. I didn’t really like it, I was moderately good at it, I was actually one of the better kids in the class, but that was at a very young age. So I was interested in physics, and to learn physics, you need to use, to learn mathematics. Well, I wanted to become a physicist, ’cause I grew up in the post-Sputnik era or when the Sputnik era was beginning. For various reasons, I got interested in sort of. Keith Devlin: Oh, wow, that was basically when I was growing up in the UK in the late ’50s, early ’60s. So how did you get started on that, Professor Devlin? And today we have Professor Keith Devlin from Stanford University visiting with us today, and I am excited because Professor Devlin loves to communicate the importance of science and math to the general person. Jed Macosko at Wake Forest University, and Academic Influence. He died in 1975.( Editor’s Note: The following transcript has been lightly edited to improve clarity.) 0:00:15.0Calculus was key Hogben's academic career included stints at universities in England, Scotland, Canada, South Africa, and Guyana. The best plan Hogben could devise to return home to England was by making a 20,000-mile detour through Sweden, Russia, Siberia, Japan, and the United States-a journey he details in Author in Transit, a travelogue complete with commentary on politics, culture, science, and history. One of Hogben's most ambitious projects emerged rather accidentally in 1940, he and his daughter were trapped in Oslo, Norway, by the German invasion. His many books for children include First Great Inventions (1950) and Before Science Began (1970). In Mathematics for a Million (1936) and Science for a Citizen (1938), Hogben offered adult readers detailed and readable texts on difficult subjects. He is best remembered for his many books for adults and children that attempted to make math and science available to popular audiences.

Hogben was educated at Cambridge as a biologist, but never limited himself to a single field of inquiry. Lancelot Hogben-a prolific British writer on topics as diverse as science, history, and politics-was born in Southsea, England, in 1895.

The Wonderful World of Mathematics by Lancelot Hogben