Contents

Why Equations?

1   The squaw on the hippopotamus

Pythagoras’s Theorem

2   Shortening the proceedings

Logarithms

3   Ghosts of departed quantities

Calculus

4   The system of the world

Newton’s Law of Gravity

5   Portent of the ideal world

The Square Root of Minus One

6   Much ado about knotting

Euler’s Formula for Polyhedra

7   Patterns of chance

Normal Distribution

8   Good vibrations

Wave Equation

9   Ripples and blips

Fourier Transform

10   The ascent of humanity

Navier–Stokes Equation

11   Waves in the ether

Maxwell’s Equations

12   Law and disorder

Second Law of Thermodynamics

13   One thing is absolute

Relativity

14   Quantum weirdness

Schrödinger’s Equation

15   Codes, communications, and computers

Information Theory

16   The imbalance of nature

Chaos Theory

17   The Midas formula

Black–Scholes Equation

Where Next?

Notes

Illustration Credits

Index