As machines do more and more of the grunt work in our age of artificial intelligence, a deeper appreciation of mathematics intellectual artistry, and the opportunity to try it out, might be all we have left. Lockhart offers us a road to that end. Let the mending begin. -- Dan Rockmore * New York Review of Books * Suitable for teachers of algebra at any level, and for anyone who wants to understand the algebraic art from scratch. It is itself an artwork, produced by a masterly teacher. -- Snezana Lawrence * Times Literary Supplement * A most enjoyable and enlightening book. -- Owen Toller * Mathematical Gazette * In this masterful exploration of algebra, Paul Lockhart leads us from the puzzle of solving for x to the dramatic climax of Galois theory, with fields, groups, and the unsolvability of the quintic appearing along the way. Its a celebration of algebras mysteries, served up in Lockhart's signature style: fun, precise, and irresistibly satisfying. -- Steven Strogatz, author of Infinite Powers Paul Lockharts books have inspired a generation of math educators to seek better ways to teach the subjectto focus on its beauty and present it in a way that appeals to our natural curiosity. The Mending of Broken Bones does this on an even grander scale, asking what it means to do mathematics and what we stand to gain from its pursuit. Lockharts remarkable skill is his ability to provide a compelling answer to these questions on every page. Along the way, youll learn a lot of math, and you'll learn even more about math. -- Keith Devlin, author of The Millennium Problems A splendid book. A marvelous introduction to the magic of algebra. -- Barry Mazur, author of Imagining Numbers
