Infinite Powers

How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe

By: Steven Strogatz

Narrated by: Bob Souer

Without calculus, we wouldn't have cell phones, TV, GPS, or ultrasound. We wouldn't have unraveled DNA or discovered Neptune or figured out how to put 5,000 songs in your pocket.

Though many of us were scared away from this essential, engrossing subject in high school and college, Steven Strogatz's brilliantly creative, down-to-earth history shows that calculus is not about complexity; it's about simplicity. It harnesses an unreal number - infinity - to tackle real world problems, breaking them down into easier ones and then reassembling the answers into solutions that feel miraculous.

Infinite Powers recounts how calculus tantalized and thrilled its inventors, starting with its first glimmers in ancient Greece and bringing us right up to the discovery of gravitational waves. Strogatz reveals how this form of math rose to the challenges of each age: how to determine the area of a circle with only sand and a stick; how to explain why Mars goes "backwards" sometimes; how to turn the tide in the fight against AIDS.

As Strogatz proves, calculus is truly the language of the universe. By unveiling the principles of that language, Infinite Powers makes us marvel at the world anew.

©2019 Steven Strogatz (P)2019 Tantor

beware the reader

listening now and will finish because I'm a completionist but... this reader hurts my head, he feels like someone scratching a chalkboard. I'm actually not going to finish this, it's that painful. maybe a personal issue but damn.

an excellent introduction into calculus

this book is an introduction into the topic of calculus and advanced math it does an excellent job of introducing the subject.

Great overbiew

I'm not a math person by trade although I do enjoy mathematics. This book is a great way to get a wide breadth idea of the history of calculus. I suggest this book to anyone who kind of wants to know about the math without getting too into the Weeds about how to do it. Beautifully written and excellently narrated.

Additional Results Keyfelt

It’s taught as difficult and I feel the tell of doing needs more practice. As such; narration is well versed. He teaches eccentric calculus decimal equations, a derivative to the truth of why it became it’s now of the history made, finally the student includes the ideal once understood correctly. I need thought for ratio as ideal diagnosis to quest my equated news along the way. Thank the version with figured depth to focus numerical grading.

awesome to see how we got to now in calculus.

very interesting and understandable. the review says I have to get to 15 words or

this book should be a must for every engineer

This how every course on calculus should start.

If u wold heard this story before starting calculus when I was s student I will surely have understood it s lot better.


very good book the way the writer unfold.the story is very entertaining, the narrator is very good.

Logic, performance, accurate narration

Great. The actor made calculus so tantalizing to listen. Amazing talent and expertise. I would have never listened to anything related to math if it wasn’t for his fabulous narration.

Clear conceptual overview

Answers the why of calculus. Would be a great summer read for incoming calculus students.

Elegant, clear, cutting edge.

If you're curious, but mathematically hopeless, this is splendid. I found the opening overview particularly illuminating, but throughout it joins history, to biography, to physics, to math in a clear but not condescending manner.

The why of Mathematics

excellent explanation to explain "why" and so now I can better proceed to the "how"