Let inspiration be your compass

This book is about the lost lecture of Richard Feynman on the motion of the planets around the sun. It is not a book by Feynman but by David and Judith Goodstein. The book contains Feynman’s elementary proof that planets move in elliptical orbits around the sun (being one of the focus points) by first showing that the so-called velocity orbit of each planet is a perfect circle. For this fact he “only” needs the famous laws of Newton and the law of gravity. Elementary, but not simple at all. Feynman's reasoning is based on the work of Sir Isaac Newton, however he deviates at the point where he could not follow the arguments of Newton anymore. Feynman challenged himself in providing a geometric proof in the tradition of the ancient scholars instead of using the nowadays more custom analytical methods. As he states himself his proof is elementary but not simple. The whole idea behind this proof is truly elegant. Instead of focusing on the orbit swiped out by the "position...

This book is about the life and work of Kurt Gödel. And what better way to start a book on Gödel’s Incompleteness theorems, by adding, as a first note in your book, a self-referencing note? That is what Rebecca Goldstein does in “Incompleteness”, by ending her first note with an additional note that there are two types of notes used in her book, namely footnotes and endnotes. But in her charming book she does much more than only adding notes to some theorems, by explaining that self-reference, and the logical paradoxes it leads to, are really at the heart of Gödel’s proof of his incompleteness theorems. She outlines the proof very well leaving out the technical details, but in such a way that an interested layman can still appreciate the crux of it. Next to her explanation on the incompleteness theorems, she does a great job by putting the work done by Kurt Gödel in its historical context and describing the man behind the theorems. And what a man Gödel was: closely befriended with Al...