This revised and greatly expanded second edition of the Russian text contains a wealth of new information about the lives and accomplishments of more than a dozen scientists throughout five centuries of history: from the first steps in algebra up to new achievements in geometry in connection with physics. The heroes of the book are renowned figures from early eras, as well some scientists of last century.

A unique mixture of mathematics, physics, and history, this volume provides biographical glimpses of scientists and their contributions in the context of the social and political background of their times.

Written for: Undergraduates, high school students and teachers, general audience

• Preface to the English Edition
• Preface to the Second Edition
• From the Preface to the First Russian Edition
• Translators Notes
• Ars Magna (The Great Art)
• Two Tales of Galileo
• Christiaan Huygens & Pendulum Clocks
• Secrets of the Cycloid
• Blaise Pascal
• The Beginnings of Higher Geometry
• Leonhard Euler
• Joseph Louis Lagrange
• Pierre-Simon Laplace
• Prince of Mathematicians
• Felix Klein
• The Magic World of Henri Poincaré
• The Enigma of Ramanujan
• On the Advantages of Coordinates and the Art of Chaining Hyperboloids
• The Complex World of Roger Penrose