The Search for the $1 Million Solution to the Greatest Problem in Mathematics.
In 1859 Bernhard Riemann, a shy German mathematician, wrote an eight-page article, giving an answer to a problem that had long puzzled mathematicians. Although he couldn't provide a proof, Riemann declared that his solution was 'very probably' true.
For the next one hundred and fifty years, the world's mathematicians have longed for a proof for the Riemann hypothesis. So great is the interest in its solution that in 2001, an American foundation offered a million-dollar prize to the first person to demonstrate that the hypothesis is correct.
The Riemann hypothesis refers to prime numbers - those that cannot be divided by any whole number except 1 - and seeks to explain where every single prime to infinity will occur.
Karl Sabbagh's gloriously inventive book makes even the airiest peaks of maths accessible and paints vivid portraits of the mathematicians who spend their days and nights on the race to solve the problem.
