The Golden Ratio

“[An] entertaining review of the history of mathematics … A nice mental workout.” — Linda Schlossberg, San Francisco Chronicle“Engagingly enthusiastic … It’s hard not to feel inspired and even unsettled by the hidden order Livio reveals.” — New Scientist “Numbers aficionados will delight in astrophysicist Livio’s history of an irrational number whose fame is second only to that of pi… . Livio’s encyclopedic selection of subjects, supported by dozens of illustrations, will snare anyone with a recreational interest in mathematics.” — Booklist

Mario Livio is head of the Science Division at the Hubble Space Telescope Institute, where he studies a broad range of subjects in astrophysics, particularly the rate of expansion of the universe. He is the author of one previous book, The Accelerating Universe (2000). He is a frequent public lecturer at such venues as the Smithsonian Institution and the Hayden Planetarium. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland.