Steven Strogatz, professor of Applied Mathematics at Cornell University, author of books like The Calculus of Friendship, The Joy of X and a host of a popular podcast in association with Quanta magazine, in the book Infinite Powers holds the view that the world is deeply mathematical. This he points out by marvelling at the mystery that our universe obeys laws of nature which always turns out to be expressible in the language of calculus; an equation that describes the difference between something right now, and the same thing an instant later, or between something right here and the same thing infinitesimally done by.

First impressions

   The story of calculus is human’s most inspiring collective achievement. In a nutshell calculus wants to make hard problems simple – instead of cutting a big problem into handful of bite size piece, it keeps cutting and cutting; called differential calculus, relentlessly until the....