The Joy of Pi by David Blatner.
Happy Pi Day from the Sr. Helen Sheehan Library!
Celebrate one of mathematics’ most well-known constants with — what else? — some pie! Join the math department in O’Connor Auditorium between 4pm and 5pm today. Learn about pi and women’s history — and enjoy pastry and prizes. Full details here.
March 14 is also the birthday of Albert Einstein, the theoretical physicist responsible for the Theory of Relativity and the famous mass-energy equivalence formula E=mc2. Einstein, who was born in Germany in 1879, immigrated to Princeton, New Jersey, in 1933 to escape the rising Nazi threat. He became a citizen in 1940 and lived out his remaining years in the U.S. He died in 1955.
Einstein received a Nobel Prize in 1921 for “his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.” In addition to his legacy of scientific discovery, Einstein also made a mark on the world as a humanitarian and a pacifist, speaking out against the oppression of European Jews and advocating caution in the development and use of atomic technologies. He was also involved with anti-war movements and the advancement of civil rights for African Americans.
Learn more about Einstein’s life and works:
Einstein on his 70th birthday.
- About time: Einstein’s unfinished revolution / Paul Davies
- The advancement of science, and its burdens: The Jefferson lecture and other essays / Gerald Holton
- The drama of Albert Einstein / Trans. by Moura Budberg
- Einstein / Jeremy Bernstein
- Einstein: A centenary volume / Ed. A.P. French
- Einstein for beginners / Joe Schwartz
- Einstein, his life and times / Philipp Frank, Trans. by George Rosen
- Einstein, the first hundred years / Ed. Maurice Goldsmith
- Einstein’s heroes: Imagining the world through the language of mathematics / Robyn Arianrhod
- Einstein’s miraculous year: Five papers that changed the face of physics / Ed. John Stachel
- Out of my later years / Albert Einstein
- “Subtle is the Lord–”: The science and the life of Albert Einstein / Abraham Pais
- The ultimate Einstein / Donald Goldsmith
To learn more about math in general, try searching the catalog for the subject heading “mathematics” or “physics” — then choose a sub-topic from the list that pops up.
