The story of mathematical proof – with John Stillwell

Discover the surprising history of proof, a mathematically vital concept. In this talk John covers the areas of number theory, non-Euclidean geometry, topology, and logic, and peer into the deep chasm between natural number arithmetic and the real numbers. Buy John's book here: https://geni.us/mathsproof Watch the Q&A here: https://youtu.be/aPyWM5cQkeQ This video was filmed by the Ri on 24 January 2023. John Stillwell was born in Melbourne, Australia, and taught at Monash University from 1970 until 2001, before moving to USF in 2002. He was an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in 1994, and his mathematical writing has been honoured with the Chauvenet Prize of the Mathematical Association of America in 2005 and the book award of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities in 2009. Among his best-known books are 'Mathematics and Its History' and 'Yearning for the Impossible'. His interests are history of mathematics in the 19th and 20th centuries, number theory, geometry, algebra, topology, foundations of mathematics. -- A very special thank you to our Patreon supporters who help make these videos happen, especially: modsiw, Anton Ragin, Edward Unthank, Robert L Winer, Andy Carpenter, William Hudson Don McLaughlin, efkinel lo, Martin Paull, Ben Wynne-Simmons, Ivo Danihelka, Kevin Winoto, Jonathan Killin, Stephan Giersche, William Billy Robillard, Jeffrey Schweitzer, Frances Dunne, jonas.app, Tim Karr, Alan Latteri, David Crowner, Matt Townsend, THOMAS N TAMADA, Andrew McGhee, Paul Brown, David Schick, Dave Ostler, Osian Gwyn Williams, David Lindo, Roger Baker, Rebecca Pan -- The Ri is on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution and Twitter: http://twitter.com/ri_science and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/royalinstitution and TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ri_science Listen to the Ri podcast: https://anchor.fm/ri-science-podcast Our editorial policy: https://www.rigb.org/editing-ri-talks-and-moderating-comments Subscribe for the latest science videos: http://bit.ly/RiNewsletter Product links on this page may be affiliate links which means it won't cost you any extra but we may earn a small commission if you decide to purchase through the link.