Tommaso Castellani
Professor Z and infinity
«Do you really want me to write here, on the blackboard, the square root of 34?».
Everyone scream: «Yes, yes sir, please write it!».
«Do you want me, now, this morning, take the chalk and write in decimals exactly what is the square root of 34?».
Stronger screams: «Yes! Sure! Please!».
Professor Z took the chalk and with an exasperating slowness, he approached the chalkboard. He was moving like a slow-motion movie, frame-by-frame. Finally the chalk touched the surface of the chalkboard. Professor Z slowly turned to us.
«I can’t».
- Series: Fuori Collana
Subject: Science
Year: 2017
Month: february
Format: 13 x 20 cm
Pages: 144
The enigmatic Professor Z, who refuses to write the square root of 34, accompanies Giulio to the discovery of the secrets of infinity. Meanwhile, something strange happens in the classroom: Michele has disappeared and the students fear he has been kidnapped. Giulio and his new friend Ivano, who share the passion for math, are looking for the solution of the mystery.
This novel tells us about the entrance of the young protagonists in adulthood, with all their strong emotions, epiphanies and disappointments, and tells us about mathematics: Giulio discovers the complexity of the surrounding world – the school and difficult relationships with peers – and in the meantime he discovers the secrets of Pythagorean triples, irrational numbers, and the concept of infinity, a topic dealt in the whole book.
A book for young and less young people, where the two misteries – the mathematics of infinity and the disappearing of Michele – are brilliantly twisted together.
Articolo acquistabile con Carta cultura giovani e merito e Carta del Docente