---
product_id: 188544900
title: "Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe"
price: "44.60 DT"
currency: TND
in_stock: false
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.tn/products/188544900-infinite-powers-how-calculus-reveals-the-secrets-of-the-universe
store_origin: TN
region: Tunisia
---

# Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe

**Price:** 44.60 DT
**Availability:** ❌ Out of Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe
- **How much does it cost?** 44.60 DT with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Currently out of stock
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.tn](https://www.desertcart.tn/products/188544900-infinite-powers-how-calculus-reveals-the-secrets-of-the-universe)

## Best For

- Customers looking for quality international products

## Why This Product

- Free international shipping included
- Worldwide delivery with tracking
- 15-day hassle-free returns

## Description

Without calculus, we wouldn't have cell phones, TV, GPS, or ultrasound. We wouldn't have unraveled DNA or discovered Neptune or figured out how to put 5,000 songs in your pocket. Though many of us were scared away from this essential, engrossing subject in high school and college, Steven Strogatz's brilliantly creative, down-to-earth history shows that calculus is not about complexity; it's about simplicity. It harnesses an unreal number - infinity - to tackle real world problems, breaking them down into easier ones and then reassembling the answers into solutions that feel miraculous. Infinite Powers recounts how calculus tantalized and thrilled its inventors, starting with its first glimmers in ancient Greece and bringing us right up to the discovery of gravitational waves. Strogatz reveals how this form of math rose to the challenges of each age: how to determine the area of a circle with only sand and a stick; how to explain why Mars goes "backwards" sometimes; how to turn the tide in the fight against AIDS. As Strogatz proves, calculus is truly the language of the universe. By unveiling the principles of that language, Infinite Powers makes us marvel at the world anew.

Review: Calculus: The language that God talks! - Prof. R. Feynman, after an interview with a novelist who was doing research for a book about WW. II, as they were departing, asked him if he knew calculus. No, was the reply, he didn't. ''You had better learn it'' said Feynman. ''It's the language God talks''. Mr. Strogatz starts the Introduction part of his wonderful book by telling this anecdote. He continues, ''For reasons no body understands, the universe is deeply mathematical. May be God made it that way. Or maybe it's the only way a universe with us in it could be, because non-mathematical universes can't harbor life intelligent enough to ask the question. In any case, it's a mysterious and marvelous fact that our universe obeys laws of nature that always turn out to be expressible in the language of calculus as sentences called differential equations.'' ''Such equations describe the difference between something right now and the same thing an instant later. The details differ depending on what part of nature we are talking about, but the structure of the laws is always the same... There seems to be something like a code to the universe, an operating system... Calculus taps into this order and express it.'' ''Isaac Newton was the first to glimpse this secret of the universe... If anything deserves to be called the secret of the universe, calculus is it.'' Mr. Strogatz tells the story behind how humanity discovered this strange language, how they learned to speak it fluently and finally harnessing its forecasting powers, how they used it to remake the world. He has written this book 'in an attempt to make the greatest ideas and stories of calculus accessible to everyone'. I can say that he has greatly achieved this. First, he shows that calculus is one of humankind's most inspiring collective achievements, roots going back to Archimedes, even Zeno, to the concept of infinity. He tells the development of ideas in a comfortable, casual way, demanding only average mathematical knowledge. He gives examples of applications from our time, which is familiar to most of us. He has furnished his story with very informative drawings. What is very important is that, he tries to navigate the reader within the story of development of calculus in the historical, natural order of the development, which makes it much easier for the reader to grasp the ideas. He has added some wise, sense of humor here and there which makes the reading easy and fun. The rich bibliography at the end is very useful. I was able to meet another wonderful book 'The Calculus Gallery' of William Dunham from within that bibliography. I loved the book. No wonder it was a bestseller. I highly recommend this book to everyone who is or was scared of calculus and who wants to approach to understanding 'the language of God.'
Review: Cool Discussions of Math History - This is an interesting history of calculus. The writing is entertaining and the historical facts are enlightening. I would point to some considerations on the discussion of Xeno and whether space and time being distinct would mean that movement wouldn't be possible. The author explains that in computer science and in video production, we see pixels moving and thus Xeno is wrong. But, what the author is saying doesn't conflict with Xeno's prediction and in fact supports it. You don't see pixels move. You see new pixels be drawn and give the illusion of them moving but they aren't the same pictures and in fact, each image is still, motionless and while infinity is cool, it doesn't give us any support here. One is still not two even if there are infinite many points between them and so no matter how many still images you draw (changing what we call the frame rate), you won't change the fact that with time and space being distinct, as is the case in video production and pixelated animation, that there is no motion but only a trick of your eyes to make it seem like there is. That said, this book is an interesting read and gives many insights about the math world that we all should learn. Later, there is a discussion of Bolt and getting his speed at instances. That further demonstrates Xeno's point. The reason you can ascertain Bolt's speed at an instance is that it's Bolt that is moving in space time. If space and time were distinct, you could no longer do that because Bolt wouldn't be Bolt anymore. There would have to be a bunch of individual Bolts and each one of them would occupy a space on a time line but none of them would be the previous Bolt whereas Bolt is the previous Bolt since he lives in spacetime and not in a space and a time. I get the sense, however, that the author is either joshing or there's something more that must be missing from the equation as I'm quite sure everyone knows that pixels don't move (they are static is another way to say it) and only have the illusion of movement. What is very fascinating, though, is that Xeno had figured out something that wasn't very intuitive before Einstein. In any case, this is the sort of thought the book provokes and the sort of history it presents as it takes you from the early days of algebra to the sort of calculus that Newton developed and beyond.

## Images

![Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81WRkEgwVML.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Calculus: The language that God talks!
*by S***L on July 11, 2024*

Prof. R. Feynman, after an interview with a novelist who was doing research for a book about WW. II, as they were departing, asked him if he knew calculus. No, was the reply, he didn't. ''You had better learn it'' said Feynman. ''It's the language God talks''. Mr. Strogatz starts the Introduction part of his wonderful book by telling this anecdote. He continues, ''For reasons no body understands, the universe is deeply mathematical. May be God made it that way. Or maybe it's the only way a universe with us in it could be, because non-mathematical universes can't harbor life intelligent enough to ask the question. In any case, it's a mysterious and marvelous fact that our universe obeys laws of nature that always turn out to be expressible in the language of calculus as sentences called differential equations.'' ''Such equations describe the difference between something right now and the same thing an instant later. The details differ depending on what part of nature we are talking about, but the structure of the laws is always the same... There seems to be something like a code to the universe, an operating system... Calculus taps into this order and express it.'' ''Isaac Newton was the first to glimpse this secret of the universe... If anything deserves to be called the secret of the universe, calculus is it.'' Mr. Strogatz tells the story behind how humanity discovered this strange language, how they learned to speak it fluently and finally harnessing its forecasting powers, how they used it to remake the world. He has written this book 'in an attempt to make the greatest ideas and stories of calculus accessible to everyone'. I can say that he has greatly achieved this. First, he shows that calculus is one of humankind's most inspiring collective achievements, roots going back to Archimedes, even Zeno, to the concept of infinity. He tells the development of ideas in a comfortable, casual way, demanding only average mathematical knowledge. He gives examples of applications from our time, which is familiar to most of us. He has furnished his story with very informative drawings. What is very important is that, he tries to navigate the reader within the story of development of calculus in the historical, natural order of the development, which makes it much easier for the reader to grasp the ideas. He has added some wise, sense of humor here and there which makes the reading easy and fun. The rich bibliography at the end is very useful. I was able to meet another wonderful book 'The Calculus Gallery' of William Dunham from within that bibliography. I loved the book. No wonder it was a bestseller. I highly recommend this book to everyone who is or was scared of calculus and who wants to approach to understanding 'the language of God.'

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Cool Discussions of Math History
*by M***L on October 30, 2025*

This is an interesting history of calculus. The writing is entertaining and the historical facts are enlightening. I would point to some considerations on the discussion of Xeno and whether space and time being distinct would mean that movement wouldn't be possible. The author explains that in computer science and in video production, we see pixels moving and thus Xeno is wrong. But, what the author is saying doesn't conflict with Xeno's prediction and in fact supports it. You don't see pixels move. You see new pixels be drawn and give the illusion of them moving but they aren't the same pictures and in fact, each image is still, motionless and while infinity is cool, it doesn't give us any support here. One is still not two even if there are infinite many points between them and so no matter how many still images you draw (changing what we call the frame rate), you won't change the fact that with time and space being distinct, as is the case in video production and pixelated animation, that there is no motion but only a trick of your eyes to make it seem like there is. That said, this book is an interesting read and gives many insights about the math world that we all should learn. Later, there is a discussion of Bolt and getting his speed at instances. That further demonstrates Xeno's point. The reason you can ascertain Bolt's speed at an instance is that it's Bolt that is moving in space time. If space and time were distinct, you could no longer do that because Bolt wouldn't be Bolt anymore. There would have to be a bunch of individual Bolts and each one of them would occupy a space on a time line but none of them would be the previous Bolt whereas Bolt is the previous Bolt since he lives in spacetime and not in a space and a time. I get the sense, however, that the author is either joshing or there's something more that must be missing from the equation as I'm quite sure everyone knows that pixels don't move (they are static is another way to say it) and only have the illusion of movement. What is very fascinating, though, is that Xeno had figured out something that wasn't very intuitive before Einstein. In any case, this is the sort of thought the book provokes and the sort of history it presents as it takes you from the early days of algebra to the sort of calculus that Newton developed and beyond.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Infinite indeed, but what is infinity?
*by G***R on October 20, 2019*

This is not intended to be a textbook on calculus. And, like a lot of calculus itself, it is and it isn’t - quite. It is, however, a book about the history of calculus, which is fascinating, and the degree to which the universe seems to have been coded in a way that calculus seems to have an uncanny ability to explain is, well, somewhat inexplicable. But as the author notes in the beginning, “For reasons nobody understands, the universe is deeply mathematical. Maybe God made it that way. Or maybe it’s the only way a universe with us in it could be, because nonmathematical universes can’t harbor life intelligent enough to ask the question.” How often do you hear a Professor of Applied Mathematics, at an Ivy League school no less, say something even remotely so self-reflective? Steven Strogatz is a great communicator who is both a great mathematician and who, it is easy to tell, gets goose bumps every time he thinks about the wonders of calculus. I am not a professional mathematician but have always found mathematics to be both fascinating and, well, not easy, but very relatable. It’s predictable, and that’s comforting once you can see the pattern. If you don’t feel quite that way you may – spoiler alert – find this book to be a bit more like a textbook than advertised. There are plenty of equations and symbols and the like. That is, after all, the alphabet of calculus. But here’s the thing. Unless you are also a math professor, you can ignore all of that. Just go with the prose. It tells the same story, but in a far more relatable form to the average lover of the written word. Just ignore the symbols. If you do you will miss nothing and you will find the professor’s enthusiasm to be quite contagious. The beauty of the book is that it is written from a perspective of humility. Both in terms of the enormity of calculus (Most people will relate to the subject matter simply as science.), and in terms of how far we have yet to go in terms of truly understanding the universe and the reality that defines it. We’ve only explained the tip of the iceberg. Math is a human convention. It’s not hydrogen or oxygen. It’s not even dark matter, which we “know” makes up most of the universe but which no one has ever isolated, although the Chinese are close. It is very accurate at deciphering reality if getting close to the “real” explanation is close enough. But close is only close. It isn’t reality itself. Reality is, after all, by definition, real. That is, ultimately, the problem with the promise of AI. Because AI is ultimately dependent on calculus and other disciplines of mathematics, it will get very smart, but it will never be human. What it will do, however, if we let it, is dumb down what it means to be smart to a standard perfectly suited to its abilities but ignorant of its shortcomings. That’s why, despite the promises of the silicon gods, we are very unlikely to see fully autonomous vehicles for decades to come. The only way that could happen is if we take all human drivers off the road overnight (The AI isn’t the problem; it’s us. We are unpredictable.), switch every vehicle to an autonomous vehicle all at the same time, and rebuild our infrastructure to accommodate the vulnerabilities of the various disciplines of mathematics on which the technology is based. And that’s obviously not going to happen. Nor do we want it to. Pi, as but one example, despite what you were taught in school, is not a number; it’s a range. It’s a small range, to be sure, but it’s a range nonetheless. In other words, it is precise enough for most things, but it is NOT the fabric of the universe. Science is a methodology for understanding reality; it is not, in the most literal sense, reality itself. Reality is not “waiting” to be discovered. It is. And just as an artist can draw a landscape, science can draw reality. Neither, however, IS reality. The history of calculus is truly fascinating. And that, to me, as a reader, makes it entertaining. Newton and Galileo and all the rest were truly amazing people. It boggles the mind to think of what they concluded when they did. Perhaps the book’s greatest contribution, however, is that it will put Silicon Valley in perspective. You may think your smart phone has changed your life in ways that nothing else possibly could. You’re wrong. I am a great admirer of Steve Jobs but James Clerk Maxwell (a Scot in the 1860s) changed your life in ways that Steve did not come close to. And that is why this book is so timely. Calculus is changing our world, and not entirely in good ways. If ever we needed perspective we need it now. Math is elegant. It was designed that way. (Remember that it is not of the universe, like rain or sunshine.) And it does have an uncanny reliability that helps us to understand the world around us. Take GPS. We all use it. We all rely on it. But did you know that GPS is all about time, not navigation. Those GPS satellites don’t “see” you; they time you. It only works because scientists came to understand the mathematics of what we call time at a very precise level. That’s not reality, of course, because time is a concept (time, even as we understand it, varies with altitude), but it is close enough to give us GPS. And isn’t that an amazing thing. I think so. And that’s why I found this to be such an enjoyable book, beyond the fact that I am simply stimulated by really enthusiastic people and Professor Strogatz is one of the most enthusiastic people I have had the privilege to read in a really long time. If, on the other hand, you prefer a good murder mystery, or something with a little romance, at least, you won’t find it in this book. But that’s just my opinion. A little like pi, if you will. Pretty accurate, but not reality itself. Decide for yourself. You won’t be wasting your time.

---

## Why Shop on Desertcart?

- 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016
- 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories
- 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price
- 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members)
- 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection
- ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews

**Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.tn/products/188544900-infinite-powers-how-calculus-reveals-the-secrets-of-the-universe](https://www.desertcart.tn/products/188544900-infinite-powers-how-calculus-reveals-the-secrets-of-the-universe)

---

*Product available on Desertcart Tunisia*
*Store origin: TN*
*Last updated: 2026-06-03*