How do we imagine the unimaginable? If we’re asked to think of an object – say, a yellow tulip – a picture immediately forms in our mind’s eye. But what if we try to imagine a concept such as the square root of a negative number?

It sounds impossible, yet as this enchanting, quizzical and evocative book shows, the art of mathematical imagining is not as mysterious as it seems. Drawing on poetry, literature and philosophy, Barry Mazur shows how we can all make the leap of imagination in order to start visualizing the enigmatic ‘imaginary numbers’ that first baffled mathematicians in the sixteenth century – and are now seen as the bedrock of the universe. 

‘A delightful case for the pleasures of abstract thought’ 
New Scientist

‘Marvellous … Mazur is a delicate stylist who can not only evoke the history of algebra but also comment upon the common ground it shares with tulips in Arab cultural life’ 
Los Angeles Times

‘This is maths at its most lucid and its most riddling … like a Borges short story’ 
Observer

‘A charming book; it has brought even me, in a dazed state, to the brink of mathematical play’ 
Richard Wilbur