Mathematicians solve equations, or try to. But sometimes the solutions are not as interesting as the beautiful symmetric patterns that lead to them. Written in a friendly style for a general audience, Fearless Symmetry is the first popular math book to discuss these elegant and mysterious patterns and the ingenious techniques mathematicians use to uncover them.

Hidden symmetries were first discovered nearly two hundred years ago by French mathematician evariste Galois. They have been used extensively in the oldest and largest branch of mathematics--number theory--for...