Currently in its eighteenth printing in Japan, this best-selling novel is available in English at last. Combining mathematical rigor with light romance, Math Girls is a unique introduction to advanced mathematics, delivered through the eyes of three students as they learn to deal with problems seldom found in textbooks. Math Girls has something for everyone, from advanced high school students to math majors and educators.

In the early twentieth century, a massive undertaking to rid mathematics of all paradoxes and inconsistencies was underway. Known as Hilberts program, it sought to provide an unshakable foundation for all of mathematics. Things seemed to be proceeding well until young Kurt Gödel stunned the world by proving that Hilberts goals were unobtainable, that contradiction was part of the warp and weave of any mathematical system. Yet what at the time seemed to be a fatal blow to mathematical consistency now forms the basis of modern logic. Gödels incompleteness theorems are often misunderstood to...