One to Nine: The Inner Life of Numbers
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.81 (870 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0393337235 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 330 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-03-18 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
In One to Nine, Hodges, one of Britain’s leading biographers and mathematical writers, brings numbers to three-dimensional life in this delightful and illuminating volume, filled with illustrations, which makes even the most challenging math problems accessible to the layman. Starting with the puzzle of defining unity, and ending with the recurring nines of infinite decimals, Hodges tells a story that takes in quantum physics, cosmology, climate change, and the origin of the computer. Hodges has written a classic work, at once playful but also satisfyingly instructional, which will be ideal for the math aficionado and the Sudoku addict, as well as the life of the party. “A lively new book that readers will enjoy sprinting through.”—Jordan Ellenberg, New York Times Book Review What Lynn Truss did for grammar in Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Andrew Hodges has done for mathematics. 40 illustrations
One to Nine and a lot more G. E. Watson I am enjoying the book a lot, but bewarned--you may not get a lot of the references he makes if you don't a some math background. I have undergraduate degrees in math and physics and I needed that to understand some of the details. Hodges discusses a lot more than just the numbers. For example he uses the number eight (one byte) as an excuse to discuss a lot about computers and computing with many (interesting) references to the ideas of Alan Turing (about whom he wrote a book). Many of the other chapters also wander into areas you might not have guessed were related to that. Dennis Littrell said Not for the mathematically challenged. Oxford Fellow Andrew Hodges, who wrote the very well received biography, Alan Turing: The Enigma (199"Not for the mathematically challenged" according to Dennis Littrell. Oxford Fellow Andrew Hodges, who wrote the very well received biography, Alan Turing: The Enigma (1992), uses--rather quixotically I might say--the one to nine format to delve into the world of mathematics. His emphasis is on number theory, mathematics as applied to physics, and mathematics as applied to cryptology. The text is difficult, and the puzzles strewn throughout, whether labeled, EASY, GENTLE, TOUGH, HARD, TRICKY or DEADLY, proved mostly too difficult for this non-mathematician.For those readers versed in number theory, that branch of mathematics in which numbers a. ), uses--rather quixotically I might say--the one to nine format to delve into the world of mathematics. His emphasis is on number theory, mathematics as applied to physics, and mathematics as applied to cryptology. The text is difficult, and the puzzles strewn throughout, whether labeled, EASY, GENTLE, TOUGH, HARD, TRICKY or DEADLY, proved mostly too difficult for this non-mathematician.For those readers versed in number theory, that branch of mathematics in which numbers a. "target audience is unclear" according to T. Burket. As a math / non-fiction fan and a real fan of Hodges' "Alan Turing" bio, I was really looking forward to "One to Nine". The promise was not met. The material is all over the place and, at times, I had little idea what he was talking about. As a simple example, the relationships among the harmonics in music mean nothing to me. Should I know that background information? Sorry, I don't.Thus, who actually will buy the book? It's certainly not popularized enough for the general public and it's not heavy enough for a serious math guy. The niche is unclear and probably not large. "
From Publishers Weekly A frank acknowledgment that anything I wrote was bound to resemble Constance Reid's seminal From Zero to Infinity doesn't stop mathematician and biographer Hodges (Alan Turing: The Enigma) from boldly launching into his own rather disjointed explanation of the place of the numbers one through nine in mathematics and (primarily Western) culture. The result is not entirely satisfying to either numerophobes or numerophiles. All rights reserved. Some knowledge of mathematical vocabulary and history is necessary to fully appreciate Hodges's merry skipping from one subject to another—a single page mentions Vonnegut's fiction Plato's aesthetics, Euclid's pentagons, Fibonacci's rabbits and the inspiration of Islamic art and its parallels in Kepler—but even the most halfhearted former math major will find a lot of famili