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The Kingdom of Infinite Number: A Field…
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The Kingdom of Infinite Number: A Field Guide (edition 2000)

by Bryan Bunch

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891301,432 (3.9)2
Just as bird guides help watchers tell birds apart by their color, songs, and behavior,The Kingdom of Infinite Number is the perfect handbook for identifying numbers in their native habitat. Taking a field guide-like approach, it offers a fresh way of looking at individual numbers and the properties that make them unique, which are also the properties essential for mental computation. The result provides new insights into mathematical patterns and relationships and an increased appreciation for the sheer wonder of numbers. Every number in this book is identified by its "field marks," "similar species," "personality," and "associations." For example, one field mark of the number 6 is that it is the first perfect number-- the sum of its divisors (1, 2, and 3) is equal to the number itself. Thus 28, the next perfect number, is a similar species. And the fact that 6 can easily be broken into 2 and 3 is part of its personality, a trait that is helpful when large numbers are being either multiplied or divided by 6.Associations with 6 include its relationship to the radius of a circle. In addition to such classifications, special attention is paid to dozens of other fascinating numbers, including zero,pi, 10 to the 76th power (the number of particles in the universe), transfinite and other exceptionally larger numbers, and the concept of infinity. Ideal for beginners but organized to appeal to the mathematically literate,The Kingdom of Infinite Number will not only add to readers' enjoyment of mathematics, but to their problem-solving abilities as well.… (more)
Member:housefulofpaper
Title:The Kingdom of Infinite Number: A Field Guide
Authors:Bryan Bunch
Info:W. H. Freeman (2000), Hardcover, 398 pages
Collections:Your library, Currently reading
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The Kingdom of Infinite Number: A Field Guide by Bryan Bunch

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How did I enjoy thee? Let me count the ways.

This book isn't for everyone, but if you like numbers, this is an incredibly fun book. It is like a field guide to animals or insects or rocks: It is a list of numbers you might encounter, and what their characteristics are. So the number four is a square, six is triangular, and so forth. All the smaller positive integers are covered, and some larger integers. After that, we get into fractions, algebraic numbers, even such things as Liouville Numbers -- numbers which are not the solution to any algebraic equation.

To me at least, those are the really fun part. Sure, it's interesting that eight is the first even cubic number, or the like -- but those sorts of things we encounter in relatively ordinary life. Liouville Numbers? I have a math degree, and I'd never heard of them.

Scattered through the book are little excursi on number theory topics. These too are quite pleasant.

And the best part is, it all takes very little mathematical knowledge. (That's perhaps the best part of number theory.) Mathematicians may be the most likely to appreciate this book, but there really is something here for everyone. Go ahead, give it a try. I suspect you'll read more of it than you expected upon opening it. ( )
  waltzmn | Dec 31, 2013 |
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Just as bird guides help watchers tell birds apart by their color, songs, and behavior,The Kingdom of Infinite Number is the perfect handbook for identifying numbers in their native habitat. Taking a field guide-like approach, it offers a fresh way of looking at individual numbers and the properties that make them unique, which are also the properties essential for mental computation. The result provides new insights into mathematical patterns and relationships and an increased appreciation for the sheer wonder of numbers. Every number in this book is identified by its "field marks," "similar species," "personality," and "associations." For example, one field mark of the number 6 is that it is the first perfect number-- the sum of its divisors (1, 2, and 3) is equal to the number itself. Thus 28, the next perfect number, is a similar species. And the fact that 6 can easily be broken into 2 and 3 is part of its personality, a trait that is helpful when large numbers are being either multiplied or divided by 6.Associations with 6 include its relationship to the radius of a circle. In addition to such classifications, special attention is paid to dozens of other fascinating numbers, including zero,pi, 10 to the 76th power (the number of particles in the universe), transfinite and other exceptionally larger numbers, and the concept of infinity. Ideal for beginners but organized to appeal to the mathematically literate,The Kingdom of Infinite Number will not only add to readers' enjoyment of mathematics, but to their problem-solving abilities as well.

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