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Loading... One to Nine: The Inner Life of Numbers (edition 2009)by Andrew Hodges
Work InformationOne to Nine: The Inner Life of Numbers by Andrew Hodges
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Call it dorky airplane reading-- I haven't got past the first chapter, but so far it jumps from topic to topic, from idea to idea. It's just having fun. While it might not be superbly rigorous or thorough, it is written accessibly-- it's something I see a high school teacher handing a math/science student who doesn't like to read. I couldn't get into this book! For me it was a seemingly disjointed mishmash of elusive mathematical/numerical references and not interesting enough to compel me to put the energy into tracking them down or working through them. Maybe I would have done better if I had more of a mathematical background, but then, it was that background I thought I might find in this book. no reviews | add a review
Andrew Hodges, author of the acclaimed biography Alan Turing: the Enigma, brings numbers to three-dimensional life in this delightful and illuminating volume. Filled with illustrations and entertaining puzzles, One to Nine makes even the most challenging math problems accessible to the layperson. Starting with the puzzling unity of one and ending with the infinite nature of nine, One to Nine explores literature, philosophy, and the quirks of history in a pithy book that tackles mathematical conundrums from the ancient Greeks to superstring theory. Using pop culture to begin his discussion of each number, Hodges takes us from the elegant symmetry of two to the Indo-European roots and sexual nature of six (did you know that six is sex, and in soixante-neuf, even the number is erotic?), To the number nine, which, since it comes last, inevitably spells doom (as in Mahler's and Bruckner's failure to finish their ninth symphonies or to the question of on ending infinites). Inspired by millennia of human attempts to figure things out, One to Nine provides, among other tantalizing facts, charming revelations about the selfishness of sunflowers and the mystic origins of magical squares, while also examining the intricacies of the Fibonacci sequence, the nature of Jesus' Y chromosome, and the origins of computing. Filled with puzzles for every level of mathematical aptitude, rated from easy to fiendish, and including a new, massive Sudoku puzzle, One to Nine is a book that engages and challenges, "making the unfathomable enticing and giving the reader tremendous motivation to explore further" (Daily Telegraph). In the vast range of Hodges's book, few mathematical ideas and problems are left unexplored. - Jacket flap.
The author explains the deeper properties of numbers and their relationship to forecasts of climate change, music, gambling, and other topics for the mathematically intrigued. One to Nine is filled with illustrations and makes the most challenging of math puzzles accessible to the layperson. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)513.211Natural sciences and mathematics Mathematics Arithmetic Arithmetic operations Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division Addition and CountingLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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OK, I'll be back to say more when I finish. ( )