Warehouse Stock Clearance Sale

Grab a bargain today!


One to Nine
By

Rating

Product Description
Product Details

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. Pop culture references and political topics such as global warming, presumably meant to make terms like "quantum of existence" a little less scary to the novice, appear alongside subjects of more interest to math nerds (the author debunks the common assumption that mathematicians are male, overweight and perennially single). 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 familiar topics, like Schrodinger's cat and the equivalence of 1 with 0.99999.... The result is not entirely satisfying to either numerophobes or numerophiles. 40 illus. (May) Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

About the Author

Andrew Hodges is best known as the author of Alan Turing: The Enigma, the story of the extraordinary British computer pioneer and codebreaker, which the New Yorker recently described as 'one of the finest scientific biographies ever written.' He is also active in research into fundamental physics, a colleague of Roger Penrose, and a lecturer at Wadham College, Oxford University.

Reviews

A virtuoso stream of consciousness containing everything important there is to say about numbers. . . . Cogent, charming and deeply personal. . . . One to Nine makes the unfathomable enticing and gives the reader tremendous motivation to explore further.
*Daily Telegraph*

Hodges is. . .very good at pulling numerical rabbits out of everyday hats. . . .You can skip through the facts like a tourist, marvelling at the sights thrust in your path and still feeling impressed by the principles that underpin them, even when the technical detail eludes you.--"
*Daily Mail*

The ideal book for everyone interested in the only universal language, especially if their mathematical curiosity exceeds their skill.
*Sunday Telegraph*

One to Nine ranges widely through literature, music, philosophy, politics, and whatever else occurs to its author, in a charmingly scholarly and entertaining way. A joyous read
*The Times*

Oxford University mathematician and physicist Hodges (Alan Turing: The Enigma) focuses in nine chapters on the nine integers from one to nine (although the first chapter also includes some necessary reflections on zero). Each chapter begins with comments on the characteristics of the integer in question and then meanders through a variety of related topics such as prime numbers, Sudoku puzzles, and applications to physics. Throughout, there is scattered an assortment of problems for the reader; Hodges rates the challenges on a scale running from "easy" to "fiendish" and "deadly." He leavens his well-written text with pleasant touches of humor. Most of the content should be comprehensible and interesting for readers, even for those who choose not to venture beyond the "easy" level of problems. Strongly recommended for both public and academic libraries.--Jack W. Weigel, Ann Arbor, MI Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

A virtuoso stream of consciousness containing everything important there is to say about numbers. . . . Cogent, charming and deeply personal. . . . One to Nine makes the unfathomable enticing and gives the reader tremendous motivation to explore further. * Daily Telegraph *
Hodges is. . .very good at pulling numerical rabbits out of everyday hats. . . .You can skip through the facts like a tourist, marvelling at the sights thrust in your path and still feeling impressed by the principles that underpin them, even when the technical detail eludes you.--" * Daily Mail *
The ideal book for everyone interested in the only universal language, especially if their mathematical curiosity exceeds their skill. * Sunday Telegraph *
One to Nine ranges widely through literature, music, philosophy, politics, and whatever else occurs to its author, in a charmingly scholarly and entertaining way. A joyous read * The Times *

Ask a Question About this Product More...
 
Look for similar items by category
This title is unavailable for purchase as none of our regular suppliers have stock available. If you are the publisher, author or distributor for this item, please visit this link.

Back to top