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Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea

3.91 of 5 stars 3.91 · rating details · 3,477 ratings · 390 reviews

The Babylonians invented it, the Greeks banned it, the Hindus worshipped it, and the Church used it to fend off heretics. For centuries, the power of zero savored of the demonic; once harnessed, it became the most important tool in mathematics. Zero follows this number from its birth as an Eastern philosophical concept to its struggle for acceptance in Europe and its apoth...more

Paperback, 248 pages

Published September 1st 2000 by Penguin (first published January 1st 2000)

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Mar 29, 2011 Δx Δp ≥ ½ ħ htgkvkkviholmvobsvzighxofyyzmw rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: across-the-universe

Ketika Leonardo da Pisa (kelak dikenal juga sebagai Fibonacci) memperkenalkan angka nol ke Eropa, dia banyak dihujat kaum terpelajar di sana. Alasannya, selain angka tersebut berasal dari negeri kaum kafir, Arab (sebenarnya awal mula sejarah angka nol berasal dari peradaban Hindu, tapi diadaptasi, 'dipermudah', dan 'diperluas' oleh ilmuwan arab Al-Khawarizmi), orang2 Eropa juga merasa terancam oleh kehadiran angka ini. Dengan hadirnya angka nol, bisa dikatakan sistem numeral Romawi yang terdisi...more

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Aug 13, 2007 Jamie B. rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: mathy people

Zero is the story of the number, the time that elapsed before its acceptance, and how the ideas behind it (the void and its opposite, infinity) shook the ideals of religion and science across the globe. The book advances through time chronologically, from the Greek philosophers through Renaissance paintings through Einstein's relativity, ending with speculations on string theory. And yes, all of this is fantasia on the theme of the number zero.

I didn't expect this book to be so math-heavy and so...more

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Oct 19, 2009 Trevor rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: science, maths

I’m not sure if this book quite worked out what it wanted to be. Besides getting to say, ‘and that is the power of zero’, over and over again it wasn’t quite sure where it should pitch itself and the guy writing it was never quite certain how much back knowledge he could rely on his audience actually having. This meant subjects were generally treated too cursory so I was left thinking ‘wait a second, what happened there?’. His discussion of Gauss was very complicated and hard to follow (not near...more I’m not sure if this book quite worked out what it wanted to be. Besides getting to say, ‘and that is the power of zero’, over and over again it wasn’t quite sure where it should pitch itself and the guy writing it was never quite certain how much back knowledge he could rely on his audience actually having. This meant subjects were generally treated too cursory so I was left thinking ‘wait a second, what happened there?’. His discussion of Gauss was very complicated and hard to follow (not nearly as interesting as Euclid's Window The Story of Geometry from Parallel Lines to Hyperspace – A book I mentally compared this to throughout) but then, bizarrely, he went into a fairly detailed description of the Doppler effect, for instance. This book would have benefited from being edited by someone who knew virtually nothing about science. And they could have written on the sides of the page either ‘oh, I see’ or ‘WTF?’

There are many interesting little bits to all this that made it worthwhile, though – the stuff on Pythagoras was interesting – I didn’t know he didn’t eat beans because they make people fart and because they look like little genitals (I’ve never really looked closely enough at beans to notice this resemblance, to be honest, but it does sound as good a reason for a food aversion as any other, I guess). I also didn’t know he was killed because he refused to cross a field of beans (makes my rantings about only going into McDonalds to use their toilets – I only make deposits, no withdrawals - sound perfectly enlightened, if you ask me).

There were also interesting bits about vanishing points being zeros and therefore the relationship between space and zero being something non-trivial – but all of that stuff is handled much more interestingly in The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace A History of Space from Dante to the Internet (even if I still have problems with the last bits of that book).

Look, it wasn’t a bad book – but I felt it struggled due to feeling it had to make zero the core concept of all of science. This is a trend in this sort of book – you know, pick something (nutmeg or coffee or space) and show it as the nexus through which all strands of the universe can be understood. Generally, this is handled better than it has been handled here though.

PS - I hadn't realised this is the same guy who wrote Decoding the Universe How the New Science of Information Is Explaining Everything in the Cosmos, from Our Brains to Black Holes - suddenly, things make much more sense.(less)

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Feb 25, 2009 Tim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Seife, a science writer, leads us down the rabbit hole we term 'zero'. The mathematical history of the number follows a convoluted path, early on a place-holder in counting systems or a much-feared void forbidden by belief on pain of death. Eventually the path leads to infinity which, like its twin zero, figures the limit of human experience. For Seife this means that nature - described in its native language of mathematics - breaks completely with possible human experience at zero and infinity....more

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Feb 01, 2009 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history-of-science, non-fiction

This book made me want to actually learn calculus. At least until the brain fever wore off. :)

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Mar 17, 2011 Kaion rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

0
+ ( It's a book about math. And I read it. ) - ( It took me nine months. )
= 0

For three weeks after I finished Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea, its central figure looked out ominously at me. In that way, Charles Seife was entirely successful in this piece of pop-nonfiction, weaving together the creation of the "zero", its role in history of mathematical theory, its religious controversies, its philosophical significance and ultimately, its true place at the heart of the universe. It's t...more

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Jan 09, 2008 Tung rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Winner of the PEN/Martha Albrand Award honoring debut nonfiction from American authors, this book traces the history of the number zero from its initial appearances in Babylonian and Mayan mathematics to its widespread acceptance during the Renaissance to its role in advanced sciences. In addition to detailing the history of the number’s usage in the mathematics systems of various cultures, the book attempts to tie the concept of zero to more fundamental philosophical struggles that have accompa...more

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Jan 13, 2009 Malina rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: math

I enjoyed reading this book. Seife has a nice way of writing and the connections between the history, the math, the arts, the sciences are all wonderful to read and think about.

I think it would have been wonderful to have read in high school or college as it connected so many ideas from various classes. It wasn't a quick or easy read especially toward the end with theories of string theory and such but Seife makes it approachable enough with analogies. It was an interesting thing to read since I...more

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Dec 20, 2007 TJ rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People who can tell the difference between numbers and letters.

Mind-blowing mathematical literature. That is, if you don't mind having your brain fellated formulaically. Okay, stupid joke aside; this book meets minimum prose competency for making the story of zero, and mathematics, interesting and engaging. After finishing the book, I actually spent two hours giving myself basic algebra problems to see if I could still solve them. This is a good book to read on a whim, any intentions for it more serious will result in disappointment. (In other words, it's l...more

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Apr 13, 2007 Gene rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: tk, william, dwayne

Shelves: science, good

A book about numbers that had me laughing out loud while I was on vacation. My wife could not understand how a book about math could make me laugh so much...

But any book that shows the horrible mistake that not having a Year 0 (i.e., 1 BC and 1 AD are adjancent) would have on history as well as subtraction mistakes, how infinity is really is zero's tricky friend, and make almost understandable the reason why the amazing equation "e ^ (pi * i) = -1" is true is pretty fantastic.

I laughed, I cried....more

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May 31, 2013 Kathleen Brugger rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book covers mathematics, history, philosophy, the history of science, and quantum physics. An interesting observation I learned from this book: the next time someone calls you “a zero” or you hear someone use zero as a pejorative term, you will know that person is ignorant of the true meaning of the word. Zero is an important number and is as big as infinity. To be zero is to be everything.

The book begins by exploring the beginnings of numerical symbols in the Middle East cultures of Greece...more This book covers mathematics, history, philosophy, the history of science, and quantum physics. An interesting observation I learned from this book: the next time someone calls you “a zero” or you hear someone use zero as a pejorative term, you will know that person is ignorant of the true meaning of the word. Zero is an important number and is as big as infinity. To be zero is to be everything.

The book begins by exploring the beginnings of numerical symbols in the Middle East cultures of Greece, Egypt, and Babylonia a few hundred years before the beginning of the current era.

The history of zero (at least west of India, this book does not cover China) begins in the Babylonian civilization concurrent with ancient Greece. The Babylonians discovered how to write numbers using a place system, and this necessitated a placekeeper meaning “naught.”

The first half of the book traces the resistance to the idea of zero from the early Greeks and Egyptians to Aristotelian-influenced Christianity. None of these cultures’ belief-systems could allow for the concept of the void, of nothingness. Christianity had absorbed Greek philosophy and one of the elements of this philosophy was the aversion to the idea of nothing. The Greeks did not believe that nothing or infinity existed. Even though the Bible begins with God creating the universe out of the void, the Judeo-Christian tradition ignored this to follow the Aristotelian credo that there is no void and there is no infinity.

Zero was heretical to the Catholic church. Only with the Renaissance did zero become accepted in Europe. With the Reformation came the loosening of strictures against free thought, and the European mind opened up to new ideas. With the introduction of zero began the advances in mathematics and science that have led to the technological civilization of today.

But the concept of zero is a latecomer to our culture and we have not completely integrated it into our cultural paradigm. Look at a computer keyboard. Zero is not in its proper place before 1 where it belongs; it is dangling up above 9. Look at a telephone. Zero is stuck below the three-by-three keypad of numbers in a limbo symbol-land of asterisk and pound sign.

The author goes on to trace the development of science, using zero as the focal point, up to modern-day quantum physics. Quantum physics gives an understanding of zero analogous to white light. As white light contains all colors, zero contains all within it. There is no such thing as nothing. Vacuum is not nothing; it is everything. (less)

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May 25, 2013 Jeremy rated it 4 of 5 stars

You probably know that there are an infinite number of numbers. But did you realize that between zero and one there are an infinite number of numbers? That's right, there is an infinity between any two integers. Just one of the ideas that struck me as I read this book.

Interesting read about the origin of zero and its implementation as a number. I didn't really consider that zero had to be thought up. But think about how numbers were probably invented: for the sake of counting. So you really didn...more

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Sep 24, 2012 Micah Dicker rated it 4 of 5 stars

The plot of the book (or really the theme of the book, since it's non-fiction) can be figured out from the title. The book gives an in depth description of the history of the number zero. Then there's the next part of the title: dangerous. How is zero dangerous? It means nothing. According to Charles Seife, that was the problem.
Zero was originally used as a placeholder on the Babylonian abacus, or counting tool, and wasn't supposed to cause all the stir that it did. Eventually, zero made its wa...more The plot of the book (or really the theme of the book, since it's non-fiction) can be figured out from the title. The book gives an in depth description of the history of the number zero. Then there's the next part of the title: dangerous. How is zero dangerous? It means nothing. According to Charles Seife, that was the problem.
Zero was originally used as a placeholder on the Babylonian abacus, or counting tool, and wasn't supposed to cause all the stir that it did. Eventually, zero made its way to the Greeks and it was then that zero began to cause problems. At the time, everything was believed to be made up of water, earth, fire, and air, the earth was the center of the universe, and the sun, moon, and everything else revolved around it in circular patterns, all contained in a closed shell. What this idea lacked was the concept of infinity, the counterpart to zero. Likewise, there was no concept of nothingness. Anything that challenged that idea would throw off the peaceful yet inaccurate system that the Greeks had come up with, so challengers were punished.
This led to many complications and paradoxes, a notable one being Achilles and a tortoise racing and the tortoise having a head start. Using the math from the time, it was impossible to believe that Achilles could keep up with the tortoise, even though he obviously could. There were no limits. As Seife says, there has to be zero and infinity; not one or the other, and definitely not neither. Eventually, it makes its way to India, and it is welcomed and utilized, and eventually, it is introduced to math, and math modernizes into the way that we know it today.
What some people might get confused about while reading this book is that Seife, the author, sometimes doesn't just talk about zero. He frequently mentions infinity, the golden ratio, and Greek mathematicians, and if the reader is just casually reading each page, he or she might not understand everything that is being said and could easily get thrown off. It's so hard to find a book that can be both educational and interesting, and Zero almost makes that cut.
The first encounter I had with this book is when I was seven or eight and my grandmother tried to get me to read it. I don't think I could get past the first few pages, let a lone one chapter. Then last year, I read The Da Vinci Code, and I learned a lot about the Greeks, repressed knowledge, and mathematical discoveries/oddities that seemed to be coincidental (i.e. the golden ratio). I wasn't expecting that when I decided to give Zero another try, but once I recognized some of the things Seife was talking about, I got more into it than I thought I would. Like I said, if you don't have a good attention span, this book might not be the best for you; I even found myself skipping some parts because I found them dull. But for the most part, it's really interesting and it can raise even more questions about the topic, like it did for me, such as who started using zero in everyday math, how do zero, infinity, golden ratio, etc., all tie in together, and why were people so afraid of zero as if could do physical damage to them?
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Sep 01, 2012 Lloyd rated it 4 of 5 stars

A fine, fun book. Seife's "biography" is shorter than you'd expect, but harder going, too. The problem is not the writing, which is consistently clear, erudite, and entertaining. It's the intrinsic difficulty of the subject matter, which often pushes right up to the limits of known physics, if not human capacity for understanding. Seife handles many of the challenges adroitly. He gives the first clear account I've seen of the need for string theory (or at least why physicists like it). And the a...more

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Jun 03, 2012 Fee rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was very cool, explaining how zero was finally added to civilization, and how Romans kept denying because it put a wrench in their system. Anyone who had knowledge of the concept of zero was burned at the stake back then. "what are you some kind of fag or something"-mike judge. The author proves that you are better off believing in god as to not. Infinity is represented as god and the opposite of infinity is nothing or zero. Both are concepts in everyday calculations, so it is better t...more

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Dec 13, 2011 Victor Wong rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: new-advisory-teacher-shelf

this book was mainly about how the origin of the number zero came to be. it also talks about the how the development of science connects to it. it talks about the development of numbers and math, also what some people thought of this revolutionary idea of the number zero.

the message of the book that i thought of was that even if an idea or something that's very small can still have a big effect on the world no matter the size of what it is. its like to me that when someone tries to change someth...more

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May 15, 2011 Deb rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-books-read, nonfiction

At a recent teacher-training, the presenter shared the opening of this book as an example of excellent nonfiction writing. He shared the first few pages and went on to describe the book as an interesting read. I have to concur. Charles Seife takes the idea of zero and illustrates how the concept has developed over time. From a computer snafu that endangered an aircraft carrier, to geometry, physics, and highly abstract mathematics, the idea of zero has had a worldview altering effect. This book...more

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Mar 15, 2011 Woodge rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mathematics, non-fiction

Whoa. This book appealed to the science/math geek in me. Less than 200 pages long, I found Zero to be mostly interesting. I read it quickly after all. For the most part, this book was fairly easy to understand but I may have gotten lost in a few places (like string theory and set theory for example -- and I'm pretty sure I understood the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle). For the record, it's the ancient Babylonians who are credited with inventing zero, although the Mayans used it too. Sort of....more

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Sep 16, 2010 Parksy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Very cool book on numbers and the history of the number ZERO!

Amazon.com
The seemingly impossible Zen task--writing a book about nothing--has a loophole: people have been chatting, learning, and even fighting about nothing for millennia. Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea, by noted science writer Charles Seife, starts with the story of a modern battleship stopped dead in the water by a loose zero, then rewinds back to several hundred years BCE. Some empty-headed genius improved the traditiona...more Very cool book on numbers and the history of the number ZERO!

Amazon.com
The seemingly impossible Zen task--writing a book about nothing--has a loophole: people have been chatting, learning, and even fighting about nothing for millennia. Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea, by noted science writer Charles Seife, starts with the story of a modern battleship stopped dead in the water by a loose zero, then rewinds back to several hundred years BCE. Some empty-headed genius improved the traditional Eastern counting methods immeasurably by adding zero as a placeholder, which allowed the genesis of our still-used decimal system. It's all been uphill from there, but Seife is enthusiastic about his subject; his synthesis of math, history, and anthropology seduces the reader into a new fascination with the most troubling number.

Why did the Church reject the use of zero? How did mystics of all stripes get bent out of shape over it? Is it true that science as we know it depends on this mysterious round digit? Zero opens up these questions and lets us explore the answers and their ramifications for our oh-so-modern lives. Seife has fun with his format, too, starting with chapter 0 and finishing with an appendix titled "Make Your Own Wormhole Time Machine." (Warning: don't get your hopes up too much.) There are enough graphs and equations to scare off serious numerophobes, but the real story is in the interactions between artists, scientists, mathematicians, religious and political leaders, and the rest of us--it seems we really do have nothing in common. --Rob Lightner

From Publishers Weekly
In a lively and literate first book, science journalist Seife takes readers on a historical, mathematical and scientific journey from the infinitesimal to the infinite. With clever devices such as humorously titled and subtitled chapters numbered from zero to infinity, Seife keeps the tone as light as his subject matter is deep. By book's end, no reader will dispute Seife's claim that zero is among the most fertile--and therefore most dangerous--ideas that humanity has devised. Equally powerful and dangerous is its inseparable counterpart, infinity, for both it and zero invoke to many the divine power that created an infinite universe from the void. The power of zero lies in such a contradiction, and civilization has struggled with it, alternatively seeking to ban and to embrace zero and infinity. The clash has led to holy wars and persecutions, philosophical disputes and profound scientific discoveries. In addition to offering fascinating historical perspectives, Seife's prose provides readers who struggled through math and science courses a clear window for seeing both the powerful techniques of calculus and the conundrums of modern physics: general relativity, quantum mechanics and their marriage in string theory. In doing so, Seife, this entertaining and enlightening book reveals one of the roots of humanity's deepest uncertainties and greatest insights(less)

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Jan 24, 2010 Ben Babcock rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010-read, history, mathematics, non-fiction, own, science, philosophy

My grade 11 math teacher gave this to me, and I remember reading it and loving it. Here I am, three years later, returning to Zero for a second read. No longer the gullible high school student (now a gullible university student!), I'm apt to be more critical of Zero. Nevertheless, it stands up to a second reading and both inspires and informs.

Imagining a world without zero is probably difficult for most people. It was especially difficult for me, as a mathematician who grew up learning calculus...more My grade 11 math teacher gave this to me, and I remember reading it and loving it. Here I am, three years later, returning to Zero for a second read. No longer the gullible high school student (now a gullible university student!), I'm apt to be more critical of Zero. Nevertheless, it stands up to a second reading and both inspires and informs.

Imagining a world without zero is probably difficult for most people. It was especially difficult for me, as a mathematician who grew up learning calculus and understanding that zero is just another number. Even with Charles Seife leading the way in the first chapter, I still have trouble comprehending this idea that entire civilizations rose and fell—and achieved great things in between—without the concept of a mathematical zero.

In that respect, Zero acts as a history of the development of an idea, one that began in Babylonia and spread, via Alexander the Great, to India, where it flourished. Seife's history is necessarily balanced between East and West in this case, as it's impossible to discuss mathematics without discussing India. That being said, I would have liked to learn about how China regarded zero, even if Chinese mathematicians contributed no new developments to the number's importance as their absence from this book seems to imply. This one oversight overlooked, Zero is not your typical history book that starts in ancient Egypt or Greece and insists everything we know flows from there.

What's admirable about Zero is Seife's ability to focus on zero. The story intersects with the lives of many famous mathematicians, but the obvious slimness of this book testifies that Seife managed to distill only what was necessary about their lives in his quest to explain the mystery of zero. I'm not trying to imply, "Short books are easier for non-mathematical people to understand," but that's part of the attraction. Although it's heavier on the equations than I remembered, I would still feel comfortable recommending Zero to my non-mathematically-inclined friends. Firstly, Seife's writing is accessible, even when loaded with equations. As long as you have some basic arithmetic left over from high school, you can follow along. And I'd definitely recommend this book to high school students, like I was when I first read it: it's one of those books that opens the mind. Secondly, the narrow focus acts like a window into the history of mathematics. I have A History of Mathematics sitting next to Zero on my desk, and while the former is more complete, I somehow suspect the latter is more appropriate for a general audience. In other words, Zero is a good gateway drug.

Where Zero starts to show its seams is in Seife's rhetorical ability, which stretches itself thin even over so thin a volume. He's too dramatic for my taste, especially as he recounted the attitudes and fate of the Pythagoreans. And he's always eager to remind us of how "powerful" zero is. While I agree that zero is a pretty cool number, the constant refrain felt somewhat forced after a while, pulling me out of the book instead of keeping me comfortably ensconced in this little tutorial. Seife devotes only cursory glances at the philosophical arguments offered for or against the acceptance of zero; he tells us about Aristotle's rejection of zero but goes into little detail. While I'm sure he wanted to avoid turning the book into a text on Aristotelian philosophy, I feel like there are gaps here that, if not filled, could have been covered with a more attractive carpet.

Not perfect, not as mind-blowing as some mathematical literature I've read, Zero makes it mark because it's adequate at explanation without going overboard. I'm not sure what else to say: if you're interested in the subject, this is a good place to start. And even if you're not, hey, it's only 250 pages. What have you got to lose? Nothing. Zero!(less)

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Jan 05, 2013 Dubravka rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2013

I just finished this book earlier today. I like better the first part of it; the second half (or so) is not as informative (about zero) as the first part. For me, a novice in math and science, the best part of the book is the mere fact that it calls attention to zero, which I always took for granted. I enjoyed reading about the history of zero and how it came about. But, the sections in which Seife talks about how zero relates to modern science, physics, astronomy, quantum mechanics was annoying...more I just finished this book earlier today. I like better the first part of it; the second half (or so) is not as informative (about zero) as the first part. For me, a novice in math and science, the best part of the book is the mere fact that it calls attention to zero, which I always took for granted. I enjoyed reading about the history of zero and how it came about. But, the sections in which Seife talks about how zero relates to modern science, physics, astronomy, quantum mechanics was annoying: I don’t mind reading about the background and how we got where we are now, but, to me, he failed to explain the role and significance of zero in that context. I found it frustrating at times when he would pronounce statements such as “the zero of a black hole is a singularity,” or “zero is too powerful even for nature.” Huh? No explanations follow. He just pronounces the importance, danger, significance of zero and repeats it over and over, and over and over, as if the preponderance of such statements should somehow be enough to convince me, the reader, of their validity, without having to explain them.

The other thing I found highly annoying is Seife’s habit of talking about the zero as an “invention” that is somehow affecting the world, universe, nature… Zero is a concept that people invented to help them understand the world better; it is not a free agent, or a Godzilla which humans had created and is now running amok. For example, “nature has defended itself from an unruly zero.” Huh? Or “…zero may have the last laugh.” Again, huh? Personification does not work in such a text. At least, not for me.

All in all, I enjoyed the book, but only because I know so little about math and science. Were I to write this comment a couple of years from now, I’d probably been much more unhappy with it and would not have finished the book. Having said all this, I really enjoyed the first part of the book where he talks about the origin of zero, the Greeks, the Babylonians, Hindus, Arabs, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, and their relationship to this concept.
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Jan 22, 2009 Rah~ri rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: yes-every-one-should-read-this

Ok? It was good.
:)

might have to do it again.
think i missed alot with my mind fizzling in and out.
ok, very good.

1/22/09

!!!
AbsOLuTeLy MarVELous !!!
:)
Love it!
... still can't stand it but... WOW!

So Much Information, my mind Loves it!
Don't ask me to quote any of it, you'll have to read it,
wish I was actually able to converse about this stuff, LOL.

Am thinking this IS a book that Everybody Should read!
No matter what your knowledge is,
there are some great Gems in this little book!

... just skip the mat...more

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Aug 19, 2007 Marc Lacuesta rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: The underground scientist at Area 51 in Independence Day.

Interesting story. I enjoyed reading the history behind the number, but I have to admit that there were times where my eyes were rolling into the back of my head, and I was fighting to get to the end of the chapter (usually the math-intensive parts... not my bag).

It gets into some great ideas that were made possible by the number zero, such as time travel. It even includes a scientific proof (also made possible by zero) that concludes that Winston Churchill was a carrot.

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Sep 17, 2012 David Rakowicz rated it 4 of 5 stars

I thought this book was really good because the author not only made a book about the number zero, but he did more then that because he explained how zero is basically the most important number on the number line as a whole because zero was one of the first numbers to ever exist and back in time everything used to be involved with the number zero and it wasnt just a number. The author wrote how all because of the number zero is how they then discovered more math and how they discovered the clend...more

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Jul 22, 2012 Matt rated it 5 of 5 stars

This one outlined many vectors of my own education and interests, so for me it highlighted a lot of the non-traditional threads in the history of science that I find fascinating, pointing out where some went wrong to both good and ill effect and illuminating connections between generations of ideas and theories about how we understand the universe. It's very interesting who in the history of math had big problems with zero, and the book really made me think about other situations where it may ha...more

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Oct 09, 2011 Hope rated it 5 of 5 stars

I found this book by accident at the library, the title intrigued me. When I started to read I could not stop reading it was so interesting. I had no idea that number zero had such an interesting history and how much we take it for granted. Seriously how many of us think about zero and what it means in mathematical or physical sense. I know I never thought about it, but now that I know more about zero and what it means.

Book was very well written and it was intended for audience that are not math...more

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Feb 21, 2010 Raj rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, pop-science

This was a book about the history of zero and infinity. From its invention in Babylon, through its suppression in Greece and in the west during the Middle Ages to its flourishing in India and the Middle East and reintroduction in Europe in the Renaissance. Seife covers the history of the zero with an admirable narrative, showing how it is intimately tied with infinity before going on to discuss the most important occurrences of zero in maths (including calculus) and physics (the big bang, zero p...more

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Oct 25, 2011 drea rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club, not-for-me

Well, well, well, math. So we meet again. I have done a fantastic job avoiding you for the last ten years, but I knew it couldn't last forever. Still, I wasn't expecting you to come for me in the guise of a pick for our book club. Well played, math. Well. Played.

Basically, I think this is probably a fine book and worthy of more than the "It was okay" rating I am giving. It has lots of pictures and illustrations and appendices, and I am assuming that they mean something. One of them, in theory,...more Well, well, well, math. So we meet again. I have done a fantastic job avoiding you for the last ten years, but I knew it couldn't last forever. Still, I wasn't expecting you to come for me in the guise of a pick for our book club. Well played, math. Well. Played.

Basically, I think this is probably a fine book and worthy of more than the "It was okay" rating I am giving. It has lots of pictures and illustrations and appendices, and I am assuming that they mean something. One of them, in theory, even explains how through the power of the dangerous zero, you can make an equation that proves Winston Churchill is a carrot. I would have truly liked to understand that! However, nowhere in this book does Donald Duck leap out of the pages and explain the The Golden Ratio to you a la Mathmagic Land, and that proved to be the downfall of this book and me. Not gonna lie--when I got to the section about calculus, I was overcome by the the old feeling of having a test the next day and not knowing what a differential equation was, and maybe Mr. Taylor would make it a group test and I could force my ex-boyfriend to be my partner and not have to know? God, that's going be a hard email to write. STRESS. STRESS.

Where was I? Oh yes. All that said, the early chapters did come with some interesting history sprinkled around all of the equations. I never really noticed the links of old-school Judeo-Christian thought to Aristotle and his rejection of the infinite or the void. I also never realized that the Catholic Church was actually embracing new thinkers until Martin Luther decided to upset the apple cart and they went scrambling back to their traditions and finger-pointing at heretics. These sections were a little textbookish and occasionally hyperbolic ("Zero is dangerous! Zero will ROCK YOUR WORLD. Zero may kill your children!") but I think the info will stick with me.

But, in the end, if a=level of book enjoyment, and b=feelings of stupidity, and c=interesting tidbits, then A = c-b will probably give you a negative number . . . which I know we only have thanks to Eastern thought! Also, Winston Churchill is a carrot.

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Feb 25, 2010 Eric Rasmussen rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was in the mood for some math (it had been so long since I read some pop-math literature), and Zero seemed like the perfect tome. Unfortunately, Zero is a little TOO pop-math - it hits on the same "interesting" math and physics tidbits that so many other pop-math and science books do. And while it relates all of its ideas to zero, it's not really about zero.

The first half does talk about the historical context of the concept of zero, but it is mostly about philosophy - how the concepts of zero...more

1 like · like · see review

May 14, 2009 Ratiocination rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: mathematics

A neat subject, and a lot of seemingly disparate information pulled together. I came in with a passing familiarity with a lot of the underlying math. I'm sure the book would have read very differently with either more background or less, but from my perspective it took ideas that were individually familiar and described how they linked up and how they were derived from one another.

As a history of mathematics, though, the math is definitely stronger than the history. Seife is good at explaining t...more

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About Charles Seife

CHARLES SEIFE is a Professor of Journalism at New York University. Formerly a journalist with Science magazine, has also written for New Scientist, Scientific American, The Economist, Science, Wired UK, The Sciences, and numerous other publications. He is the author of Zero: The Biography Of A Dangerous Idea, which won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction. He holds an M.S. in mathemat...more

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Alpha and Omega: The Search for the Beginning and End of the Universe

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