false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175138257m/484458.jpg 484458 1 Nearly 30 years ago, John Horton Conway introduced a new way to construct numbers. Donald E. Knuth, in appreciation of this revolutionary system, took a week off from work on The Art of Computer Programming to write an introduction to Conway's method. Never content with the ordinary, Knuth wrote this introduction as a work of fiction--a novelette. If not a steamy romance, the book nonetheless shows how a young couple turned on to pure mathematics and found total happiness. The book's primary aim, Knuth explains in a postscript, is not so much to teach Conway's theory as "to teach how one might go about developing such a theory." He continues: "Therefore, as the two characters in this book gradually explore and build up Conway's number system, I have recorded their false starts and frustrations as well as their good ideas. I wanted to give a reasonably faithful portrayal of the important principles, techniques, joys, passions, and philosophy of mathematics, so I wrote the story as I was actually doing the research myself."...It is an astonishing feat of legerdemain. An empty hat rests on a table made of a few axioms of standard set theory.Conway waves two simple rules in the air, then reaches into almost nothing and pulls out an infinitely rich tapestry of numbers that form a real and closed field. Every real number is surrounded by a host of new numbers that lie closer to it than any other "real" value does. The system is truly "surreal." quoted from Martin Gardner, Mathematical Magic Show, pp. 16--19 Surreal Numbers, now in its 13th printing, will appeal to anyone who might enjoy an engaging dialogue on abstract mathematical ideas, and who might wish to experience how new mathematics is created. 0201038129B04062001 472778 11 1 1974 Surreal Numbers total:12|5:1|4:4|3:7|2:0|1:0| 12 42 33 1 484458 0201038129 9780201038125 12 1 3.50 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175138257m/484458.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/484458.Surreal_Numbers 0 0 false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 12 20:57:07 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 12 21:45:47 -0800 2009 more...]]> 484458 0201038129 9780201038125 12 1 3.50 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175138257m/484458.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/484458.Surreal_Numbers 0 0 false Tue Dec 08 02:44:19 -0800 2009 Tue Dec 08 02:44:19 -0800 2009 484458 0201038129 9780201038125 12 1 3.50 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175138257m/484458.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/484458.Surreal_Numbers 0 0 false Thu Nov 26 09:20:06 -0800 2009 Thu Nov 26 09:20:18 -0800 2009 484458 0201038129 9780201038125 12 1 3.50 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175138257m/484458.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/484458.Surreal_Numbers 0 0 false Sat Nov 07 21:58:43 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 07 21:58:43 -0800 2009 484458 0201038129 9780201038125 12 1 3.50 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175138257m/484458.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/484458.Surreal_Numbers 0 0 false Sun Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Nov 02 18:14:19 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 02 18:14:39 -0800 2009 484458 0201038129 9780201038125 12 1 3.50 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175138257m/484458.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/484458.Surreal_Numbers 3 0 false Thu Oct 22 07:00:22 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 22 07:00:22 -0700 2009 484458 0201038129 9780201038125 12 1 3.50 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175138257m/484458.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/484458.Surreal_Numbers 0 0 false Thu Oct 22 06:27:45 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 22 06:27:45 -0700 2009 484458 0201038129 9780201038125 12 1 3.50 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175138257m/484458.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/484458.Surreal_Numbers 4 0 false Tue Sep 22 12:27:04 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 22 12:27:04 -0700 2009 484458 0201038129 9780201038125 12 1 3.50 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175138257m/484458.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/484458.Surreal_Numbers 0 0 false Tue Aug 11 03:16:59 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 11 03:17:18 -0700 2009 484458 0201038129 9780201038125 12 1 3.50 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175138257m/484458.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/484458.Surreal_Numbers 0 0 false Thu Jun 04 22:30:53 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 04 22:30:53 -0700 2009 484458 0201038129 9780201038125 12 1 3.50 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175138257m/484458.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/484458.Surreal_Numbers 0 0 false Tue May 19 01:23:19 -0700 2009 Tue May 19 01:23:19 -0700 2009 484458 0201038129 9780201038125 12 1 3.50 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175138257m/484458.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/484458.Surreal_Numbers 3 0 false Mon Mar 23 00:11:24 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 23 00:11:24 -0700 2009 484458 0201038129 9780201038125 12 1 3.50 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175138257m/484458.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/484458.Surreal_Numbers 0 0 false Sun Mar 15 14:32:51 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 15 14:32:51 -0700 2009 484458 0201038129 9780201038125 12 1 3.50 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175138257m/484458.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/484458.Surreal_Numbers 5 0 false Sun Feb 01 15:31:51 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 01 15:32:33 -0800 2009 484458 0201038129 9780201038125 12 1 3.50 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175138257m/484458.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/484458.Surreal_Numbers 4 0 false Sat Dec 20 21:55:02 -0800 2008 Sat Dec 20 21:55:02 -0800 2008 484458 0201038129 9780201038125 12 1 3.50 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175138257m/484458.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/484458.Surreal_Numbers 0 0 false Tue Dec 09 08:37:43 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 09 08:37:43 -0800 2008 484458 0201038129 9780201038125 12 1 3.50 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175138257m/484458.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/484458.Surreal_Numbers 0 0 false Tue Oct 07 19:49:22 -0700 2008 Tue Oct 07 19:49:24 -0700 2008 484458 0201038129 9780201038125 12 1 3.50 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175138257m/484458.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/484458.Surreal_Numbers 0 0 false Sun Aug 24 00:50:56 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 24 00:50:56 -0700 2008 484458 0201038129 9780201038125 12 1 3.50 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175138257m/484458.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/484458.Surreal_Numbers 0 0 false Thu Jul 24 14:08:27 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 24 14:08:27 -0700 2008 484458 0201038129 9780201038125 12 1 3.50 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175138257m/484458.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/484458.Surreal_Numbers 0 0 false Wed Jul 16 18:40:37 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 16 18:40:40 -0700 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=484458