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Numbers: The Universal Language

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Looks at how numbers and mathematics describe the foundations of everyday life

176 pages, Paperback

First published November 18, 1996

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177 people want to read

About the author

Denis Guedj

21 books65 followers

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5 stars
16 (17%)
4 stars
37 (41%)
3 stars
29 (32%)
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
Profile Image for Vũ Ngọc Huyền.
56 reviews
March 22, 2023
Đọc trong những ngày nóng nực, nên dường như những lý thuyết không thể ngấm nổi vào đầu TT
Tuy vậy, cuốn sách cũng mở ra nhiều kiến thức mới, về sự nguồn gốc cũng như sự phức tạp của những con số.
Một số kiến thức thú vị:
Tập quán khắc vết - hình dưới lf một sừng huơu với những vết khắc từ thời kì đồ đá (khoảng 15.000 năm TCN) kéo dài khá lâu trong lịch sử loài người. Vết khắc là một quy ước chung để ghi nợ: hai tấm ván với những vết khắc y hệt nhau sẽ được người bán và người mua mỗi người giữ một. Khi người mua mua một món đồ, người bán xếp xạnh nhau hai tấm ván và khắc liền một vài nét lên cả hai, số nét tượng trưng cho lượng hàng trao đổi. Không bên nào có thể ăn gian.
Ngoài giá trị tuyệt đối, người ta còn cho nó một giá trị tùy thuộc vào vị trí của nó. Con số 1 đại diện cho một đơn vị, nếu được chuyển một bước sang bên trái, sẽ đại diện cho một đơn vị cấp hai, một chục.
"Một con lừa trên bậc cao nhất có giá trị hơn một con sư tử ở bậc thấp nhất". Đó là nguyên tắc vị trí. Số 1 của 1000 có giá trị hơn bất kì số 9 nào trong 999.
Có người hỏi Pythagore: "Thế nào là một người bạn?" Theo truyền thuyết, ông đã trả lời: "Người đó là mặt khác của chính tôi". Trước sự ngạc nhiên của người đối thoại, ông nói thêm: "Như các số 220 và 284". Hai số này có mối quan hệ đặc biệt...đối với phép chia: tổng của các ước số của số này thì bằng sốkia. Đó là định nghĩa của số bạn.
Khi cộng đồng toán học được thuyết phục rằng một khẳng định nào đó là đúng nhưng chưa ai chứng minh được, người ta gọi nhận định đó là một ức đoán. Một ức đoán càng kéo dài thời gian "cưỡng lại" mọi nỗ lực chứng minh thì nó càng nổi tiếng là khó.
Một vật tồn tại nếu có nó và chỉ có khi nó là một.
Profile Image for Prabhakar Krishnamurthy .
5 reviews9 followers
June 21, 2024
I COUNT THEREFORE I AM. The first chapter is about counting and series ( not the mathematical series as we know) How Many?S I was fascinated with visuals that took me to the ancient world. Why are thieves sentenced to cut off their fingers? To ensure that they will not be able to count! Such facts that will take you to different worlds will make you feel the numbers and perceive why we invented numbers. Numbers bring THE SAME and THE DIFFERENT out on page number 14.
927 reviews17 followers
February 25, 2021
A short book, with detailed but simple explanations of the history of numbers, their uses throughout history and the last section contains various documents from different people. also included is a detailed index.
Profile Image for Cristian Soto.
82 reviews6 followers
May 5, 2023
El tema interesante, la historia interesante. Solo fue una colección de las opiniones de otros autores y muy rara vez la suya
Profile Image for Kitap.
792 reviews34 followers
September 20, 2009
This biography of numbers moves from early human counting through the mathematical notion of not just infinity, but an infinity of infinities.

Here's some of the cool stuff I learned:

Negative numbers arose from the accounting needs of Bronze age finance. The author never explained why the color red was chosen to bear the hateful association of being in the hole.

Greek mystic math teachers like Pythagoras were peeved to find that circles and proportional beauty were not based in whole number ratios, but in fact were strings of digits that ran on forever without repetition. From the Greek we call these numbers irrational. (Pythagoras abjured beans and told his disciples to do the same, though, so maybe that's like the pot calling the kettle black.)

The conservation law that maintains consistency in mathematical logic necessitated the envisioning of imaginary numbers, and so i, the square root of negative 1, was born. Or at least I think that's what the book said. This imaginary number business still doesn't make much sense.

Zero is the presence of absence; emptiness as form and form as emptiness. Zero as a concept derived from Indian Buddhist and Hindu philosophy, made its way into the Middle East and from thence to the Western world where it became a placeholder and then a number in its own right.

And where would zero be without the equally expansive concept of infinity, or rather, infinities, an infinite variety of which are Rudy Rucker's playthings in books read elsewhere?

The prose is dry, but there are lots of cool pictures. Consider this book bathroom reading for dorks.
Profile Image for Kelly.
351 reviews
September 21, 2014
This is a quick history of numbers. It tells how numbers have evolved and become what we use today. It gives the ordinary, everyday math user a nice sense of what has gone into what we term Mathematics today. I found it interesting and easy to read and understand. There are documents in the back of the book that give a more in-depth look at a few parts of number history. I was especially intrigued by the explanation of infinity and how the idea came to be. Finite is defined by infinite. Some of the ideas presented are a bit mind-boggling. Sometimes I had to re-read to understand, but I got it. This is a great book to explore with teenagers who ask about math, "When am I ever going to use this?"
Profile Image for Ron Moreland.
12 reviews
May 23, 2008
This book introduces the readers to how numbers are viewed in different cultures around the world. From a teaching perspective, I would use this book to show students how numbers are viewed in different cultures. Hopefully causing the students to not think so much about their own world, but be able to expand; thinking about other cultures. This book has some wonderful, very colorful pictures in it relating numbers in different parts of the world. At the end of the book it has a section called "Documents" which gives more insights as to how we can look and understand this abstract notion of a number.
Profile Image for Elena Traduzioni Oceano Mare.
569 reviews44 followers
October 9, 2008
So interesting! A brief history of numbers and their ties with philosophy, religion, art, and how, through the centuries they have developed into the abstract concepts that so go over my head!!!! The choice of beautiful images that go along with the clear explanation makes this book a definite keeper!
Profile Image for Sally.
1,244 reviews37 followers
April 15, 2008
The language is so awkward and superfluous. It took me a while to notice that it's translated from ?French? and there's often some strangeness in a translation. I thought it would be a basic sort of read, but it attempts to be rather philosophical in relating the history of numbers.
Profile Image for Conrad.
83 reviews2 followers
January 19, 2017
This was a great book. I very much enjoyed it. Totally reinvigorated my love of math. The art was beautiful and relevant and the commentary was the best I’ve seen for an introductory survey book like this one. Will have to check out more in the Discoveries series.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews

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