Number 9: The Search for the Sigma Code

by Cecil Balmond

Number 9 tells the story of Enjil, a boy mathematician who is challenged by a spirit to solve the riddle, What is the fixed point of the wind? As Enjil searches for the answer, he and the reader embark on a journey through myth, legend, and religion. Enjil s adventures lead readers to an appreciation of symmetry within asymmetry, classical ideas, and modern impulses. Along the way Balmond redefines arithmetic for the lay person and opens the gateway to further discoveries.

Genres: Nonfiction, Mathematics, Design

236 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Go back in time and let the free spirit in you enter. Talk to it, play, and ask the strangest questions. Start to count again in the simplest of ways."

I am so thankful to this book, for opening up the door for me to view mathematics in a whole new light. When I was a young child, I vividly remember how thrilled I was to learn addition and subtraction. Arriving at the solution to a problem was like discovering something new every time. I was so excited to be the first one in the class to finish my worksheet. But as my education furthered, and things got more complicated, I began to hate math. It was described in such a stale manner. There was nothing exciting about the way they taught math. There was only one way to solve a problem, and if you didn't prove your answer in the way they wanted, you were wrong. My grades in every other class were fine, but I thought I was stupid because I got awful grades in math, which brought down my whole average. I hated math all the way up until I graduated high school, and avoided it ever since then.

Until I decided to read this book! Thank you to the author for bringing me back to what I originally loved about numbers when I was a child. It made math exciting to me once again.

[Su Vida · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super quirky read that takes the reader down a wondrous hidden world—all through the eyes of an adorable boy mathematician. The book springs one fascinating revelation after another about our reality through patterns hidden in numbers—material that could inspire a Dan Brown novel.

[Eblison · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful story and a fantastic look at the magic and simplicity that most of us never see in math.

[Geert Daelemans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Declaration of love for numbers

The least you can say about Number 9 is that it is a remarkable book for many reasons. Not a lot of non-fiction books have the guts to address mathematics in such a personal way. The author Cecil Balmond even creates the character of Enjil to accompany the reader during his search for the truth behind the number 9. The claim of the author that it reads as detective story is certainly true for the first half the book. But be warned, you will not get a definite answer to the questions posed. Although more than once the author claims that the riddles have been solved, she does not seem to be aware that her so called solution is actually a redefinition of the same questions. But then again, you can ask yourself if a real solution would have fitted together with the magical atmosphere nourished by this book.
The weakest point, without doubt, is the fact that Cecil completely ignores to place Number 9 in its true context. Never during the whole narrative does she mention that number 9 is only magical in a decimal system. For the same reasons that number 9 is special in a system with ten digits, 15 will be magical in a hexadecimal system. It is clear that this kind of information will diminish the magical power behind number 9, but that cannot be enough reason to just ignore the facts. From an academic point of view such a denial is unforgivable.

But maybe this book was never intended to be an academic thesis and must be perceived as a declaration of love to the exciting world of numbers. Cecil has definitely succeeded in putting her passion for the subject on paper. After reading Number 9, even the most ignorant soul will have difficulties in trying to deny that mathematics is truly the science of beauty.

[Kenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've my own convictions as to how / why "simple numbers and counting" open into ideas and powers that challenge humanity's master minds. This quick read (the narrative inside a non-fiction was great, at first) had me grinning at the wonder of it all, when it wasn't bogged down in a meta-spiritual defense that, for me, only drained away its momentum. Not a bad taste of what number theory can spark in the imagination, but not the maths adventure I was hoping for... and the fiction thread just fizzles out.

[Jj · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is just based on the fact that we count numbers using base 10. Almost everything special he says about the number 9 could be said about 60 if we counted using base 60. (people did back in the 3rd millennium BC). With that being said, there are a few interesting ways the author conveys number geometrically, but that is about all that is interesting in this book

[Ryan Townsend · Rating 4 out of 5]

intreased in architecture , engineering and mathamatics? then this is a must read