Alex's Adventures in Numberland: Dispatches from the Wonderful World of Mathematics

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I have a degree in mathematics, but there were many things in the book that were new to me, and some that made my jaw drop. The record for pi memorisation whilst juggling is held by Mats Bergsten (Sweden) who has recited 9778 digits while juggling three balls. A conditional recommendation for people who like to brush up on their maths and not beaten up by formulas. It is noticeable that the author is trying to offer something to readers who have little or nothing to do with numbers and maths. On one hand it’s an easy read, a beach read if you will, and it covers quite a lot of math’s ground in relatively little space.

But if showmanship is not your cup of tea, then there's a really good critical examination of Pascal's wager, an exploration of the wonders of Pascal's triangle and of course, a fitting end to the book with a mind-mangling (a term I learned from this book) discussion of Cantor's various infinities. I now know that the maths of the shape of the fifty pence coin is much less interesting than I might have imagined, also that gambling is a mugs game - think I knew that from playing penny up at school or cards with my card counting father, and that the variability of weight of loaves of bread may be affected by sample variance and local factors as much as by the baker making smaller loaves. Most of the anecdotes and stories about former mathematicians I already knew, but it’s nice to have them all in one place.Well, as amply demonstrated by Bellos, everything that is ever done in mathematics, be it silly games or idle curiosity, everything has been put to some use and had contributed to the progress of humanity. Trading Address (Warehouse) Unit E, Vulcan Business Complex, Vulcan Road, Leicester, Leicestershire, LE5 3EB. In the 1980s, presumably with the help of comupters, the Chudnovsky brothers developed an even more ferocious formula (p165).

In my opinion it was a more appropriate title, mirroring some of the spirit of Lewis Carroll's verbal playfulness. He commences by describing how different cultures use counting and numbers, and in many ways this is the most interesting part of the book. Mathematicians are familiar with the form as represented by Professor Daina Taimina's model constructed from crochet work. We work closely with publishers and authors to ensure that we offer the best books on the market for your child.The Babylonians, Sumerians, Greeks, Chinese, Indians and Persians all had slightly different ways of quantifying objects and areas and slightly different ways of writing down their numbers. But for Alex Bellos math can be inspiring and brilliantly creative and he proves it in this book that can be read easily by most non-geeks.

Packed with fascinating, eye-opening anecdotes, Alex's Adventures in Numberland is an exhilarating cocktail of history, reportage and mathematical proofs that will leave you awestruck. The latter is no doubt core to the book's strengths, because Bellos brings a hobbyists's enthusiasm along with a sympathy for the semi-literacy most of us bring to the maths.The highest found (at the time of publication of the book) was 2

I am not comfortable with maths beyond the basics (O'level 25 years ago) but I bought this book for my husband who loves maths and he loved this book. Absolutely loved it, it is a romp through the history of maths in bite sized chunks which investigate certain aspects, e. I was instead a believer in the theory that an industry segment collapses under the weight of too much money chasing it, and all you need for that analysis is a critical mass of Wall Street Journal headlines.

But I'm happy to say that this rare foray into the realm of written reality scored on both fronts: (1) it reported pretty much indisputably factual information with only the odd conjecturable opinion; and (2) it was very well written. The insights and intuition you get for the most basic tenets of mathematics from this book Is just exquisite.