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The book covers every aspect of zero's involvement in human progress, from religion and philosophy, to calculus and astronomy, sharing insightful anecdotes about well-known figures and their attempts to define zero.Not for the mathematically squeamish, Zero did bring back fond (read: horrific) memories of 12th grade calculus, but I think even novice mathematicians should be able to grasp the book's contents with fair ease. What I found was a concise, elegant, intellectual history of how a dubious, yet indelible part of our modern world came into being.Zero starts off with the panache of a Dan Brown thriller, full of mysterious, secret societies attempting to squash the very notion of the null. So, being the inquisitive nerd I am, I picked up Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea, solidifying my place in the front of the classroom. Seife does an excellent job explaining many mathematical theories in easy-to-comprehend terminology, rather than assuming the reader has a Ph.D. I was a little skeptical regarding this, as who cogitates the number zero with that much inquiry in our everyday lives. But just as the "Da Vinci Code of Zero" seemed to get silly, it got serious.Zero is really the story of the evolution of society, mathematics and science, from the days of ancient Babylon to Stephen Hawking. in Advanced Mathematics.Though Seife tended to deviate, at times, from the relevancy of the number zero, often veering off on long tangents, the stories he shares regarding Aristotle, Netwon, Einstein, black holes, worm holes and the birth and death of our universe - all from the perspective of zero - were well worth the meandering journey. And at little more than 200 pages, this book makes for a quick, delightful read.
Also, this the first time I've ever heard the apocryphal anecdote of Pythagoras being chased down by a mob and refusing to make an escape through a bean field because of his absolute loathe of them, thereby allowing his suitors the opportunity to hone in on their prey. Very entertaining book.
The zero was just too ultra-radical an idea to be accepted without a fight by those content with their station in life and views of the universe. Excellent account on the origins of the number zero, from its humble beginnings as a placeholder in Babylonian numeration to its eventual recognition as a number alongside the others in Eastern mathematics - to which it later spread Westward, although not without trepidation and set-backs along the way.
in the ancient times. Uprooting the effects of this indoctrination, as you will find out, took the greater understanding of the zero as a universal truth than as a mere construct of the mind in order for its gradual acceptance by the majority.We are shown how the awesome concept of zero made obsolete the worldview of the universe as void-less and unchanging - and the implications of these revelations.
Delves into the mystical aspects of zero and its relation to the concepts of the void, infinity and cosmologies, in addition to its more straightfoward, practical use as an aid to time-keeping, etc. There is even a proof in the appendix of the book using the concept of zero to show that Winston Churchill was a carrot.
Read this book from the library first, now I want to own it.
The book as a whole was well worth the read though. I've never taken a course past Intermediate Algebra, and had no problem with any of the concepts discussed in the book.
This is an in-depth chronological history of the (anti). Relatively light for a book that covers topics so deep.
The author does an excellent job in this area, by making everything easy to understand and delivering it in small enough doses. number zero, and it is a history much richer than you would first think.
The story winds through diverse areas of study and the lives of many historical figures.This is a history book at the core, but you can't tell the history of a number without some equations. In the end, I preferred the historically minded first half to the Stephen Hawking-ish theorems of the second half.
It's a short read too, so even the less interesting parts are easy to tolerate.
This is a book about the concept of zero throughout the ages - from pre-historic times when counting began (but zero was not needed) to the present. The writing style is clear, engaging, lively, friendly, often witty and occasionally humorous. The notion and evolution of zero, as well as the many problems that it caused, are presented from several angles - religion, philosophy, mathematics and physics. The author does an excellent job of retaining his focus on zero while covering millennia of human history and mathematical thought. This book can be enjoyed by any dedicated general reader, although the math phobic may feel uncomfortable through good parts of it. Science buffs, on the other hand, will likely have been exposed to much of the mathematics and science discussed here, but the fascinating historical aspects alone make it very much worth the read for them as well.
From fear of the unknown to fear of the possible, Zero has it all. Charles Seife has given us a wonderful narrative history. Zero transportsthe reader to a time without Zero and then introduces him the mathmatical idea ofnothing. Seife shows how the deceptively simple idea of Zero became theinstrument used to unravel the pre-zero 'known' universe and then toreassemble a universe to be discovered.A great read.
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