One to Nine: The Inner Life of Numbers | 
 enlarge | Author: Andrew Hodges
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
Buy New: $11.75
You Save: $12.20 (51%)
New (29) Used (5) from $11.75
Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 125584
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.7 x 1.4
ISBN: 039306641X
Dewey Decimal Number: 513.211
EAN: 9780393066418
ASIN: 039306641X
Publication Date: May 19, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: unread, cloth binding , 1st edition, immediate shipping
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Product Description
What Lynne Truss did for grammar in Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Andrew Hodges now does for mathematics.
Andrew Hodges, one of Britain's leading biographers and mathematical writers, brings numbers to three-dimensional life in this delightful and illuminating volume, filled with illustrations, which makes even the most challenging math problems accessible to the layperson. Inspired by millennia of human attempts to figure things out, this pithy book, which tackles mathematical conundrums from the ancient Greeks to superstring theory, finds a new twist to everything from musical harmony to code breaking, from the chemistry of sunflowers to the mystery of magic squares. Starting with the puzzle of defining unity, and ending with the recurring nines of infinite decimals, Hodges tells a story that takes in quantum physics, cosmology, climate change, and the origin of the computer. Hodges has written a classic work, at once playful but satisfyingly instructional, which will be ideal for the math aficionado and the Sudoku addict as well as for the life of the party. 40 illustrations.
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| Customer Reviews:
Great idea, but disappointing August 27, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Granted I'm only about halfway through the book, but there's a reason for that. The idea, as presented by the NYT book review, is good: relate the math you learned in school, from memorized formulas to more difficult abstractions, to its much more interesting real-life applications, all while illustrating how those memorized relationships and hard-to-grasp concepts underpin so much of what you already take to be fact without attributing the reasons to mathematical relationships. But the prose is just not that enjoyable to me. Perhaps it will improve as I get more into the author's rhythm, but this isn't what I was looking for.
Interesting, Yes, But Way Over My Head August 26, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I have always enjoyed math and use numbers constantly in making illustrations about everyday events. I won't tell you not to try this book as much of the material is fascinating! However, in spite of my mathematical background, I found that most of the material was too abstract for my feeble mind. I had trouble comprehending some of the concepts that were presented as being fairly simple. Hopefully, you are smarter than I am and will enjoy this book. If you struggle with numbers to begin with, I would suggest something more basic.
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