Get Free Shipping on orders over $79
Numbers : How Counting Changed the World - Tom Jackson

Numbers

How Counting Changed the World

By: Tom Jackson

Paperback | 1 May 2017

At a Glance

Paperback


RRP $24.99

$24.75

or 4 interest-free payments of $6.19 with

Available for Backorder. We will order this from our supplier however there isn't a current ETA.

The first book in a new series

One of the hardest questions that mathematics teachers have to answer is "Why?" Schoolroom sums are crucial in learning the awesome power of mathematics, but they are often a world away from how the knowledge is applied and where it came from. Numbers: How Counting Changed the World is there to fill that gap.

The story of numbers begins with counting 1,2, 3... but it ends with a mind-boggling mass of numbers so densely packed that we can't be sure where one number ends and another begins. Along the way we meet superhero numbers like ?, e and googol; we learn that numbers can be perfect, irrational, even imaginary; and that modern mathematics still bears the hallmarks of many ancient civilizations.

Numbers: How Counting Changed the World introduces the amazing people who figured out what numbers are and what they can do. Written to engage, entertain, and enthuse young people, it shows readers how the ideas of long-dead geniuses ended up in their homework assignments: The Mayans of ancient Mexico were using zeros long before anyone else, and we count time and angles in multiples of 60 because that is what the people of Babylon did (for good reason).

Meanwhile Pythagoras was a murderer, the shape of a credit card is defined by the golden ratio, and John Napier, the inventor of logarithms, seldom appeared in public without his pet rooster!

About the Author

Tom Jackson is the author of more than forty science and natural history books. He studied zoology at the University of Bristol, England, has taken part in conservation projects in Zimbabwe and Vietnam, and visited the Galapagos Islands and the Sahara Desert as a travel writer.

More in Mathematics

Primary Mathematics : 4th Edition - Integrating Theory with Practice - Penelope Baker
Psychology Statistics For Dummies : For Dummies - Donncha Hanna

RRP $49.95

$38.75

22%
OFF
Collins Classics - The Republic : Collins Classics - Plato
How to Win At Chess : The Ultimate Guide for Beginners and Beyond - Levy Rozman
Maths in Focus 12 Mathematics Advanced Student Book : 3rd Edition - Margaret Grove
The Selfish Gene : 40th Anniversary Edition - Richard Dawkins

RRP $32.95

$26.99

18%
OFF
The Mending of Broken Bones : A Modern Guide to Classical Algebra - Paul Lockhart
Antifragile : Things That Gain from Disorder - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

RRP $27.99

$22.75

19%
OFF
Grade 3 Geometry and Measurement - KUMON PUBLISHING

RRP $16.99

$13.75

19%
OFF
Woo's Wonderful World of Maths - Eddie Woo

RRP $29.99

$24.99

17%
OFF
Grade 6 Geometry and Measurement : Kumon Math Workbooks - KUMON PUBLISHING
The Black Swan : The Impact of the Highly Improbable - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

This product is categorised by