Numbers have fascinated people for centuries. They are familiar to everyone, forming a central pillar of our understanding of the world, yet the number system was not presented to us gift-wrapped but, rather, was developed over millennia. Peter Higgins distills centuries of work into one delightful narrative that celebrates the mystery of numbers and explains how different kinds of numbers arose and why they are useful. Full of historical snippets and interesting examples, the book ranges from simple number puzzles and magic tricks, to showing how ideas about numbers relate to real-world problems, such as: How are our bank account details kept secure when shopping over the internet? What are the chances of winning at Russian roulette; or of being dealt a flush in a poker hand?
As our understanding of numbers continues to evolve, this book invites us to rediscover the mystery and beauty of numbers and reminds us that the story of numbers is a tale with a long way to run...
Peter Higgins is a Professor of Mathematics at Essex University and inventor of Circular Sudoku. His previous books on mathematics include Mathematics for the Curious, Mathematics for the Imagination, and Nets, Puzzles and Postmen: An Exploration of Mathematical Connections.
The First Numbers.- Discovering Numbers.- Some Number Tricks.- Some Tricky Numbers.- Some Useful Numbers.- On the Trail of New Numbers.- Glimpses of Infinity.- Applications of Number: Chance.- The Complex History of the Imaginary.- From Imaginary to Complex.- The Number Line under the Microscope.- Application of Number: Codes and Public Key Cryptography.- For Connoisseurs.
