In Zero, Science Journalist Charles Seife follows this innocent-looking number from its birth as an Eastern philosophical concept to its struggle for acceptance in Europe, its rise and transcendence in the West, and its ever-present threat to modern physics. Here are the legendary thinkers?from Pythagoras to Newton to Heisenberg, from the Kabalists to today's astrophysicists?who have tried to understand it and whose clashes shook the foundations of philosophy, science, mathematics, and religion. Zero has pitted East against West and faith against reason, and its intransigence persists in the dark core of a black hole and the brilliant flash of the Big Bang. Today, zero lies at the heart of one of the biggest scientific controversies of all time: the quest for a theory of everything.
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Why did the Church reject the use of zero? How did mystics of all stripes get bent out of shape over it? Is it true that science as we know it depends on this mysterious round digit? Zero opens up these questions and lets us explore the answers and their ramifications for our oh-so-modern lives. Seife has fun with his format, too, starting with chapter 0 and finishing with an appendix titled "Make Your Own Wormhole Time Machine." (Warning: don't get your hopes up too much.) There are enough graphs and equations to scare off serious numerophobes, but the real story is in the interactions between artists, scientists, mathematicians, religious and political leaders, and the rest of us--it seems we really do have nothing in common. --Rob Lightner
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Zero is a relatively recent invention. Invented by the Babylonians, banned by the Greeks and worshipped by Hindus zero has had a fascinating history. Zero was born as an Eastern philosophical concert and this informative, accessible history traces the story of this mysterious number and the people (scholars and mystics, scientists and clergymen) who have fought over its meaning. The battles over zero shook the foundations of philosophy, science, mathematics and religion. Underneath every revolution in the last millennium lay a zero. Charles Seife is a correspondent for New Scientist and has done extensive research into probability theory, artificial intelligence and visualisation of multidimensional spaces. He was trained by mathematicians such as Andrew Wiles, who solved Fermats Last Theorem This informative and easy-to-read book is the story of the people who battled over the meaning of the mysterious number - the scholars and mystics, the scientists and clergymen - who each tried to understand zero. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780285635944
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Book Description Condition: New. 2000. New Ed. Paperback. Num Pages: 256 pages, illustrations. BIC Classification: PDZM. Category: (G) General (US: Trade); (UU) Undergraduate. Dimension: 217 x 135 x 17. Weight in Grams: 280. . . . . . Seller Inventory # V9780285635944