Much Ado About Numbers: Shakespeare’s Mathematical Life and Times - Softcover

Eastaway, Rob

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9798893031256: Much Ado About Numbers: Shakespeare’s Mathematical Life and Times

Synopsis

Open a new portal into Shakespeare’s words―and his Renaissance life―with math and numbers as your key

“Highly readable. . . . Shakespeare’s surprising yet unsurprising mathematical sophistication led to some of his most creative feats.”―Bloomberg

Shakespeare’s era was abuzz with mathematical progress, from the new concept of “zero” to Galileo’s redraft of the heavens. Now, Rob Eastaway uncovers the many surprising ways math shaped Shakespeare’s plays―and his world―through astronomy, code-breaking, time-keeping, navigation, music, games, and more.

  • How does division feature in Juliet’s parting scene?
  • Why was it hazardous to play with dice?
  • How did audiences get to the Globe on time?
  • Which of Galileo’s discoveries has a cameo in Cymbeline?
  • Were cryptic messages hidden in the First Folio?

Full of delights for devotees of both Tudor history and the Bard, Much Ado About Numbers is proof that the arts and sciences have always danced together.

43 black-and-white illustrations

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About the Author

Rob Eastaway has authored and coauthored several bestselling books that connect math with everyday life, including Why Do Buses Come in Threes? and How Many Socks Make a Pair? He is the director of Maths Inspiration, an interactive lecture program that has reached over 250,000 teenagers in the United Kingdom, New York, and Sydney. In 2017, he received the Zeeman Medal for excellence in the public communication of mathematics, and in 2025, he delivered the BSHM Gresham College Lecture on the subject of Shakespeare and mathematics. He lives in London.

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