Numbers (Graduate Texts in Mathematics (123))

Ebbinghaus, Heinz-Dieter, Hermes, Hans, Hirzebruch, Friedric

ISBN 10: 0387974970 / ISBN 13: 9780387974972

Published by Springer, 1990

About this Item

Like New.

Seller Inventory # ERICA77303879749706

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Numbers (Graduate Texts in Mathematics (123))
• Publisher: Springer
• Publication Date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0387974970
• ISBN 13: 9780387974972
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Like New
• Book Type: book

About this title

Synopsis

A book about numbers sounds rather dull. This one is not. Instead it is a lively story about one thread of mathematics-the concept of "number"­ told by eight authors and organized into a historical narrative that leads the reader from ancient Egypt to the late twentieth century. It is a story that begins with some of the simplest ideas of mathematics and ends with some of the most complex. It is a story that mathematicians, both amateur and professional, ought to know. Why write about numbers? Mathematicians have always found it diffi­ cult to develop broad perspective about their subject. While we each view our specialty as having roots in the past, and sometimes having connec­ tions to other specialties in the present, we seldom see the panorama of mathematical development over thousands of years. Numbers attempts to give that broad perspective, from hieroglyphs to K-theory, from Dedekind cuts to nonstandard analysis.