Numbers (Graduate Texts in Mathematics, 123)

Ebbinghaus, Heinz-Dieter; H. Hermes; F. Hirzebruch; M. Koecher; K. Mainzer; J. Neukirch; A. Prestel; R. Remmert

ISBN 10: 0387974970 / ISBN 13: 9780387974972

Published by Springer, 1995

About this Item

23.5 x 15.5 cm. 391pp. Name and subject index. 24 illustrations. With an introduction by K. Lamotke.

Seller Inventory # 79503

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Numbers (Graduate Texts in Mathematics, 123)
• Publisher: Springer
• Publication Date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0387974970
• ISBN 13: 9780387974972
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: Corrected third printing.
• Condition: Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • Mathematics

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.