Number Story: From Counting to Cryptography

by Peter Michael Higgins

Overview

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...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781848000001
Publisher:	Springer London
Publication date:	02/25/2008
Edition description:	2008
Pages:	323
Product dimensions:	0.00(w) x 0.00(h) x 0.04(d)

About the Author

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.

Table of Contents

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.

Editorial Reviews

From the reviews:

"The target reader of this book is a senior high school student. It is well suited to such an audience; indeed, it is exactly the sort of work I would myself have devoured some 50+ years ago. … The different topics treated are all described exactly and succinctly." (Michael A. B. Deakin, Mathematical Reviews, Issue 2008 j)

“The author gives a history of the development of numbers including the natural numbers, the rational numbers, the real numbers and the complex numbers. The text is written at a level appropriate for any educated person. Throughout the text the reasons for the development of various numbers are given along with a historical view of the intuitive struggles with these new ideas.” (Steven T. Dougherty, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1188, 2010)

From the Publisher

For millennia, numbers have been our ever-present seducers and accomplices. As math professor Peter M. Higgins notes in this engaging book, we all use them almost constantly, although we often don't know that we are doing so. In Number Story, he attempts, generally quite successfully, to coax us into fecund mathematical realms that we seldom visit except in far-flung dreams.