The Book of Numbers

by John H. Conway, Richard Guy

Overview

Journey through the world of numbers with the foremost authorities and writers in the field.

John Horton Conway and Richard K. Guy are two of the most accomplished, creative, and engaging number theorists any mathematically minded reader could hope to encounter. In this book, Conway and Guy lead the reader on an imaginative, often astonishing tour of the landscape of numbers.

The Book of Numbers is just that - an engagingly written, heavily illustrated introduction to the fascinating, sometimes surprising properties of numbers and number patterns. The book opens up a world of topics, theories, and applications, exploring intriguing aspects of real numbers, systems, arrays and sequences, and much more. Readers will be able to use figures to figure out figures, rub elbows with famous families of numbers, prove the primacy of primes, fathom the fruitfulness of fractions, imagine imaginary numbers, investigate the infinite and infinitesimal and more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781461284888
Publisher:	Springer New York
Publication date:	09/15/2011
Edition description:	1996
Pages:	310
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.03(d)

Table of Contents

1 The Romance of Numbers.- 2 Figures from Figures: Doing Arithmetic and Algebra by Geometry.- 3 What Comes Next?.- 4 Famous Families of Numbers.- 5 The Primacy of Primes.- 6 Further Fruitfulness of Fractions.- 7 Geometric Problems and Algebraic Numbers.- 8 Imagining Imaginary Numbers.- 9 Some Transcendental Numbers.- 10 Infinite and Infinitesimal Numbers.

Editorial Reviews

The authors are well known to both academic and recreational mathematicians-Conway for inventing the "game of life" and discovering surreal numbers and Guy as the editor of the "Unsolved Problems" section in American Mathematical Monthly. They also coauthored the classic Winning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays (Academic, 1982). This popularization of number theory looks like another classic. Though number theory does not lend itself to fun and games, the authors take such joy in the order and patterns of numbers that you can't help being fascinated by what is actually a fairly difficult subject. A combination of clear verbal explanations, wonderfully clever diagrams, and equations (for the real mathematicians) make sometimes complicated numerical concepts accessible to those "without particular mathematical background" (i.e., who are not at least graduate students in mathematics). The material is simplified but not dumbed down. A bridge to understanding and appreciating higher mathematical concepts, this book could appeal to anyone from a mathematically sophisticated high school student to a university mathematics professor.-Amy Brunvand, Univ. of Utah Lib., Salt Lake City

Library Journal

From the reviews:

"This is a really fascinating book either to read or to browse in, or for reference - there is a good index, and I can strongly recommend it - it should be in every school and college library!" The Mathematical Gazette

"… A delightful look at numbers and their roles in everything from language to flowers to the imagination." Science News

"… The great feature of the book is that anyone can read it without excessive head scratching … You'll find plenty here to keep you occupied, amused, and informed. Buy, dip in, wallow." New Scientist

From the Publisher