"Number" reassesses conventional views of civilization. It seeks to challenge, provoke and fascinate as it takes the mystery out of the world of number. Ranging from prehistoric times through the world's main civilizations, John McLeish demonstrates that one of the main skills which marks out humans from animals is their ability to calculate. We visit the bed-chambers of the Chinese Emperor as his officials allocate his bed-mate according to a strict mathematical rota. We get to know the people who have shaped numbers - world famous mathematicians such as Pythagoras and Newton, and the lesser known Greek woman mathematician Hypatia who was martyred for her views on logic. The book also looks at the development of the computer and the people behind it, and reassesses today's society in terms of the numbers which rule our lives.
- ISBN10 0006544843
- ISBN13 9780006544845
- Publish Date 5 November 1992 (first published 17 October 1991)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 13 July 1995
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
- Imprint Flamingo
- Edition New edition
- Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
- Pages 272
- Language English
- URL http://harpercollins.co.uk