Il meraviglioso mondo dei numeri

Alex Bellos is a gifted writer who has embarked on a mission to popularize mathematics. He makes a frank observation that should give pause to any reader: “By age 16, schoolkids have learned almost no math beyond what was already known in the mid-seventeenth century, and likewise by the time they ar Leggi tutto

This is a fabulous chronicle of the most esoteric subject in existence! Alex Bellos is witty, serious, engaging and if I may say so, utterly charming in his narration of the history of mathematics. He has organized the book in the way that allows him to be chronological while also taking diversions f Leggi tutto

Alex Bellos attempts to engage the general public in mathematics by describing maths in a way that anyone can understand. He commences by describing how different cultures use counting and numbers, and in many ways this is the most interesting part of the book. Several cultures, for instance, have n Leggi tutto

My brain is now filled with more number facts than I ever wanted it to be filled with. I cannot believe I was a Mathmatics major in Uni for over a year and was so unknowing of so much of what Alex talked about. Numbers are indeed fascinating, if overwhelming for most of us. The early chapters about

The world of maths can seem mind-boggling, irrelevant and, let's face it, boring. This groundbreaking book reclaims maths from the geeks. This is how the blurb on the back cover starts. Alex's Adventures in Numberland isn't quite as awful as that suggests, but it's very apparent Bellos is a journalis Leggi tutto

Surprising, indeed! This book (and my puchase of it) is proof that a great title can sell a book. I'd never heard of the author. I'm not particularly interested in math, and have certainly never intentionally read over 300 pages about it. A month ago it would have been difficult for me to conceive o Leggi tutto

Didn't believe I'll read an entire book just about math. But this one is just weirdly engaging.

Deserves a 5 for the title, but the content is excellent as well. One student of mine asked one question about math history and so I checked this book out and asked my math mom (hi mom) for help, and ended up giving my class way more math history they asked for. I'm unapologetic. I learned a lot. Bel Leggi tutto