Product Description

Within the concept of zero lies a philosophical and scientific history of Mankind. The Babylonians invented zero, it was banned by the Greeks while on the eve of the Millennium zero was feared to be a timebomb within the world s computer systems. There was a time when zero did not exist, the concept of zero is a relatively recent Eastern concept and for centuries there was a struggle over its very existence. For many cultures zero represented the void and it could prove to undo the framework of logic. It was seen as an alien concept that could shatter the framework of Christianity and science yet European acceptance of zero as a philosophical concept was at the centre of the RenaissanceOver three thousand years the concept of zero has been at the heart of the intellectual debates that have created our culture. In the first millennium zero lay at the heart of the debate between Eastern and Western religion, while after the Renaissance zero was at the centre of the struggle between religion and science. Zero s power comes from its ability to disrupt the laws of physics and it may hold the secret of the cosmos. From the nothingness of a vacuum came our universe, if our universe was born in zero so zero could hold the existence of an infinite number of other universes. .

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15469 in Books
• Published on: 2000-10-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
This is one of the best-written popular science books to have come this way for quite a while... Seife has a neat turn of phrase, an easy yet respectful familiarity with his subject that helps the maths slip down easily. --Nicholas Lezard, 'The Guardian'

A witty but lucid account... A must for armchair logicians. --'BBC Focus'

A breathless tour of the dangerous idea of zero. --'New Scientist'

'Focus', July 2003
a witty but lucid account... A must for armchair logicians.

About the Author
Charles Seife has worked with such mathematicians as Andrew Wiles, the solver of Fermat s Last Theorem, and John Conway, inventor of the game of life . He is the American correspondent for New Scientist.

Customer Reviews

Review for Zero:the Biography of a Dangerous Idea
This book was absolutely wonderful, it delves into the history of mathematics, as far back as the creation of numbers themselves. It looks at the contribution that the Greeks, Babylonians and Hindus made to mathematics, and how religion had restricted the development of mathematics. The book was written very well, it felt like a story book, rather than a factual book. I recommend this book for everyone with an interest in Maths, you do not need to be a mathematician to enjoy this book.

Zero and infinity
Babylonians invented it, Indians worshipped it, Greeks abhorred it. Zero has been a problematic number for a long time. European mathematicians followed Greek footsteps, until they finally realized how important thing zero was for advanced mathematics.

Seife presents us the history of zero and its sister concept infinity, not only in mathematics, but also in physics and quantum mechanics. Zero is an entertaining book, if a bit light. For quick popular science entertainment purposes it's a good choice. (Review based on the Finnish translation.)

one of the best maths books around
Being an undergraduate philosopher I've had to read a lot of maths books, and this is by far the best. It's true that you don't need much maths background to understand it, but it's also highly enjoyable for those with a lot of maths or physics knowledge - it links up and explains general assumptions in a way which seems never to occur to most teachers of sciences courses. The proof of 0=1 (and, extrapolating, that winston churchill = a carrot) is excellent and well worth committing to memory just to freak out any maths nerds one knows. Also worth a go is the step-by-step guide to making your own wormhole time machine (Step 1: Make a small wormhole, and attach one end to something really heavy). Really excellent, buy everyone you know a copy for christmas.