Author: Eli Maor
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400832349
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 242
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Book Description
The interest earned on a bank account, the arrangement of seeds in a sunflower, and the shape of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis are all intimately connected with the mysterious number e. In this informal and engaging history, Eli Maor portrays the curious characters and the elegant mathematics that lie behind the number. Designed for a reader with only a modest mathematical background, this biography brings out the central importance of e to mathematics and illuminates a golden era in the age of science.
Author: Jenny Kay Dupuis
Publisher: Second Story Press
ISBN: 1772602329
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 32
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Book Description
When eight-year-old Irene is removed from her First Nations family to live in a residential school she is confused, frightened, and terribly homesick. She tries to remember who she is and where she came from, despite the efforts of the nuns who are in charge at the school and who tell her that she is not to use her own name but instead use the number they have assigned to her. When she goes home for summer holidays, Irene's parents decide never to send her and her brothers away again. But where will they hide? And what will happen when her parents disobey the law? Based on the life of co-author Jenny Kay Dupuis’ grandmother, I Am Not a Number is a hugely necessary book that brings a terrible part of Canada’s history to light in a way that children can learn from and relate to.
Author: Andreas Nieder
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262042789
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 394
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Book Description
How our intuitive understanding of numbers is deeply rooted in our biology, traceable through both evolution and development. Humans' understanding of numbers is intuitive. Infants are able to estimate and calculate even before they learn the words for numbers. How have we come to possess this talent for numbers? In A Brain for Numbers, Andreas Nieder explains how our brains process numbers. He reports that numerical competency is deeply rooted in our biological ancestry; it can be traced through both the evolution of our species and the development of our individual minds. It is not, as it has been traditionally explained, based on our ability to use language. We owe our symbolic mathematical skills to the nonsymbolic numerical abilities that we inherited from our ancestors. The principles of mathematics, Nieder tells us, are reflections of the innate dispositions wired into the brain. Nieder explores how the workings of the brain give rise to numerical competence, tracing flair for numbers to dedicated “number neurons” in the brain. Drawing on a range of methods including brain imaging techniques, behavioral experiments, and twin studies, he outlines a new, integrated understanding of the talent for numbers. Along the way, he compares the numerical capabilities of humans and animals, and discusses the benefits animals reap from such a capability. He shows how the neurobiological roots of the brain's nonverbal quantification capacity are the evolutionary foundation of more elaborate numerical skills. He discusses how number signs and symbols are represented in the brain; calculation capability and the “neuromythology” of mathematical genius; the “start-up tools” for counting and developmental of dyscalculia (a number disorder analogous to the reading disorder dyslexia); and how the brain processes the abstract concept of zero.
Author: John Verdon
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307588947
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 434
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Book Description
The first book in the Dave Gurney series, Think of a Number is a heart-pounding game of cat and mouse that grows relentlessly darker and more frightening as its pace accelerates Threatening letters arrive in the mail over a period of weeks, ending with a simple declaration: “Think of any number . . . picture it . . . now see how well I know your secrets.” Those who comply find that the letter writer has predicted their random choice exactly. But when oddities that begin as a diverting puzzle quickly ignite into a massive serial murder investigation, police are confronted with a baffling killer, one who is fond of rhymes filled with threats and warnings, whose attention to detail is unprecedented, and who has an uncanny knack for disappearing into thin air. Brought in as an investigative consultant, Dave Gurney, a recently retired NYPD homicide investigator, soon accomplishes deductive breakthroughs that leave local police in awe. Yet, even as he matches wits with his seemingly clairvoyant opponent, Gurney’s tragedy-marred past rises up to haunt him, his marriage approaches a dangerous precipice, and he wonders if he’s met an adversary who can’t be stopped. A work that defies easy labels—at once a propulsive masterpiece of suspense and an absorbing immersion in the lives of characters so real we seem to hear their heartbeats—Think of a Number is a novel you’ll not soon forget.
Author: Robert Tubbs
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 0801890187
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 318
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Book Description
Mysticism, number, and geometry : an introduction to Pythagoreanism -- The Elgin Marbles and Plato's geometric chemistry -- An introduction to infinity -- The flat Earth and the spherical sky -- Theology, logic, and questions about angels -- Time, infinity, and incommensurability -- Medieval theories of vision and the discovery of space -- The shape of space and the fourth dimension -- What is a number? -- The dual nature of points and lines -- Modern mathematical infinity -- Elegance and truth.
Author: Anders Bodelsen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 208
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Book Description
Author: Doreen Rappaport
Publisher: Candlewick Press
ISBN: 076369715X
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 129
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Book Description
An eye-opening look at the life and legacy of Jackie Robinson, the man who broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball and became an American hero. Baseball, basketball, football — no matter the game, Jackie Robinson excelled. His talents would have easily landed another man a career in pro sports, but in America in the 1930s and ’40s, such opportunities were closed to athletes like Jackie for one reason: his skin was the wrong color. Settling for playing baseball in the Negro Leagues, Jackie chafed at the inability to prove himself where it mattered most: the major leagues. Then in 1946, Branch Rickey, manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, decided he was going to break the “rules” of segregation: he recruited Jackie Robinson. Fiercely determined, Jackie faced cruel and sometimes violent hatred and discrimination, but he proved himself again and again, exhibiting courage, restraint, and a phenomenal ability to play the game. In this compelling biography, award-winning author Doreen Rappaport chronicles the extraordinary life of Jackie Robinson and how his achievements won over — and changed — a segregated nation.
Author: Richard Friedberg
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486152693
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 241
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Book Description
This witty introduction to number theory deals with the properties of numbers and numbers as abstract concepts. Topics include primes, divisibility, quadratic forms, and related theorems.
Author: Tim Glynne-Jones
Publisher: Arcturus Publishing
ISBN: 1848584407
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 310
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Book Description
From zero to infinity, The Book of Numbers is a handy-sized volume which opens up a new realm of knowledge. Where else in one place could you find out how the illegal numbers racket worked, what makes some people see numbers as colours, why the standard US rail gauge exactly matches the axle width of an ancient Roman chariot, and the numerological connection between Adolf Hitler and Osama Bin Laden?
Author: Lines M E
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 9780852744956
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 228
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Book Description
Why do we count the way we do? What is a prime number or a friendly, perfect, or weird one? How many are there and who has found the largest yet known? What is the Baffling Law of Benford and can you really believe it? Do most numbers you meet in every day life really begin with a 1, 2, or 3? What is so special about 6174? Can cubes, as well as squares, be magic? What secrets lie hidden in decimals? How do we count the infinite, and is one infinity really larger than another? These and many other fascinating questions about the familiar 1, 2, and 3 are collected in this adventure into the world of numbers. Both entertaining and informative, A Number for Your Thoughts: Facts and Speculations about Numbers from Euclid to the Latest Computers contains a collection of the most interesting facts and speculations about numbers from the time of Euclid to the most recent computer research. Requiring little or no prior knowledge of mathematics, the book takes the reader from the origins of counting to number problems that have baffled the world's greatest experts for centuries, and from the simplest notions of elementary number properties all the way to counting the infinite.
