Zero

Zero PDF Author: Charles Seife
Publisher: Souvenir Press
ISBN: 1782837329
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK The Babylonians invented it, the Greeks banned it, the Hindus worshipped it, and the Christian Church used it to fend off heretics. Today it's a timebomb ticking in the heart of astrophysics. For zero, infinity's twin, is not like other numbers. It is both nothing and everything. Zero has pitted East against West and faith against reason, and its intransigence persists in the dark core of a black hole and the brilliant flash of the Big Bang. Today, zero lies at the heart of one of the biggest scientific controversies of all time: the quest for a theory of everything. Within the concept of zero lies a philosophical and scientific history of humanity. Charles Seife's elegant and witty account takes us from Aristotle to superstring theory by way of Egyptian geometry, Kabbalism, Einstein, the Chandrasekhar limit and Stephen Hawking. Covering centuries of thought, it is a concise tour of a world of ideas, bound up in the simple notion of nothing.

Zero

Zero PDF Author: Charles Seife
Publisher: Souvenir Press
ISBN: 1782837329
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 268

Get Book Here

Book Description
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK The Babylonians invented it, the Greeks banned it, the Hindus worshipped it, and the Christian Church used it to fend off heretics. Today it's a timebomb ticking in the heart of astrophysics. For zero, infinity's twin, is not like other numbers. It is both nothing and everything. Zero has pitted East against West and faith against reason, and its intransigence persists in the dark core of a black hole and the brilliant flash of the Big Bang. Today, zero lies at the heart of one of the biggest scientific controversies of all time: the quest for a theory of everything. Within the concept of zero lies a philosophical and scientific history of humanity. Charles Seife's elegant and witty account takes us from Aristotle to superstring theory by way of Egyptian geometry, Kabbalism, Einstein, the Chandrasekhar limit and Stephen Hawking. Covering centuries of thought, it is a concise tour of a world of ideas, bound up in the simple notion of nothing.

The Nothing that is

The Nothing that is PDF Author:
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195128427
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
In the tradition of "Longitude, " a small and engagingly written book on the history and meaning of zero--a "tour de force" of science history that takes us through the hollow circle that leads to infinity. 32 illustrations.

Finding Zero

Finding Zero PDF Author: Amir D. Aczel
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1466879106
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 199

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Book Description
“A captivating story, not just an intellectual quest but a personal one . . . gripping [and] filled with the passion and wonder of numbers.” —The New York Times Virtually everything in our lives is digital, numerical, or quantified. But the story of how and where we got these numerals, which we so depend on, has for thousands of years been shrouded in mystery. Finding Zero is the saga of Amir Aczel’s lifelong obsession: to find the original sources of our numerals, perhaps the greatest abstraction the human mind has ever created. Aczel has doggedly crisscrossed the ancient world, scouring dusty, moldy texts, cross-examining so-called scholars who offered wildly differing sets of facts, and ultimately penetrating deep into a Cambodian jungle to find a definitive proof. Here, he takes the reader along for the ride. The history begins with Babylonian cuneiform numbers, followed by Greek and Roman letter numerals. Then Aczel asks: Where do the numbers we use today, the so-called Hindu-Arabic numerals, come from? It is this search that leads him to explore uncharted territory on a grand quest into India, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and ultimately into the wilds of Cambodia. There he is blown away to find the earliest zero—the keystone of our entire system of numbers—on a crumbling, vine-covered wall of a seventh-century temple adorned with eaten-away erotic sculptures. While on this odyssey, Aczel meets a host of fascinating characters: academics in search of truth, jungle trekkers looking for adventure, surprisingly honest politicians, shameless smugglers, and treacherous archaeological thieves—who finally reveal where our numbers come from. “A historical adventure that doubles as a surprisingly engaging math lesson . . . rip-roaring exploits and escapades.” —Publishers Weekly

The Invention of the Zero

The Invention of the Zero PDF Author: Richard Kenney
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 9780679749974
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
'Four narrative poems make up the heart of the book. Although they range across eons and firmaments, each is anchored in the Pacific Ocean and the Second World War... The Invention of the Zero was compelling enough to inspire me to read it twice aloud. I don't know when I last found a book of contemporary verse so enlivening in this hurtling, hellbent way...He is+ one of the most gifted and multifaceted and original of American poets.'

From One to Zero

From One to Zero PDF Author: Georges Ifrah
Publisher: Penguin Group
ISBN:
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 530

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Book Description
"Traces the development of numerical systems in Sumerian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Chinese, Babylonian, and Mayan cultures, and examines the origins of the Hindu-Arabic numerals we use today"--Back cover.

The Book of Nothing

The Book of Nothing PDF Author: John D. Barrow
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307554813
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
What conceptual blind spot kept the ancient Greeks (unlike the Indians and Maya) from developing a concept of zero? Why did St. Augustine equate nothingness with the Devil? What tortuous means did 17th-century scientists employ in their attempts to create a vacuum? And why do contemporary quantum physicists believe that the void is actually seething with subatomic activity? You’ll find the answers in this dizzyingly erudite and elegantly explained book by the English cosmologist John D. Barrow. Ranging through mathematics, theology, philosophy, literature, particle physics, and cosmology, The Book of Nothing explores the enduring hold that vacuity has exercised on the human imagination. Combining high-wire speculation with a wealth of reference that takes in Freddy Mercury and Shakespeare alongside Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and Stephen Hawking, the result is a fascinating excursion to the vanishing point of our knowledge.

Zero History

Zero History PDF Author: William Gibson
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101443316
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 544

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Book Description
Hollis Henry never intended to work for global marketing magnate Hubertus Bigend again. But now she’s broke, and Bigend has just the thing to get her back in the game... Milgrim can disappear in almost any setting, and his Russian is perfectly idiomatic—so much so that he spoke it with his therapist in the secret Swiss clinic where Bigend paid for him to be cured of his addiction... Garreth doesn't owe Bigend a thing. But he does have friends from whom he can call in the kinds of favors powerful people need when things go sideways... They all have something Bigend wants as he finds himself outmaneuvered and adrift, after a Department of Defense contract for combat-wear turns out to be the gateway drug for arms dealers so shadowy they can out-Bigend Bigend himself. “Zero History is [Gibson’s] best yet, a triumph of science fiction as social criticism and adventure.”—BoingBoing.net

The Hunt for Zero Point

The Hunt for Zero Point PDF Author: Nick Cook
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307419436
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
This riveting work of investigative reporting and history exposes classified government projects to build gravity-defying aircraft--which have an uncanny resemblance to flying saucers. The atomic bomb was not the only project to occupy government scientists in the 1940s. Antigravity technology, originally spearheaded by scientists in Nazi Germany, was another high priority, one that still may be in effect today. Now for the first time, a reporter with an unprecedented access to key sources in the intelligence and military communities reveals suppressed evidence that tells the story of a quest for a discovery that could prove as powerful as the A-bomb. The Hunt for Zero Point explores the scientific speculation that a "zero point" of gravity exists in the universe and can be replicated here on Earth. The pressure to be the first nation to harness gravity is immense, as it means having the ability to build military planes of unlimited speed and range, along with the most deadly weaponry the world has ever seen. The ideal shape for a gravity-defying vehicle happens to be a perfect disk, making antigravity tests a possible explanation for the numerous UFO sightings of the past 50 years. Chronicling the origins of antigravity research in the world's most advanced research facility, which was operated by the Third Reich during World War II, The Hunt for Zero Point traces U.S. involvement in the project, beginning with the recruitment of former Nazi scientists after the war. Drawn from interviews with those involved with the research and who visited labs in Europe and the United States, The Hunt for Zero Point journeys to the heart of the twentieth century's most puzzling unexplained phenomena.

Three Degrees Above Zero

Three Degrees Above Zero PDF Author: Jeremy Bernstein
Publisher: CUP Archive
ISBN: 9780521329835
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
Bell Laboratories is one of the world's leading research centres. Bell scientists have won seven Nobel prizes in, physics, more than any other single institution in the world. In this engrossing book - a blend of popular science, and history -Jeremy Bernstein guides us on a fascinating tour of the labs, introducing us to the men and women who have been responsible for some of the greatest scientific advances of this century, in computers and computation, solid state physics (including the invention and development of the transistor); communications, and in astrophysics.

The Invention of Numbers

The Invention of Numbers PDF Author: Peter Bentley
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN: 9781844039111
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Numbers are at the heart of the existence of the universe and everything in it, and yet a lot of us have little understanding of their creation, let alone their part in philosophy, art, music, physics, literature, religion and computing. Dr Bentley's fascinating history of the origins of numbers will unlock the secrets of these things that we take for granted and shows how numbers seem to take on human characteristiscs - as they can be perfect or irrational, amicable or prime, real or imaginary. From zero to infinity, learn about the way numbers have shaped our world, discover amazing facts and enjoy the pure beauty of mathematical logic.