Wonders Beyond Numbers: A Brief History of All Things Mathematical

Description

Johnny Ball has been a well-loved name in mathematics for many years. Wonders Beyond Numbers is his magnum opus, and his first book for more than ten years. It is nothing less than the history of mathematics; he describes it as 'a summation of my career as an enthusiast for mathematics'. It will help spark (or re-spark) the reader's love of maths in its many facets. The scope of the book is breathtaking. Running in something approaching chronological order, it shows that every breakthrough in maths represents a single step forward, resting on the work of others, and it brings to life the importance of numbers, shapes and patterns in the world around us. As an indication of coverage, early chapters in the book will be looking at Egyptian binary maths, Thales's angular measurements, Sumer and base 60, Pythagoras and the maths of music, Plato and Euclid, Archimedes and hydrostatics, Pi and circular maths, areas and volumes, Diophantus and algebra, measuring the Earth, Quipo maths in Peru, Mayan maths and base 20, the discovery of zero, Chinese maths, negative numbers, Pascal's triangle and Al Khwarizmi's algebra. That takes us up to the early Middle Ages. It's all-encompassing, yet written in a light and reader-friendly fashion, and filled with diagrams to help explain the maths. Dotted throughout will be anecdotes and stories from Johnny's life and mathematical adventures, both in front of the camera and in the real world, too. This book's a gem.

A life-long maths obsessive, Johnny Ball started out as a Butlin's redcoat and stand-up comic before appearing on BBC TV's Play School from 1967. His real break, though, came in 1977, with the first series of Think of a Number, a tea-time popular maths show. A smash hit, this spawned various other shows (such as Johnny Ball Reveals All), as Johnny quickly became one of the most famous faces on British television. Johnny remains a regular fixture on TV and radio, and is comfortably Britain's most famous mathematician.

The great strength of this book is probably its wide coverage of practical applications of mathematics, especially in engineering and architecture. * The Mathematical Gazette * Johnny Ball's trademark enthusiasm for mathematics bubbles off every page. Clear, simple, readable, and informative - just as I expected. It's a winner! -- Ian Stewart, author of Significant Figures I became an instant Johnny Ball fan when his TV series Think of a Number first aired in the UK, and I saw how he engaged and delighted my two young daughters in a way I, their maths professor dad, could not. With this new book, his passion for, and sheer enjoyment of, mathematics will surely entice yet more generations to the subject we both love. -- Keith Devlin, Stanford University mathematician, award-winning author and the 'Math Guy' on America's radio. I always found maths intriguing and baffling in equal measure - and the latter triumphed. If only I'd had Wonders Beyond Numbers when growing up. But I now have it and it is a re-awaking into a world of delight and wonder. It is a wonderful book. -- Anthony Seldon, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buckingham