The nothing that is
Subtitle: a natural history of zero
By: Robert Kaplan ; illustrations by Ellen Kaplan.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2000
Place of publication: Oxford; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 225
Subjects: Zero (The number)
Description: Without zero, mathematics as we know it would not exist. And without mathematics our understanding of the universe would be vastly impoverished. But where did this nothing, this hollow circle, come from? And what, exactly, does it mean? For Kaplan, the history of zero is a lens for looking not only into the evolution of mathematics but into very nature of human thought. He points out how the history of mathematics is a process of recursive abstraction: how once a symbol is created to represent an idea, that symbol itself gives rise to new operations that in turn lead to new ideas. The beauty of mathematics is that even though we invent it, we seem to be discovering something that already exists. The joy of that discovery shines from Kaplan's pages, as he ranges from Archimedes to Einstein, making fascinating connections between mathematical insights from every age and culture.--From publisher description.
Notes: Originally published: London : Allen Lane/Penguin Press, 1999.

Includes index.

Notes and bibliography available on the World Wide Web.
Table of contents: title: 0. The; title: lens -- -- 1.; title: Mind puts its stamp on matter -- -- 2. The; title: Greeks had no word for it -- -- 3.; title: Travelers' tales -- -- 4.; title: Eastward -- -- 5.; title: Dust -- -- 6.; title: Into the unknown -- -- 7. A; title: paradigm shifts -- -- 8. A; title: Mayan interlude : the dark side of counting -- -- 9.; title: Much ado -- -- 10.; title: Entertaining angels -- -- 11.; title: Almost nothing -- -- 12.; title: Is it out there? -- -- 13.; title: Bath-house with spiders -- -- 14. A; title: land where it was always afternoon -- -- 15.; title: Was Lear right? -- -- 16. The; title: unthinkable.