The number devil
Subtitle: a mathematical adventure
By: Hans Magnus Enzensberger ; illustrated by Rotraut Susanne Berner ; translated by Michael Henry Heim.
Contributors: Berner, Rotraut Susanne.
Edition: 1st Owl Books ed.
Publisher: Henry Holt
Published: 2000
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 262
Subjects: Mathematics -- Fiction; Numbers, Natural -- Fiction; Dreams -- Fiction
Genres: Fiction.
Work titles: Zahlenteufel.
Description: Annoyed with his math teacher who assigns word problems and won't let him use a calculator, twelve-year-old Robert finds help from the number devil in his dreams. The international best-seller that makes mathematics a thrilling exploration. In twelve dreams, Robert, a boy who hates math, meets a Number Devil, who leads him to discover the amazing world of numbers: infinite numbers, prime numbers, Fibonacci numbers, numbers that magically appear in triangles, and numbers that expand without . As we dream with him, we are taken further and further into mathematical theory, where ideas eventually take flight, until everyone-from those who fumble over fractions to those who solve complex equations in their heads-winds up marveling at what numbers can do. Hans Magnus Enzensberger is a true polymath, the kind of superb intellectual who loves thinking and marshals all of his charm and wit to share his passions with the world. In The Number Devil, he brings together the surreal logic of Alice in Wonderland and the existential geometry of Flatland with the kind of math everyone would love, if only they had a number devil to teach it to them.