Asimov on Numbers

Why schools these day's require dry textbooks that cost $$$ instead of this wonderful story of numbers is beyond me. I think you would have triple the number of math lovers if they were all introduced to Isaac Asimov's world at an early age. You will gain a greater appreciation of numbers and the people behind the ideas of mathematic's as you glide through this book. I doubt you will want to put it down, and if you do, your mind will still be puzzling the ideas and concepts that Asimov explains.

Let us return to those dark and thrilling days of yesteryear, the 1960s. I was in high school at that time. We were still using slide rules for mathematical calculations in physics. (You had to keep their edges lubricated with powdered graphite so that they would slip smoothly. Does anybody remember _those_ days?) There was no internet and no Googol website. But I knew what a googol was, and what a googolplex was, and even what Skewes numbers were. I had read an article by Isaac Asimov in the August 1963 issue of _Fantasy and Science Fiction_ called "T-Formation" that dealt with Big Numbers of various kinds. From other math related articles by Asimov in _F & SF_, I understood why the square root of minus one wasn't _really_ imaginary. I had a rough idea of how the value of pi had been calculated over the years. And I had something of an understanding of why you couldn't square a circle with a straightedge and compass. There were other things that I didn't grasp so easily. Why was infinity not really a number? And how could you have more than one infinities? My understanding of factorials was very fuzzy. And some mathematicians-- Gottfried Leibnitz, Leonardo Fibonacci, Georg Cantor, Leonard Euler, and Karl Friedrich Gauss-- I knew almost nothing about. (Though the names of Euclid, Archimedes, Pythagorus, and Newton were familiar.) The articles by Asimov were no substitute for the daily drill in math that my teachers imposed upon me. But they sharpened my thinking about a few concepts, and they gave me my first glimmering of a notion that maybe mathematics was something more than what was presented to us in textbooks. The formulas that we were supposed to memorize didn't represent concepts that sprang full-blown out of the brow of Zeus. They were ideas that _evolved_, with lots of trial and error and refinement. I wasn't ready to admit that math was fun, but I was willing to concede that at times it could be interesting. In short, Asimov's articles gave me an education. Here are seventeen mathematical essays from _F & SF_ published between September 1959 and June 1966. They are grouped into seven parts: Numbers and Counting (five essays), Numbers and Mathematics (three essays), Numbers and Measurement (two essays), Numbers and the Calendar (two essays), Numbers and Biology (one essay), Numbers and Astronomy (one essay), and Numbers and Earth (three essays). "T-Formation" is here, and most of the others that made an impression on me back then: "The Imaginary That Isn't," "A Piece of Pi," "Tools of the Trade," "Varieties of the Infinite," and "Exclamation Point!" Asimov elsewhere states that this last piece, on factorials, is his all-time favorite math essay. Perhaps the most amusing article in the book is "Forget It!" It is a review of a 1797 math textbook, explaining why most of its contents are rightfully left out of modern math textbooks. In a related vein, "Nothing Counts" compares the Roman and the Arabic Number systems. And "Pre-Fixi

Yes! This is a funny, interesting, eye-opening, highly readable book. Who would have thought that a book about numbers could be so fascinating! Are ya curious about the Fibonacci sequence?

This is the most concise, humourous book on the history of numbers you will read. Asimov is at his peak with this one. The last couple of chapters lost my interest, but the rest is well worth the money. Written for the layman, but enough fuel for the enthusiast.

Every time I read this book (I've read it at least 4 times) I get to a chapter that I've read before and I say, "I don't think I'll read this chapter, I'll just skip it and go on to the next one..." But then I end up reading that chapter and I will think to myself, "That chapter was AWESOME! Why would I ever think of skipping it?" I love this book, I find it hard to put down. Asimov has a way of explaining mathematical concepts in a very compelling way. I'm sad that the book is out of print - I can't find the copy that I read back in high school - sure would love to pick up another copy. As mentioned else where this book is a compilation of articles written by Asimov, mostly in the 60's.