Number

From Sumeria to ancient China, Moghul India to the native civilizations of the Americas, Shakespeare's England to the computer age, this book discusses numbers, the people who use them and how they affect our lives - demonstrating that the ability to calculate underpins our whole civilization.

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"Number" reassesses conventional views of civilization. It seeks to challenge, provoke and fascinate as it takes the mystery out of the world of number. Ranging from prehistoric times through the world's main civilizations, John McLeish demonstrates that one of the main skills which marks out humans from animals is their ability to calculate. We visit the bed-chambers of the Chinese Emperor as his officials allocate his bed-mate according to a strict mathematical rota. We get to know the people who have shaped numbers - world famous mathematicians such as Pythagoras and Newton, and the lesser known Greek woman mathematician Hypatia who was martyred for her views on logic. The book also looks at the development of the computer and the people behind it, and reassesses today's society in terms of the numbers which rule our lives.