A Quick History of Math
From Counting Cavemen to Computers
Published on 6. April 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
128 pages
978-0-7112-4903-5 (ISBN)
Description
Math + history + jokes - boring bits = A Quick History of Math. This book begins around 43,000 years ago with a notched baboon leg, the Lebombo bone (the very first mathematical object in the world) and rushes us past Hindu numerals and the invention of zero, via Pythagoras, Pascal and probability, right up to the present day, with big data and the maths that rules our digital lives. Geometri-cool!
You will discover:
How to count on your fingers (there are more ways than you might think!)
Why we have 60 seconds in a minute (hint: it's to do with the ancient Babylonians)
How to count like an Egyptian (using hieroglyphs)
Why it's hip to be square using square numbers
A Pythagorean party trick
The naked truth of Archimedes' bath time mathematics
How to do matha-magic with magic squares
...and much more.
In chronological order from pre-history to present day, this is the story of maths itself. It's 43,000 years of human mathematical endeavor squeezed into one book for your reading pleasure. Illustrated with funny cartoons and packed with fascinating facts, you'll be laughing and learning how to be a better mathematician.
You will discover:
How to count on your fingers (there are more ways than you might think!)
Why we have 60 seconds in a minute (hint: it's to do with the ancient Babylonians)
How to count like an Egyptian (using hieroglyphs)
Why it's hip to be square using square numbers
A Pythagorean party trick
The naked truth of Archimedes' bath time mathematics
How to do matha-magic with magic squares
...and much more.
In chronological order from pre-history to present day, this is the story of maths itself. It's 43,000 years of human mathematical endeavor squeezed into one book for your reading pleasure. Illustrated with funny cartoons and packed with fascinating facts, you'll be laughing and learning how to be a better mathematician.
Reviews / Votes
"Irreverent [and] surprisingly amusing." -- Kathleen McBroom * Booklist *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Quarto Publishing PLC
Target group
Children/juvenile
US School Grade: From Third Grade to Sixth Grade, Interest Age: From 8 to 12 years
Illustrations
color illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 224 mm
Width: 171 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-7112-4903-5 (9780711249035)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Clive Gifford has travelled to more than 70 countries, climbed rocket launch towers, ridden on robots and flown gliders. He's had more than 200 books published and received nominations for or won Royal Society, School Library Association, Smithsonian and TES awards. He won the Blue Peter Book Award for Best Book with Facts 2019 for his title The Colours of History (QED). Clive lives in Manchester, UK. Michael Young is an illustrator and animator from Perth, Western Australia.
Content
Introduction
The Lebombo bone - The first ever mathematical object
Keeping track - Tally sticks and the history of counting
Fingers and toes - Why we count in tens
Home number - The first written numbers
Babylonian bases - Math 4,000 years ago
Count like an Egyptian - Hieroglyphic numbers
Huh, thanks a million! - The first ever symbol for one million
Fractious about fractions - The use of fractions in ancient Egypt
Monumental math - Multiplication in Egyptian times
Those geometric Greeks - Geometry 3,000 years ago
Throwing shapes - The Platonic solids
Easy as pi - The ratio between a circle's circumference and diameter
Living by numbers. - Pythagoras and his theorem
It's hip to be square - What is a square number?
Prove it! - The first mathematical proofs
Who are Eu... clid? - More Greek geometry from 2,300 years ago
In a relationship - What is a ratio?
Paradoxes - Puzzles to baffle your brain
Prime time - How Eratosthenes found prime numbers
Eratosthenes vs. the Earth - The first accurate measurement of the Earth
The naked truth - Archimedes and his mathematical discoveries
Roaming with the Romans - Roman numerals
The art of mathematics - Adding up and taking away in ancient China
Magic squares - Chinese math puzzles
Maya math - Counting in the Americas
Oh, Maya days - The amazing Mayan calendars
Big fat zero - The invention of zero
Numbering up - The origin of the numbers 1 to 9
Thinking irrationally - The discovery of irrational numbers
The House of Wisdom - Arabic advances in math around the 9th century
AlgebraaAargh! - The invention of algebra
Spies and symmetry - Arabic mathematical code breaking
Maths heads west - How Arabic math spread to Europe
Fab Fibonacci - A fascinating number sequence
Exponential potential - What are exponential numbers?
Jolly logarithms - The invention of logarithmic tables
Pascal's patterns - Number fun in the 17th century
What are the chances? - Understanding probability
Stat Attack! - What are statistics?
Clever carl and The spread of stats - More ways to use statistics
The calculus wars - What is calculus?
Oi OI, Euler! - Swiss-whizz Leonhard Euler's discoveries
92 Just my imagination - What are imaginary numbers?
Get set, go! - What are number sets?
Computers in skirts - How big sums were done before machines
Brilliant binary - Binary numbers and algebra
Through the logic gate - Boolean logic and logic gates
Machine math - Calculating on modern computers
Funky theories - Far-out mathematical ideas
Big data - How math rules our lives
Future math - Predictions for what happens next
Timeline of math discoveries
When math goes wrong...
Mental Math
Glossary
Index
The Lebombo bone - The first ever mathematical object
Keeping track - Tally sticks and the history of counting
Fingers and toes - Why we count in tens
Home number - The first written numbers
Babylonian bases - Math 4,000 years ago
Count like an Egyptian - Hieroglyphic numbers
Huh, thanks a million! - The first ever symbol for one million
Fractious about fractions - The use of fractions in ancient Egypt
Monumental math - Multiplication in Egyptian times
Those geometric Greeks - Geometry 3,000 years ago
Throwing shapes - The Platonic solids
Easy as pi - The ratio between a circle's circumference and diameter
Living by numbers. - Pythagoras and his theorem
It's hip to be square - What is a square number?
Prove it! - The first mathematical proofs
Who are Eu... clid? - More Greek geometry from 2,300 years ago
In a relationship - What is a ratio?
Paradoxes - Puzzles to baffle your brain
Prime time - How Eratosthenes found prime numbers
Eratosthenes vs. the Earth - The first accurate measurement of the Earth
The naked truth - Archimedes and his mathematical discoveries
Roaming with the Romans - Roman numerals
The art of mathematics - Adding up and taking away in ancient China
Magic squares - Chinese math puzzles
Maya math - Counting in the Americas
Oh, Maya days - The amazing Mayan calendars
Big fat zero - The invention of zero
Numbering up - The origin of the numbers 1 to 9
Thinking irrationally - The discovery of irrational numbers
The House of Wisdom - Arabic advances in math around the 9th century
AlgebraaAargh! - The invention of algebra
Spies and symmetry - Arabic mathematical code breaking
Maths heads west - How Arabic math spread to Europe
Fab Fibonacci - A fascinating number sequence
Exponential potential - What are exponential numbers?
Jolly logarithms - The invention of logarithmic tables
Pascal's patterns - Number fun in the 17th century
What are the chances? - Understanding probability
Stat Attack! - What are statistics?
Clever carl and The spread of stats - More ways to use statistics
The calculus wars - What is calculus?
Oi OI, Euler! - Swiss-whizz Leonhard Euler's discoveries
92 Just my imagination - What are imaginary numbers?
Get set, go! - What are number sets?
Computers in skirts - How big sums were done before machines
Brilliant binary - Binary numbers and algebra
Through the logic gate - Boolean logic and logic gates
Machine math - Calculating on modern computers
Funky theories - Far-out mathematical ideas
Big data - How math rules our lives
Future math - Predictions for what happens next
Timeline of math discoveries
When math goes wrong...
Mental Math
Glossary
Index