cover image Mathematics: From the Birth of Numbers

Mathematics: From the Birth of Numbers

Jan Gullberg. W. W. Norton & Company, $50 (1128pp) ISBN 978-0-393-04002-9

Leavened with amusing cartoons, drawings, medieval woodcuts, light verse, graphs and diagrams, this unorthodox text on mathematics is a grab bag of intriguing lore, puzzles, historical excursions, computational tricks, equations, problems, proofs, as well as asides on everything from radiocarbon dating to Braille, compound interest, Maori counting and the origins of number names. Gullberg, a surgeon in Norway, is an amateur mathematics enthusiast who aims to cure math phobia by plunging the reader into mathematical thinking and activity, whether the topic is algebra, geometry, set theory, symbolic logic, topology, fractals, probability theory or differential equations. Informed readers willing to make an intense effort will gain a solid foundation in modern mathematics. (Mar.)