cover image Wonders Beyond Numbers: A Brief History of All Things Mathematical

Wonders Beyond Numbers: A Brief History of All Things Mathematical

Johnny Ball. Sigma, $27 (512p) ISBN 978-1-4729-3999-9

Ball, a British comedian and pop-math celebrity, charms in this lively, accessible history of mathematics. Relating anecdotes and historical points with equal enthusiasm, Ball begins his work in the ancient world with descriptions of Egyptian papyri showing how to calculate the amount of stone needed to build a pyramid and clay tablets from Sumer and Babylon recording everyday business transactions. Ancient Greeks such as Pythagoras, with his work on music theory and geometry, and Archimedes, of the “eureka” moment and array of siege weapons, come to life in Ball’s account. Stories about astronomer Tycho Brahe’s prosthetic nose, Leonardo da Vinci’s restless inventiveness, and Isaac Newton’s petty feud with rival scientist Robert Hooke reveal personal details about people who are often just names in a textbook. Ball’s book brims with other oddball facts: for example, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, and Ada Augusta Byron (Countess of Lovelace and the “world’s first computer programmer”) were all diehard fans of Euclid’s Elements. Adelard of Bath, a 12th-century English monk, traveled the Middle East in disguise to learn Arabian mathematics; Florence Nightingale invented pie charts. Ball also explores math contributions from ancient China, India, and Central America. Excellent as an introduction to the field, this is a brisk, well-rounded history of mathematics and its practitioners. (Dec.)