Mathematicians have explored ever more abstract worlds and geometries, floating in dimensions that may or may not exist and finding symmetries and patterns in hard-to-imagine shapes. The highest found (at the time of publication of the book) was 2

I was instead a believer in the theory that an industry segment collapses under the weight of too much money chasing it, and all you need for that analysis is a critical mass of Wall Street Journal headlines. At Books2Door, we believe that reading is a fundamental skill that every child should have to help improve their vocabulary, grammar, and critical thinking skills. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.From the thoughts of generations of mathematicians, our eyes have been opened to special numbers such as pi – the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter that pops up everywhere in scientific theories – and the golden ratio, a number that exists in nature in the way leaves are arranged around stems and the shape of a nautilus shell, and is now used by designers of beautiful objects (such as iPods). Rather, he provides a series of interesting facts and folksy supporting anecdotes to show the development of: (1) different fields--geometry, probability, statistics; (2) concepts--pi, phi, infinity, zero; and (3) tools--logarithms, slide rules, the quincunx; in a way that is mostly understandable and usually entertaining. I now know that the maths of the shape of the fifty pence coin is much less interesting than I might have imagined, also that gambling is a mugs game - think I knew that from playing penny up at school or cards with my card counting father, and that the variability of weight of loaves of bread may be affected by sample variance and local factors as much as by the baker making smaller loaves.

The slide rule exposed my lack of dexterity, which I blame for a lifelong preference for the directionally correct over pinpoint accuracy. On one hand it’s an easy read, a beach read if you will, and it covers quite a lot of math’s ground in relatively little space. It's no mean feat to be able to explain concepts like Zeno's paradox, regression to the mean, squaring a circle and Riemann's non-Euclidean geometry without using any equations. Packed with fascinating, eye-opening anecdotes, Alex's Adventures in Numberland is an exhilarating cocktail of history, reportage and mathematical proofs that will leave you awestruck. Bellos starts his tour of the mathematical world with some anthropology, asking whether numbers are something natural to humans, or whether they are learned and constructed.I am not comfortable with maths beyond the basics (O'level 25 years ago) but I bought this book for my husband who loves maths and he loved this book. A tenth anniversary edition of the iconic book about the wonderful world of mathsSunday Times bestseller | Shortlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize'Original and highly entertaining' Sunday Times'A page turner about humanity's strange, never easy and, above all, never dull relationship with numbers' New Scientist'Will leave you hooked on numbers' Daily TelegraphIn this richly entertaining and accessible book, Alex Bellos explodes the myth that maths is best left to the geeks, and demonstrates the remarkable ways it's linked to our everyday lives.

Moreover, his goal is not to instruct, any more than the goal of THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS is a manual on chess-playing. The discussion of the Hilbert Hotel, Cantor and infinity was very difficult to grasp but I imagine I am not the only one. I'm an engineer, so I might be slightly better positioned to understand this text, but the format and language of the book assumes nothing of the reader (without being condescending) and explains every concept in a way that even a lay person will be able to follow. He's juggling hardcore mathematics, entertaining (and often humorous) anecdotes and practical applications of math at the same time! The latter is no doubt core to the book's strengths, because Bellos brings a hobbyists's enthusiasm along with a sympathy for the semi-literacy most of us bring to the maths.Some of the expeditions have led to scientific insights about the world around us (the universe might turn out to have a hyperbolic shape first imagined by mathematicians hundreds of years ago) and the physical laws that govern it. Counting proper (and associated manipulations of numbers and quantities) took off when civilisations started to grow and rulers needed to know how much land their citizens had and, therefore, how much tax they should pay. Gamblers wanted to know how to beat the house and, by examining the mathematical patterns and probabilities in a game, were rewarded with intricate ways of gaining a tiny edge.