The Universal History of Numbers: From Prehistory to the Invention of the Compu,

Description: About this productProduct InformationA riveting history of counting and calculating from the time of the cave dwellers to the late twentieth century, The Universal History of Numbers is the first complete account of the invention and evolution of numbers the world over. As different cultures around the globe struggled with problems of harvests, constructing buildings, educating their citizens, and exploring the wonders of science, each civilization created its own unique and wonderful mathematical system. Dubbed the "Indiana Jones of numbers," Georges Ifrah traveled all over the world for ten years to uncover the little-known details of this amazing story. From India to China, and from Egypt to Chile, Ifrah talked to mathematicians, historians, archaeologists, and philosophers. He deciphered ancient writing on crumbling walls; scrutinized stones, tools, cylinders, and cones; and examined carved bones, elaborately knotted counting strings, and X-rays of the contents of never-opened ancient clay accounting balls. Conveying all the excitement and joy of the process of discovery, Ifrah writes in a delightful storytelling style, recounting a plethora of intriguing and amusing anecdotes along the way. From the stories of the various ingenious ways in which different early cultures used their bodies to count and perfected the use of the first calculating machine-the hand-to the invention of different styles of tally sticks, up through the creation of alphabetic numbers, the Greek and Roman numeric systems, and the birth of modern numerals in ancient India, we are taken on a marvelous journey through humankind''s grand intellectual epic. We meet those who only count to four-anything more is "a lot"; discover the first uses of counting fingers and toes; learn of the amazing ability of abacus users to calculate with brilliant efficiency; and ponder the intriguing question: How did many cultures manage to calculate for all those centuries without a zero? Exploring the many ways civilizations developed and changed their mathematical systems, Ifrah imparts a unique insight into the nature of human thought-and into the ways our understanding of numbers and how they shape our lives has slowly changed and grown over thousands of years. In this illuminating and entertaining work, you''ll learn about: The earliest calculating machine--the hand Tally sticks--accounting for beginners How the Sumerians did their sums Greek and Roman numerals The invention of alphabetic numerals The achievements of the Mayan civilization India and the birth of modern numbers Indo-Arabic numerals and how they reached the West The final stage of numerical notation Praise for The Universal History of Numbers "Let us start the year with a bang. Georges Ifrah is the man. This book, quite simply, rules. . . . It is outstanding, and not least because it has been written from first principles, for people like you and me, curious but by no means expert . . . a mind-boggling and enriching experience." -The Guardian "Pursuing the invention of numbers across civilizations, Georges Ifrah has written the grand story of human ingenuity. . . . His amazing undertaking, describing humankind''s relationship with numbers from Paleolithic times to the computer age, spans the world from Mayan ruins to Indian museums, from Egyptian hieroglyphics to Greek philosophers to Chinese libraries." -Le Figaro "Follow the astonishing path of Georges Ifrah, the Indiana Jones of arithmetic . . . who decided in 1974 to begin the search for his Grail, the origin of numbers. Journeying over mountains and across valleys, he discovered how-from Mayan to Chinese, from Indian to Egyptian-humankind has juggled numbers." -Express "Ifrah''s book amazes and fascinates . . . It is nothing less than thehistory of the human race told through figures." -International Herald TribuneProduct IdentifiersPublisherWiley & Sons, Incorporated, JohnISBN-100471375683ISBN-139780471375685eBay Product ID (ePID)1651991Product Key FeaturesAuthorGeorges IfrahPublication NameUniversal History of Numbers : from Prehistory to the Invention of the ComputerFormatHardcoverLanguageEnglishPublication Year1999TypeTextbookNumber of Pages656 PagesDimensionsItem Length10.1inItem Height1.9inItem Width9.2inWeight59 OzItem Weight59 OzAdditional Product FeaturesLc Classification NumberQa141.I3713 2000Publication Date1999-12-06Original LanguageFrenchTable of ContentExplaining the Origins: Ethnological and Psychological Approaches to the Sources of Numbers. Base Numbers and the Birth of Number-systems. The Earliest Calculating Machine - The Hand. How Cro-Magnon Man Counted. Tally Sticks: Accounting for Beginners. Numbers on Strings. Number, Value and Money. Numbers of Sumer. The Enigma of the Sexagesimal Base. The Development of Written Numerals in Elam and Mesopotamia. The Decipherment of a Five-Thousand-Year-Old System. How the Sumerians Did Their Sums. Mesopotamian Numbering after the Eclipse of Sumer. The Numbers of Ancient Egypt. Counting in the Times of the Cretan and Hittite Kings. Greek and Roman Numerals. Letters and Numbers. The Invention of Alphabetic Numerals. Other Alphabetic Number-systems. Magic, Mysticism, Divination, and Other Secrets. The Numbers of Chinese Civilisation. The Amazing Achievements of the Maya. The Final Stage of Numerical Notation. Part I: Indian Civilisation: The Cradle of Modern Numerals. Part II: Dictionary of the Numeral Symbols of Indian Civilisation. Indian Numerals and Calculation in the Islamic World. The Slow Progress of Indo-Arabic Numerals in Western Europe. Beyond Perfection. Bibliography. Index of Names and Subjects.Copyright Date1998Target AudienceTradeTopicCounting & Numeration, Recreations & GamesLccn99-045531Dewey Decimal513.2Dewey Edition21IllustratedYesGenreMathematics

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