Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea

Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea

Popular math at its most entertaining and enlightening. "Zero is really something"-Washington Post

A New York Times Notable Book.

The Babylonians invented it, the Greeks banned it, the Hindus worshiped it, and the Church used it to fend off heretics. Now it threatens the foundations of modern physics. For centuries the power of zero savored of the demonic; once harnessed, it became the most important tool in mathematics. For zero, infinity's twin, is not like other numbers. It is both nothing and everything.

In Zero, Science Journalist Charles Seife follows this innocent-looking number from its birth as an Eastern philosophical concept to its struggle for acceptance in Europe, its rise and transcendence in the West, and its ever-present threat to modern physics. Here are the legendary thinkersâ€”from Pythagoras to Newton to Heisenberg, from the Kabalists to today's astrophysicistsâ€”who have tried to understand it and whose clashes shook the foundations of philosophy, science, mathematics, and religion. Zero has pitted East against West and faith against reason, and its intransigence persists in the dark core of a black hole and the brilliant flash of the Big Bang. Today, zero lies at the heart of one of the biggest scientific controversies of all time: the quest for a theory of everything.
Country USA
Brand Penguin
Manufacturer Penguin Books
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber illustrations
Color Black
ReleaseDate 2000-09-01
UnitCount 1
EANs 8601419902279

Country	USA
Brand	Penguin
Manufacturer	Penguin Books
Binding	Paperback
ItemPartNumber	illustrations
Color	Black
ReleaseDate	2000-09-01
UnitCount	1
EANs	8601419902279

Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea

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