Perfect Figures The Lore of Numbers and How We Learned to Count

Name: Perfect Figures The Lore of Numbers and How We Learned to Count
Price: 5.7 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9780312360054

ISBN-10: 0312360053

ISBN-13: 9780312360054

Edition: 2007

Authors: Bunny Crumpacker

List price: $24.95

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Description:

Since the beginning of civilization, numbers have been more than just a way to keep count. "Perfect Figures" tells the stories of how each number came to be and what incredible associations and superstitions have been connected to them ever since. Along the way are some of the great oddities of numbers' past as: -a time when finger-counting was a sign of intelligence (the Venerable Bede could count to a million on his hands)-the medieval Algorists, who were burnt at the stake for their use of Arabic rather than Roman numerals-the Bank of England, which stubbornly kept accounts on notched wooden sticks until 1826Filled with Crumpacker's eloquent wit and broad intelligence, "Perfect Figures…

Book details

List price: $24.95
Copyright year: 2007
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication date: 8/7/2007
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 288
Size: 5.50" wide x 8.25" long x 0.75" tall
Weight: 0.836
Language: English



Acknowledgments



One is All: The parent number, where everything starts. We would have Nothing without One



Two is You and Your Image in the Mirror: The first one more-you and me



Three is a Magic Number: Once upon a time, there were three wishes, three little kittens, three princes, three bears...



Four is a Solid Number: Quarters and squares and the spaces between our fingers



Five is for Fingers: Counting on your fingers, from one to thousands



Six is Perfect: Mathematical perfection, and what snowflakes and bees have in common



Seven is a Happy Number: The serious and frivolous sides of seven



Eight is Forever: The roundness of eight, and its link to infinity



Nine is a New Number: Late in the history of counting, the tricks of nine



Zero is Not Nothing: A circle around nothing makes everything possible



Ten Means Two Hands: The first of the double-digit numbers and the first to include a zero



Eleven is a Leftover Number: One at the foot



Twelve is the Last of the Basic Number Names: Dozens and dozens and dozens: when we counted by twelves


100: Hundred is a Strange Word: A leap into big-time numbers


1,000: Thousand is a Swollen Hundred: Here we have a great and glorious number


1,000,000: Million is Not Yet Forever: Millions and billions and trillions-and their aires


And One More: The Manifest Destiny of Numbers: There's no last number. Add one more-again and forever


Bibliography


Index