One to Nine: The Inner Life of Numbers [Hardcover]

Andrew Hodges (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 17, 2008

What Lynne Truss did for grammar in Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Andrew Hodges now does for mathematics.

Andrew Hodges, one of Britain’s leading biographers and mathematical writers, brings numbers to three-dimensional life in this delightful and illuminating volume, filled with illustrations, which makes even the most challenging math problems accessible to the layperson. Inspired by millennia of human attempts to figure things out, this pithy book, which tackles mathematical conundrums from the ancient Greeks to superstring theory, finds a new twist to everything from musical harmony to code breaking, from the chemistry of sunflowers to the mystery of magic squares. Starting with the puzzle of defining unity, and ending with the recurring nines of infinite decimals, Hodges tells a story that takes in quantum physics, cosmology, climate change, and the origin of the computer. Hodges has written a classic work, at once playful but satisfyingly instructional, which will be ideal for the math aficionado and the Sudoku addict as well as for the life of the party.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A frank acknowledgment that anything I wrote was bound to resemble Constance Reid's seminal From Zero to Infinity doesn't stop mathematician and biographer Hodges (Alan Turing: The Enigma) from boldly launching into his own rather disjointed explanation of the place of the numbers one through nine in mathematics and (primarily Western) culture. Pop culture references and political topics such as global warming, presumably meant to make terms like quantum of existence a little less scary to the novice, appear alongside subjects of more interest to math nerds (the author debunks the common assumption that mathematicians are male, overweight and perennially single). Some knowledge of mathematical vocabulary and history is necessary to fully appreciate Hodges's merry skipping from one subject to another—a single page mentions Vonnegut's fiction... Plato's aesthetics, Euclid's pentagons, Fibonacci's rabbits [and] the inspiration of Islamic art and its parallels in Kepler—but even the most halfhearted former math major will find a lot of familiar topics, like Schrödinger's cat and the equivalence of 1 with 0.99999.... The result is not entirely satisfying to either numerophobes or numerophiles. 40 illus. (May)
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From Booklist

Cartographer for the land of numbers, Hodges here maps out an exhilarating journey, converting the simple trip from one to nine into an excursion through enchanting territory, pausing at lookout points commanding stunning intellectual vistas. Before they even visit the philosophical quandary of “One-ness,”  readers are already pondering that curious Indian invention—zero—that made possible the unexpectedly powerful system of place notation! As Hodges guides his readers through the familiar counting sequence, every number yields up astonishing surprises. Two, for instance, opens up the mystery of symmetry—and the conundrum of symmetry-defying time. Five illuminates the quasicrystals that have revolutionized solid-state physics. And eight exposes the workings of byte-based computer logic. Regardless of the number in view, Hodges writes with wonderful lucidity, inviting general readers to share in treasures too often surrendered entirely to specialists. Proffering insights not only into scientific realms such as physics and chemistry but also into history and literature, this book will win over even readers who suppose they hate math. --Bryce Christensen

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st American Ed edition (May 17, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039306641X
• ISBN-13: 978-0393066418
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,074,624 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One to Nine and a lot more, September 10, 2008

By 

G. E. Watson (Corvallis, OR) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: One to Nine: The Inner Life of Numbers (Hardcover)

I am enjoying the book a lot, but bewarned--you may not get a lot of the references he makes if you don't a some math background. I have undergraduate degrees in math and physics and I needed that to understand some of the details. Hodges discusses a lot more than just the numbers. For example he uses the number eight (one byte) as an excuse to discuss a lot about computers and computing with many (interesting) references to the ideas of Alan Turing (about whom he wrote a book). Many of the other chapters also wander into areas you might not have guessed were related to that number--but that's not a bad thing. I recommend the book to readers who haven't forgotten all their algebra.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Waste Neither Your Time Nor Money, January 10, 2009

By 

Captain Jerry (Washington) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: One To Nine: The Inner Life of Numbers (Hardcover)

One To Nine: The Inner Life of Numbers

The title, One to Nine The Inner Life of Numbers, suggests a book of note. The book, though, appears to be only a mish mash of information from the author's weekly newspaper column in the Observer on mathematical topics. The author indulges himself with comments regarding politics and society and does not appear to know his audience. His text is arrogant and wanders without direction. That is a pity, because the topic should have been an interesting one. Not only is the book poorly written, the book is also poorly typeset. Word spacing is inconsistent which makes the text difficult to read.

When I completed this book, I had to ask myself why I bothered. I found this to be one of the worst books that I have read in the past 60 years. Waste neither your money nor your time on this book.
Not recommended.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, Yes, But Way Over My Head, August 26, 2008

By 

Mark B. Schott "Mark Schott" (Canal Fulton, Ohio) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: One to Nine: The Inner Life of Numbers (Hardcover)

I have always enjoyed math and use numbers constantly in making illustrations about everyday events. I won't tell you not to try this book as much of the material is fascinating! However, in spite of my mathematical background, I found that most of the material was too abstract for my feeble mind. I had trouble comprehending some of the concepts that were presented as being fairly simple. Hopefully, you are smarter than I am and will enjoy this book. If you struggle with numbers to begin with, I would suggest something more basic.