Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea - Brossura

Charles Seife

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0285635948 ISBN 13: 9780285635944

Casa editrice: Souvenir Press Ltd, 2000

Riassunto

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK The Babylonians invented it, the Greeks banned it, the Hindus worshipped it, and the Christian Church used it to fend off heretics. Today it's a timebomb ticking in the heart of astrophysics. For zero, infinity's twin, is not like other numbers. It is both nothing and everything. 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. Within the concept of zero lies a philosophical and scientific history of humanity. Charles Seife's elegant and witty account takes us from Aristotle to superstring theory by way of Egyptian geometry, Kabbalism, Einstein, the Chandrasekhar limit and Stephen Hawking. Covering centuries of thought, it is a concise tour of a world of ideas, bound up in the simple notion of nothing.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

This is one of the best-written popular science books to have come this way for quite a while... Seife has a neat turn of phrase, an easy yet respectful familiarity with his subject that helps the maths slip down easily. --Nicholas Lezard, 'The Guardian'

A witty but lucid account... A must for armchair logicians. --'BBC Focus'

A breathless tour of the dangerous idea of zero. --'New Scientist'

Descrizione del libro:

A NEW YORK TIMES Notable Book on a perennially fascinating subject: the idea of ZERO

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Souvenir Press Ltd
• Data di pubblicazione: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0285635948
• ISBN 13: 9780285635944
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 256