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Number: The Language of ScienceNumber is an eloquent, accessible tour de force that reveals how the concept of number evolved from prehistoric times through the twentieth century. Tobias Dantzig shows that the development of math—from the invention of counting to the discovery of infinity—is a profoundly human story that progressed by “trying and erring, by groping and stumbling.” He shows how commerce, war, and religion led to advances in math, and he recounts the stories of individuals whose breakthroughs expanded the concept of number and created the mathematics that we know today. Finished in 5 days |
Review
I searched through many many many history of mathematics books and I finally found the ONE. Not just history, but primarily philosophy of mathematics. The brilliant thing about this book is that he tells the story around the most interesting about thing about mathematics: infinity.