Document Type

Book Review

Publication Date

2012

DOI

10.1119/1.4729608

Publication Title

American Journal of Physics

Volume

80

Issue

8

Pages

745-746

Abstract

(First paragraph) To describe the landscape encompassed by this book I can do no better than to quote the dust jacket: "A Wealth of Numbers includes recreational, classroom, and work mathematics; mathematical histories and biographies; accounts of higher mathematics; explanations of mathematical instruments; discussions of how math should be taught and learned; reflections on the place of math in the world; and math in fiction and humor." More such details can be found on the Princeton University Press website. I shall use this as a point of departure to describe the highlights of my own trajectory through the book. Not being a huge fan of puzzles, I skimmed Chapter One ("Sports and Pastimes, Done by Number: Mathematical Tricks, Mathematical Games") to find some fascinating tidbits in the next ("Much Necessary for All States of Men: From Arithmetic to Algebra.") Who can fail to be intrigued by J.E. Thompson's l93i article on "Cubic Equations for the Practical Man"!

Comments

Included with the kind permission of AIP Publishing.

Publisher's version available at: https://doi.org/10.1119/1.4729608%20.

Original Publication Citation

Adam, J. A. (2012). A Wealth of Numbers: An Anthology of 500 Years of Popular Mathematics Writing, by Benjamin Wardhaugh. Princeton University Press: Princeton, 2012 (Book Review). American Journal of Physics, 80(8), 745-746. doi:10.1119/1.4729608

ORCID

0000-0001-5537-2889 (Adam)

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