One to Nine: The Inner Life of Numbers - Softcover

"A virtuoso stream of consciousness containing everything important there is to say about numbers. . . . Cogent, charming and deeply personal. . . . One to Nine makes the unfathomable enticing and gives the reader tremendous motivation to explore further."--"Daily Telegraph" (UK) "Hodges is. . .very good at pulling numerical rabbits out of everyday hats. . . .You can skip through the facts like a tourist, marvelling at the sights thrust in your path and still feeling impressed by the principles that underpin them, even when the technical detail eludes you."--"Daily Mail" (UK) "The ideal book for everyone interested in the only universal language, especially if their mathematical curiosity exceeds their skill." --"Sunday Telegraph" (UK) "One to Nine ranges widely through literature, music, philosophy, politics, and whatever else occurs to its author, in a charmingly scholarly and entertaining way. A joyous read." --"Times "(UK) "From the Hardcover edition."

What Lynn Truss did for grammar in Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Andrew Hodges has done for mathematics. In One to Nine, 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 layman. 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 also satisfyingly instructional, which will be ideal for the math aficionado and the Sudoku addict, as well as the life of the party.