We see that javascript is disabled or not supported by your browser - javascript is needed for important actions on the site. Read more

What's New - Home - Login

Member $avings: $81,747,308.44 | Books Available: 732,314 | Members Online: 231

Swap Used Books - Buy New Books at Great Prices!

How To Swap Books Sign Up Search submenu

PBS Market (New Books)

Gift Buying Guide

Book Browser Advanced Search Books Posted Today Member Book Reviews Award Winning Books NYT Best Sellers Amazon Best Sellers Most Traveled Copies Club Wish List

Discussion Forums Book Lists

Club Lists My Book Lists My Watched Lists Create a List

Blog Donations

School Donation Program In Memory of... Military Donation Program Friends of PBS

Box-O-Books Maps The Eclectic Pen Fun Stuff

20 Questions Sudoku Bookmark Creator

Top 100

Requests Posts Swappers Referrers Reviewers

Pulse of PBS Spread The Word

Invite Friends Bookmarks Facebook Page Facebook App More Ways...

Photo Gallery Recipes Club Tag Cloud Member Testimonials

Help Center submenu

How To Swap Books Browse Help Docs Ask the Librarian PBS Member Icons Live Help

Kiosk

PBS Market (New Books) Go Shopping Buy Credits Buy PBS Money Upgrade Membership Gift Certificates Transfer Credits

Need Help?

Search - The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero

The Nothing That Is A Natural History of Zero
Author: Robert Kaplan

A symbol for what is not there, an emptiness that increases any number it's added to, an inexhaustible and indispensable paradox. As we enter the year 2000, zero is once again making its presence felt. Nothing itself, it makes possible a myriad of calculations. Indeed, without zero mathematics as we know it would not exist. And without mathemati... more »cs our understanding of the universe would be vastly impoverished. But where did this nothing, this hollow circle, come from? Who created it? And what, exactly, does it mean? Robert Kaplan's The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero begins as a mystery story, taking us back to Sumerian times, and then to Greece and India, piecing together the way the idea of a symbol for nothing evolved. Kaplan shows us just how handicapped our ancestors were in trying to figure large sums without the aid of the zero. (Try multiplying CLXIV by XXIV). Remarkably, even the Greeks, mathematically brilliant as they were, didn't have a zero--or did they? We follow the trail to the East where, a millennium or two ago, Indian mathematicians took another crucial step. By treating zero for the first time like any other number, instead of a unique symbol, they allowed huge new leaps forward in computation, and also in our understanding of how mathematics itself works. In the Middle Ages, this mathematical knowledge swept across western Europe via Arab traders. At first it was called "dangerous Saracen magic" and considered the Devil's work, but it wasn't long before merchants and bankers saw how handy this magic was, and used it to develop tools like double-entry bookkeeping. Zero quickly became an essential part of increasingly sophisticated equations, and with the invention of calculus, one could say it was a linchpin of the scientific revolution. And now even deeper layers of this thing that is nothing are coming to light: our computers speak only in zeros and ones, and modern mathematics shows that zero alone can be made to generate everything. Robert Kaplan serves up all this history with immense zest and humor; his writing is full of anecdotes and asides, and quotations from Shakespeare to Wallace Stevens extend the book's context far beyond the scope of scientific specialists. For Kaplan, the history of zero is a lens for looking not only into the evolution of mathematics but into very nature of human thought. He points out how the history of mathematics is a process of recursive abstraction: how once a symbol is created to represent an idea, that symbol itself gives rise to new operations that in turn lead to new ideas. The beauty of mathematics is that even though we invent it, we seem to be discovering something that already exists. The joy of that discovery shines from Kaplan's pages, as he ranges from Archimedes to Einstein, making fascinating connections between mathematical insights from every age and culture. A tour de force of science history, The Nothing That Is takes us through the hollow circle that leads to infinity.

ISBN-13: 9780195142372
ISBN-10: 0195142373
Publication Date: 10/27/2000
Pages: 240
Rating:

Currently 2.3/5 Stars.

2.3 stars, based on 8 ratings

Publisher: Oxford University Press
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

John R. (rocheklip) reviewed The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero on 12/17/2007 + 2 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

In tracing the origin of the zero and it's use, the author also examines early number systems.

Share/Like this Review?

Read All 2 Book Reviews of "The Nothing That Is A Natural History of Zero"

Please Log in to Rate these Book Reviews

David K. (d-avid) reviewed The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero on 11/7/2009 + 6 more book reviews

The combination of broad humanistic references, speculative spirit, elegant (sometimes poetic) style and (last and, for me, least)careful mathematical explanation makes this a really extraordinary book. I was totally engrossed in it while reading, and have found myself rethinking many of the ideas since I finished it. I look forward to re-reading it in perhaps six months. I'm sure I'll discover yet more richness that I missed the first time around. This book is not for everyone, but if you have the intellectual energy to invest, you'll be amply rewarded. All in all, it's a wonderful celebration of what the human mind is capable of at its most expansive.

Share/Like this Review?

Read All Book Reviews of "The Nothing That Is A Natural History of Zero"

Genres:

Science & Math >> History & Philosophy >> General
Science & Math >> History & Philosophy >> History of Science
Science & Math >> Mathematics >> History
Science & Math >> Mathematics >> Popular & Elementary >> Arithmetic

Back to the Top ↑

Search - The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero

Top Member Book Reviews

Please Log in to Rate these Book Reviews

Loading...