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Friday, October 12, 2012

Book Series - Book Review - Mathematics: An Illustrated History of Numbers- Tom Jackson


Mathematics: An Illustrated History of Numbers
Title: Mathematics: An Illustrated History of Numbers

Author: Tom Jackson

Review:  This is a big, beautiful book on Mathematics.  The pages are full of color with facts and photo illustration.  Do you want to know about Game Theory?  Or how about the Golden Ratio, maybe String Theory or Logarithms, how about the Platonic Solids(my kids learned about these in math camp and then folded paper to form them), or the Magic Square ?  This book contains 100 breakthoughs that changed history…..Who did what and when they did it.  This is a great coffee table book for any home.  Think of the conversations this could start and the trivia contest you could win with this knowledge?  Are you a math or science teacher?  You need this book if you teach.  Any elementary classroom would be enhanced with this book or the whole series.

The back of the book includes a fold-out timeline with over 1000 milestone facts.  My kids love this item.  What happened in mathematics and science and what was going on in the world at the same time?  What was happening with the culture and civilization of the world as these items were being discovered and talked about for the very first time?  Well it is here and fits inside the back of the book in a little pocket so you always know where it is. 

The series includes two other books, one on the elements and one on the universe.  Each is unique and different.  My kids love the illustrations and the large size pages.  This book is easy to look through and find interesting facts to share.  There is also a section on great mathematicians in history, 101 Mathematics a guide, and imponderables.

This is a great series of books to have sitting around for your children to pick and read.  A coffee table book, yes…..but so much more also.  Check it out…it is well worth the small price tag.


Publisher: Shelter Harbor Press 10/9/12
ISBN:  9780985323042
Copyright: 2012
Pages: 168
Quick Review: 4 stars out of 5
Where I Obtained the Book: Sent to me by the publisher for review.

Synopsis:  Legend has it that the first magic square, where all lines and diagonals add up to the same figure, was revealed more than 2,000 years ago when a river turtle appeared to have ancient Chinese numerals inscribed on sections of its shell. Patterns are everywhere in nature, and counting, measuring, and calculating changes are as old as civilization itself, as are many of the theorems and laws of math. The Pythagorean Theorem was used to plot out fields for planting crops before the ancient Greek Pythagoras was even born, but the story begins long before that, with tally marks on rock and bone surviving from the Stone Age.
Here is the essential guide to mathematics, an authoritative reference book and timeline that explores the work of history's greatest mathematicians. From the teasing genius of Pierre de Fermat, who said he knew the answers but rarely gave them up, to the fractal pattern discovered by Waclaw Sierpinski now used to plan the route a mailman takes, here are 100 landmark moments in this intensely rigorous discipline, seen through the eyes of the people who lived them.

Glimpse the abstract landscape of infinite numbers and multi-dimensional shapes as you learn about the most famous math men of all. Pythagoras had a love of numbers so strong it led to a violent death. Then there is Fibonacci, whose guide for bookkeepers changed the way we add and Descartes, who took inspiration from a fly to convert numbers into shapes and back again, changing math forever.

Over many centuries, great minds puzzled over the evidence and, step-by-step, edged ever closer to the truth. Behind every one of these breakthrough moments there's a story about a confounding puzzle that became a discovery and changed the way we see the world. Here are one hundred of the most significant and we call these Ponderables. In Mathematics: An Illustrated History of Numbers, you'll get a peak into the Imponderables, too, the mysteries yet to be solved that will one day lead great thinkers forward to an even greater understanding of the universe.

Includes a removable fold-out concertina neatly housed in the back of the book. This fold-out provides a 12-page Timeline History of Mathematics that embeds the story in historical context and shows Who Did What When at a glance. The reverse side features some of the greatest mathematical enigmas and interesting facts about the world of numbers.
 Image of Tom Jackson
Author Biography:     Tom Jackson is a science author based in the United Kingdom who has written many books, covering everything from axolotls to Zoroastrianism. Mr. Jackson studied zoology at the University of Bristol, and still lives in that city with his wife and three children, where he can be found mainly in the attic.

Other Reviews:

Others Book in the Series:
The Elements: An Illustrated History of the Periodic TableThe Universe: An Illustrated History of Astronomy

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