Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea (Taschenbuch) von Charles Seife Rezensionen: The seemingly impossible Zen task--writing a book about nothing--has a loophole: people have been chatting, learning, and even fighting about nothing for millennia.Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea, by noted science writer Charles Seife, starts with the story of a modern battleship stopped dead in the water by a loose zero, then rewinds back to several hundred years BCE. Some empty-headed genius improved the traditional Eastern counting methods immeasurably by adding zero as a placeholder, which allowed the genesis of our still-used decimal system. It's all been uphill from there, but Seife is enthusiastic about his subject; his synthesis of math, history, and anthropology seduces the reader into a new fascination with the most troubling number. Why did the Church reject the use of zero? How did mystics of all stripes get bent out of shape over it? Is it true that science as we know it depends on this mysterious round digit? Zero opens up these questions and lets us explore the answers and their ramifications for our oh-so-modern lives. Seife has fun with his format, too, starting with chapter 0 and finishing with an appendix titled "Make Your Own Wormhole Time Machine." (Warning: don't get your hopes up too much.) There are enough graphs and equations to scare off serious numerophobes, but the real story is in the interactions between artists, scientists, mathematicians, religious and political leaders, and the rest of us--it seems we really do have nothing in common.--Rob Lightner-- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels. © 1998-2001 Amazon.com, Inc. und Tochtergesellschaften Alle Rezensionen ansehen...   Angebote zu  Zero ,  Biography ,  Dangerous  ab 1 Euro! Siehe auch folgende Artikel: The Golden Ratio: The Story of Phi, the World's Most Astonishing Number von Mario Livio Sonstige Artikel: VMware ESX (Gebundene Ausgabe) von Dennis Zimmer Die Entstehung der Marken (Gebundene Ausgabe) von Al Ries, Laura Ries Spider-Man 3 (Einzel-DVD) von Tobey Maguire Mehr zu  Authors,  Biographies & Memoirs,  Existentialism,  History & Philosophy,  Arithmetic Home ...,    Verwandte produkte ...,    Begleitseite ... Herausgeber dieser Seite ist DomainLoc.com GmbH - Partner von Amazon.de Copyright © DomainLoc.com GmbH (Impressum)