1089 and All That: A Journey into Mathematics

by David Acheson

David Acheson's extraordinary little book makes mathematics accessible to everyone. From very simple beginnings he takes us on a thrilling journey to some deep mathematical ideas. On the way, via Kepler and Newton, he explains what calculus really means, gives a brief history of pi, and even
takes us to chaos theory and imaginary numbers. Every short chapter is carefully crafted to ensure that no one will get lost on the journey. Packed with puzzles and illustrated by world famous cartoonists, this is one of the most readable and imaginative books on mathematics ever written.

Genres: Mathematics, Nonfiction, Science, Unfinished

184 pages, Hardcover

First published July 18, 2002

Reviews

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quatro estrelas e meia, mas a meia que falta é culpa minha, e não do autor. É que precisaria de um pouco mais de concentração para entender tudo o que aqui é dito - perdi-me um pouco ali pelo capítulo das oscilações. No entanto, recuperei mais adiante e terminei maravilhada com os números imaginários e a forma como e, i e pi (não consigo colocar aqui o símbolo) estão relacionados!

[Margaridasequeira Cardoso · Rating 5 out of 5]

Falamos de matemática mas não apenas de. O autor de uma forma descontraída explica-nos temas chaves da matemática que tem uma importância relevante para o dia à dia.
Para além dos exemplos ilustrativos, sentimos por parte do autor, ele também matemático, a preocupação de os enquadrar no seu devido contexto histórico, mas como nos dias de hoje têm muita relevância , desde a forma como lidamos com os cálculos, como também as curiosidades matemáticas que passaram com os tempos e tem influência em várias áreas da vida.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hey, math! David Acheson makes it fun. It was still baffling. Acheson will discuss one aspect of a formula and then throw in a lot of extra letters and numbers to prove that it is the formula. Sure. I believe him. I tried his arithmetic trick and it's cool! I have no higher math, but I liked what he said and that he thinks I understand this, and that there are lots of pictures.

[Merewyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

🤓Just Wow! There's so much about mathematics that I didn't know! I'm definitely going to be rereading this in 2020 (and probably several years after that too). I confess I resented maths for DECADES after I was a teenager, but I had some extraordinary math professors while earning my associates degree some years ago. And I've kept the curiosity about mathematics ever since, but I got so busy with work/school that I wasn't really able to get into it all that much after I finished my prerequisites for my bachelor's (which wasn't a maths degree).
I'm gonna recommend this book to everyone! Regardless if they don't care for mathematics.😉 Because mathematics is awesome!
And I think I'll be adding the Suggested Reading at the end of the book to my Want to Read List☺. It's ever growing!📚📜😅lol

[Kamil Szykula · Rating 4 out of 5]

Acheson helped me understand A-level maths better and showed different ways to what we do at school which helped me understand it better. Would recommend for A-level maths students, but you have to stop and think often about what he’s saying to make sense of it.

[Ibrahim Zaidan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is not enjoyable for mathematicians except for the few pages that talks about chaos perhaps, and tbh i’m not even sure it’s nice for non mathematicians as it was made very short and thus not all calculations are shown which might make the reader rather confused

[Sara Ghotb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m honestly surprised by how much I enjoyed this little book. David Acheson has a real talent for taking mathematical ideas and turning them into stories; fun, curious, and genuinely engaging. I picked it up thinking I’d read a chapter or two, and ended up not putting it down because each section pulled me further in.

The title comes from one of the first puzzles in the book: the number 1089. It’s such a simple trick but so unexpectedly clever that you can’t help but wonder why it works. That feeling - “wait, how does this make sense?” - perfectly sets the tone for the rest of the book.

From there, Acheson moves through all kinds of mathematical ideas: the Königsberg bridge problem (and the brilliant mind who finally solved it), the mystery of π, imaginary numbers, chaos, calculus, and more. Each chapter is short, clear, and full of little surprises. You never feel lost, even when the topics get deeper.

What I loved most is how readable it is. It never feels heavy or overly academic. Instead, it feels like someone is telling you their favorite mathematical secrets; the kind that make you pause and think, “oh wow, that’s actually really cool.”

A perfect read if you love math, are curious about math, or just enjoy learning something new in the most delightful way.

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great book for dabbling in math. It's very readable, not least on account of its extreme shortness (fewer than 200 very small, mostly illustrated pages). It explains the theory and mathematical purpose behind a lot of otherwise inscrutable things in a very accessible way. My only critique is that the author does, occasionally, make a slip and forget just how ignorant the general public is. At one point, in explaining some of the theory behind sine and cosine, he suddenly slipped the Greek letter theta into his example without explaining what it was. Since it looks like a large zero with a line through it, this threw me for moment. Such slips are, however, rare. I had more or less given up on understanding why a person bothers to graph an equation or where pi comes from, and this book explains those things in a way that makes sense. I may not be solving differential equations any time soon, but now I know what they're for, and that's worth a lot. Overall, it's great for starting to break down the mental barriers many of us have been busily building up since high school algebra.

[Mykyta Kuzmenko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Отличная, очень короткая книга о некоторых математических идеях. Замечателая книженция.

[Johana · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a short book about some interesting principles in mathematics.

I somewhat enjoyed reading it but most of the stuff is generally known(or even learned at schools) so sometimes it was boring.
Some parts are autobiographical with stories from the author and he even wanted to make the book full circle where he started with one problem and ended with using the same problem and giving it addition. That was nice.
I also appreciate the writing of the book when it was easy to understand and the chapters are short enough to read one at a time(there are many pictures).
Overall it was nice "toilet reading" but it was not that informational.

[Rita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Herleitung der Ableitung war schön.

Veranschaulichung des Variationsprinzips mittels Seifenfilmen war auch schön.

[tiago · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews...

[Koen Crolla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great for twelve-year-olds; not so great for people who pick up pop math more or less at random on the assumption people don't put children's books in the adults section.

It's basically all the usual things from Pythagoras to chaos theory, minus some substance and plus a whole lot of genuinely useless illustrations. The only new bit is (as it often is) a bit of original research by the author involving pendula, briefly demonstrated here by the man himself, but not really addressed satisfactorily in the book itself.

[Fangfei · Rating 3 out of 5]

Acheson touches upon an interesting collection of mathematical concepts, but never very deeply. Consequently, the book presents many "cool mathematical facts" without any backup. But then again, his book is meant more as a mathematical primer and as something to whet one's mathematical appetite. I imagine this book would be really well-suited for older children (and particularly precocious young children) who like math.

[Brett Starr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book on math magic

Enjoyed the explanation of secrets of applied mathematics with simplicity and humor. 1089 is fun to read for those interested in an understanding of how math evolved and how nature behaves mathematically.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

A sometimes fascinating but for me too often incomprehensible exploration of mathematics.

[Holly Weatherby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book to further mathematical knowledge. I did find there were some parts that need re-reading to get a full understanding of the point being made.

[tammy (eskel's version) · Rating 4 out of 5]

cool cool cool cool no doubt no doubt no doubt

[Srikantadatta Tagadur · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very brief but compelling narrative on mathematics. The author sparks the curiosity of the reader through his uncanny ability to simplify the perplexing topics in mathematics. The real life examples used to explain the topics makes it easily understandable and engaging. All in all a very good book that attempts to enlighten its readers about the critical role played by mathematics in humanity’s development.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liiga suures koguses lõpmatust, diferentsiaalvõrrandeid, sinusoide, pendleid, kaost ja katastroofi pani mu pea ringi käima. Mu aju ei ole veel võimeline kogu seda ulmet vastu võtma ja tihti jäin arvutusi silmitsedes mõtlema, et kas nende arvutuste mõte ongi arvutus ise (st selle võimalikkus).
Matemaatikat võib samuti olla liiga palju! Eriti selle inimese jaoks, kes pole alaga nii tuttav.

[Maisie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't expect to enjoy it as it's about maths and initially I thought it would be a little dry however it was really engaging. I liked how it made compliacted subjects accessible although it's a shame I didn't read it before doing A-level maths.

[cassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally done! This was a nice light read and introduction into maths, although I felt there was a bit too much crossover with 'Why do busses come in 3s?'. Some cool stuff in here, though - thank you, Ian!

[Luuk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun book to learn some new things and get interested in math!

[Corbin Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very simple mathematics explained concisely. A good book for high school mathematicians. Includes many topics which you will later learn about in detail at university.

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of fun. Would have been perfect for me at age 15.

[Cod Er · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun little book but I found it lacking in detail. It’s good enough to wet your appetite for pop maths, but it doesn’t properly dive into any of the concepts.

[Aditya Vinod · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gr8 book about math from basic level to advanced lvl liked 1089 trick and e significance in rl

[Dan Cohen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent little book - one of the better examples of books of mathematical snippets. Lightly written and easy to read.

[Luca Mauri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Da qualche anno c'�� una vera proliferazione di libri che, nel tentativo di rendere pi�� digeribile la matematica, presentano questo campo di studi in maniera molto pratica e a volte anche spiritosa.
L'intento �� a mio parere lodevole e anche utile: mostra come questa scienza che sembra del tutto teorica sia in realt�� ben radicata in ogni aspetto del mondo fisico.
Purtroppo, per��, non tutti i libri sull'argomento riescono bene: questo a mio avviso �� un esempio di un volume riuscito solo a met��.

Ha l'indubbio merito di riuscire a introdurre concetti complessi come la derviazione e l'intergazione numvberica in termini semplici e visivi, tuttavia gran parte del veolume �� un po' superficiale e si ferma all'enunciazione di alcuni rapporti o numeri notevoli senza scendere troppo nei dettagli.

Sullo stesso argomento, mi sentirei di consigliare http://www.anobii.com/books/Probabili... invece di questo libro.

L'edizione �� la solita per la collana Chiavi di lettura. Purtroppo il libro si presenta con numerosi refusi che sono evidentemente il risultato di un minore controllo di qualit�� necessario a mantenere il prezzo basso.
Un vero peccato per una Casa come Zanichelli che si �� sempre distinta per l'eccellenza nelle pubblicazioni.

[Britt Suits · Rating 2 out of 5]

Raamatu tagakaanelt võib lugeda, et autorit tuntakse leidliku, vaimuka ja innustava esinejana, kes tutvustab matemaatikute töid kõigile arusaadavalt ja lihtsalt.

Raamatus tutvustatigi mitmeid huvitavaid matemaatilisi müstikaid. Raamat algas kohe arvu 1089 müstikaga. Toon selle maagia ka siia.

„Mõelge üks kolmekohaline arv. Sobib ükskõik milline kolmekohaline arv, peaasi, et esimene ja viimane number erineksid teineteisest vähemalt kahe võrra. Nüüd vahetage esimene ja viimane number omavahel ja lahutage suuremast arvust väiksem. Näiteks: 782 – 287 = 495. Seejärel vahetage vastuses esimene ja viimane number ning liitke need arvud omavahel: 495 + 594 = 1089. Nende toimingute tulemusel saame vastuseks 1089.“

Proovige, kas teil õnnestub ka maagia :)

Minul õnnestus ja see andis veel ekstra lootust, et raamatu lugemine tuleb põnev. Mulle tegelikult väga matemaatika (iseäranis nuputamine) meeldib ja kooliajal käisin isegi olümpiaadidel. Aga tegelikkuses jäigi see esimene lugu (kus loomulikult selgitati lahti ka triki olemus) minu jaoks kõige põnevamaks. Liiga palju oli ikkagi tuletisi, võrrandeid jms, millesse ma ei soovinud üldse selle raamatu lugemise ajal süvenema hakata. Samas, ei kujuta ette, kuidas saaks neid matemaatilisi nähtusi lahti seletada ilma valemiteta.

Ju siis oli lihtsalt minu jaoks vale aeg selle raamatuga tegelemiseks.