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From 0 to Infinity in 26 Centuries: The Extraordinary Story of Maths
Book by Waring, Chris
192 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2012
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173 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
October 8, 2017
From 0 to Infinity in 26 Centuries: The Extraordinary Story of Maths by Chris Waring does pretty much what it says on the cover - it's a brief (make that very brief) history of mathemtics, that one thing that invades every aspect of our lives, whether we like it or not. It was one of those random book shop finds, something that sparked my interest one day, but could have just as easily put me off on another. It's a book that my husband groaned at when he saw me, rolling his eyes in a bored fashion, and one that my mother, upon hearing that I'd picked it up, proclaimed "what on Earth do you want to read that for?"
The thing about maths is that it really is all-pervading. Its tentacles reach into pretty much every aspect of our lives from when we first start learning it in school to our work lives and beyond. It even features heavily in art and architecture. We learn a lot about maths - how to do basic arithmetic, more complex equations, working out areas and routes and so on - but we rarely learn about where it came from and who made the discoveries, the history of it all, and it's that that left me so tempted.
So yeah, I was intrigued and I was right to be, for this little unassuming book turned out to be extremely interesting. Even my doubting mother enjoyed the random facts I read out to her, such as the fact that the equals sign was invented by a Welshman (go Wales!), and that Leibniz taught himself to read Latin at the age of seven. Waring's delightful way with words helped too - he turned what could potentially be a rather stuffy, boring topic into one that was lightly humoured, easy to read, and enjoyable. The book was so stuffed full of fascinating tidbits and written in such a pleasant way that I raced through the mere 193 pages at a rate of knots.
That was one of the problems though - not so much that the book was short, but that each fact or phase in history was glanced over so briefly that you could miss it if you blinked. I suppose trying to squeeze 26 centuries into 193 pages is quite a feat - that's almost 13 and a half years per page, after all. Still, I felt it would have been nice to have a little more detail, at least in parts. The narrative was also a little jumpy. Despite a clear attempt at a linear narrative, matheticians were mentioned on one page and then again 50 pages later, along with a handy page guide in brackets. That's not that big a deal, of course, but following the page references (which I didn't, by the way) could be positively dizzying.
If there's one thing for sure, it's that this book wouldn't be for everyone. I mean, it's maths - just the topic is enough to instill dread and fear in some. But if you're interested in maths, even if you can only see a tiny inkling of vague appeal, I think you'll like this book. It's brief enough to keep you interested while throwing up fascinating facts in a humourous and engaging manner.
The thing about maths is that it really is all-pervading. Its tentacles reach into pretty much every aspect of our lives from when we first start learning it in school to our work lives and beyond. It even features heavily in art and architecture. We learn a lot about maths - how to do basic arithmetic, more complex equations, working out areas and routes and so on - but we rarely learn about where it came from and who made the discoveries, the history of it all, and it's that that left me so tempted.
So yeah, I was intrigued and I was right to be, for this little unassuming book turned out to be extremely interesting. Even my doubting mother enjoyed the random facts I read out to her, such as the fact that the equals sign was invented by a Welshman (go Wales!), and that Leibniz taught himself to read Latin at the age of seven. Waring's delightful way with words helped too - he turned what could potentially be a rather stuffy, boring topic into one that was lightly humoured, easy to read, and enjoyable. The book was so stuffed full of fascinating tidbits and written in such a pleasant way that I raced through the mere 193 pages at a rate of knots.
That was one of the problems though - not so much that the book was short, but that each fact or phase in history was glanced over so briefly that you could miss it if you blinked. I suppose trying to squeeze 26 centuries into 193 pages is quite a feat - that's almost 13 and a half years per page, after all. Still, I felt it would have been nice to have a little more detail, at least in parts. The narrative was also a little jumpy. Despite a clear attempt at a linear narrative, matheticians were mentioned on one page and then again 50 pages later, along with a handy page guide in brackets. That's not that big a deal, of course, but following the page references (which I didn't, by the way) could be positively dizzying.
If there's one thing for sure, it's that this book wouldn't be for everyone. I mean, it's maths - just the topic is enough to instill dread and fear in some. But if you're interested in maths, even if you can only see a tiny inkling of vague appeal, I think you'll like this book. It's brief enough to keep you interested while throwing up fascinating facts in a humourous and engaging manner.
January 17, 2024
A brief history of mathematics! A rather boring topic from that description alone, but I found this book quite easy to read (although some concepts took a bit of re-reading to process - and this was completely on me and not the way it was written). Waring takes us very briefly through many major and minor milestones in the advancement of maths throughout history. It was easy to see how pervasive and foundational maths is to our world. If I read this book in high school, it might’ve even convinced me of how important the subject is - even if I haven't used half the skills I had learnt since then! (That said, this book did also take me a trip through my own history of learning maths lol)
Would recommend reading this even if the subject is a bit dry. It still is to me. It doesn't motivate me to want to study maths or learn more about it, but this book was just short and insightful enough to make it interesting :)
Would recommend reading this even if the subject is a bit dry. It still is to me. It doesn't motivate me to want to study maths or learn more about it, but this book was just short and insightful enough to make it interesting :)
February 1, 2022
Interessante il suo ripercorrere il cammino storico della matematica dalla preistoria ai giorno nostri, soprattutto per un ignorante in materia come me
January 17, 2018
This book was fun, but didn't go into depth about any one subject, which has it's pros and cons. It was a short and enjoyable read.
October 7, 2015
I generally enjoy books of this kind very much and this one does have its merits, but I'm afraid I thought it had some serious flaws, too.
It is presented in a series of brief sections, most of which give an outline of the contribution of an individual to mathematics, from ancient Greek, Chinese, Indian and Arabic mathematicians via people like Descartes, Newton, Euler and so on up to the 20th century where both concepts and people become less familiar. These are generally well written, the concepts on the whole are well explained and the tone is amiable and welcoming with not too much in the way of scary equations, which is excellent for the non-specialist.
However, as a story of maths (which it claims to be) I found it rather lacking because there is no sense anywhere of how the ideas described fit together, and although it is roughly chronological it seemed just a random scattering of stories without any sense of movement through history. And while Chris Waring mentions applications of some of the concepts and techniques, I didn't really get a sense of how it all fitted into the world.
More seriously, some of the explanations are badly flawed. For example, I thought I was losing my mathematical marbles on page 54 because Euclid's Theorem of Infinite Primes is so poorly and inaccurately explained that it seems to be self-evidently false. Waring says "If you multiply all the primes together you generate a number. This next number..." What he means by "this next number" is, "if you then add one to the generated number, this new number..." which is something very different, and even when (or if) you realise this, the explanation still omits a vital step in reasoning. The example of the use of Napier's Bones seems to imply that 5+1=7 until you finally deduce that he has forgotten to tell you to start on the right and that you have to carry over to the next section. And so on.
There are inaccuracies scattered throughout, which in a book about anything other than mathematics probably wouldn't matter but here are significant. For example, "24 is not a weird number because we can add its factors (2,4,6 and 12) together to make 24." What he means is "we can add *some* of its factors together" (leaving out 3 and 8) which, in a section about perfect numbers, is a critical distinction. I'm afraid that there was a good deal of this sort of sloppiness and I found it increasingly irritating because, unlike in fiction, say, small errors in mathematics render it plain wrong, and precision is vital even in a book like this for the general reader.
I am sorry to be critical. Chris Waring deserves credit for attempting to write an accessible book on the history of maths and this isn't terrible by any means, but it is flawed and I can only recommend it with some rather serious reservations.
It is presented in a series of brief sections, most of which give an outline of the contribution of an individual to mathematics, from ancient Greek, Chinese, Indian and Arabic mathematicians via people like Descartes, Newton, Euler and so on up to the 20th century where both concepts and people become less familiar. These are generally well written, the concepts on the whole are well explained and the tone is amiable and welcoming with not too much in the way of scary equations, which is excellent for the non-specialist.
However, as a story of maths (which it claims to be) I found it rather lacking because there is no sense anywhere of how the ideas described fit together, and although it is roughly chronological it seemed just a random scattering of stories without any sense of movement through history. And while Chris Waring mentions applications of some of the concepts and techniques, I didn't really get a sense of how it all fitted into the world.
More seriously, some of the explanations are badly flawed. For example, I thought I was losing my mathematical marbles on page 54 because Euclid's Theorem of Infinite Primes is so poorly and inaccurately explained that it seems to be self-evidently false. Waring says "If you multiply all the primes together you generate a number. This next number..." What he means by "this next number" is, "if you then add one to the generated number, this new number..." which is something very different, and even when (or if) you realise this, the explanation still omits a vital step in reasoning. The example of the use of Napier's Bones seems to imply that 5+1=7 until you finally deduce that he has forgotten to tell you to start on the right and that you have to carry over to the next section. And so on.
There are inaccuracies scattered throughout, which in a book about anything other than mathematics probably wouldn't matter but here are significant. For example, "24 is not a weird number because we can add its factors (2,4,6 and 12) together to make 24." What he means is "we can add *some* of its factors together" (leaving out 3 and 8) which, in a section about perfect numbers, is a critical distinction. I'm afraid that there was a good deal of this sort of sloppiness and I found it increasingly irritating because, unlike in fiction, say, small errors in mathematics render it plain wrong, and precision is vital even in a book like this for the general reader.
I am sorry to be critical. Chris Waring deserves credit for attempting to write an accessible book on the history of maths and this isn't terrible by any means, but it is flawed and I can only recommend it with some rather serious reservations.
April 24, 2024
I enjoyed reading this book, full of fun facts about the history of different mathematics topics.
May 2, 2023
It is exactly what I was looking for: a catalogue of all the famous Mathematicians and what they have contributed in that field. The author has done an awesome job in condensing these knowledge into a book, providing nuggets of information for us to read up more if we want to. Being a Primary Math teacher, but not a Mathematician, this book caters very well to my needs: know the gist of certain Math theory, findings etc and share very briefly with my students to spark their interest in Mathematics!
February 1, 2022
A brief history of numbers and maths, from caveman time to the digital age.
Pythagoras theorem was known before Pythagoras' time.
Pascal's triangle was created before Pascal's time, and other bits.
Easy to read, too brief in most sections, but then I can research more details (if I can be bothered).
Pythagoras theorem was known before Pythagoras' time.
Pascal's triangle was created before Pascal's time, and other bits.
Easy to read, too brief in most sections, but then I can research more details (if I can be bothered).
December 22, 2023
This book represents a history of mathematicians without many details in a chronological way. Although I do not think this is the best way to represent the mathematical events, it was an interesting read. I liked the focus on eastern mathematicians but when reaching the modern times, it lack the examples of where math is used.
April 3, 2018
Vry interesting. No idea behind the history of the math I (used to before I retired) use as an Engineer and Uni lecturer. Pity the book wasn't more detailed; all too brief on some of the subjects, such as statistics. A few more pages wouldn't have hurt.
August 28, 2018
A whirlwind tour
This book provided an excellent if brief look at math through the centuries from Australopithecus to the future. It was fascinating even if I was often left wanting more info.
This book provided an excellent if brief look at math through the centuries from Australopithecus to the future. It was fascinating even if I was often left wanting more info.
Read
May 3, 2021A pretty fun, pretty interesting fast read about maths and its history, full of stuff I had no idea about, and stuff I had an intuition about - lots of social history entangled in here, and lots to explore if there's ever more time.
August 27, 2018
Interesting but very basic and not particularly in depth about anything, each mathematical development only having a brief summary. Fun, quick read.
June 20, 2021
Very short, after reading heavier history of maths books, this is more like revision to me.
November 17, 2021
This book is for people who loved mathematics in school but never attempted to know the history of it.
October 2, 2022
I liked seeing who takes the credit and when.
Read
August 2, 2023Haven't read it. There was a first-rate mathematician named Edward Waring, probably the best British mathematician of the late 18th century. Any relation?
September 21, 2023
Yaş ve çalışma alanı farketmeksizin herkesin okuması tavsiye ettiğim bir kitap.
February 22, 2015
I quite like Maths and I'm not bad at it at a basic level, which is useful as I have a financial based job. But I recall the point at which Maths went from being easy to incomprehensible for me; sometime over the Summer that feel between GSCE and A-Level standard. Then, as now, I never really wondered where Maths had come from; I just worried why I suddenly couldn't understand it any more.
This book wouldn't have helped with that, but it is an interesting look at Maths through the ages. The title suggests it covers the whole scope of Maths and it certainly achieves that. From prehistoric men counting on their fingers and making marks on animal bones to modern man with his computers and irrational numbers, there is nothing obviously missing from this story. The odd names and theories I remember, or which bought back memories, were all here alongside many more I'd either forgotten or never got around to memorising in the first place.
Given how complex much of Maths can be, I was surprised at how readable the book was. Chris Waring is a teacher of Maths and this does show in his ability to explain many of the concepts very simply. Admittedly, some of the formulas are a little too complex to be easily explained in words, but there are helpful tables and sections for these parts. He breezes through both concepts and history with the same easy style and everything is well explained, up to a point.
It is when the book reaches this point that it loses some of its effectiveness. There are several concepts explained where the book hints at real world applications, but not much detail is given. In the simpler areas of Maths, this is not a problem as many of the developments were due to Maths being used to solve a real world problem. But in the case of some of the more abstract processes, a little more explanation could have been useful. It may be that this is outside the scope of the history of Maths, but there were several points it would have been helpful.
In splitting the ages into areas rather than remaining strictly chronological in approach, at parts the book can be a touch confusing. Some developments followed naturally on from others, but if they were happening on different continents, as in a couple of cases, sometimes the next event in a chain is in a different section from the last. Although Waring always refers back, it did occasionally interrupt the moment to have to go back and remind myself of the previous development. Mostly, however, the through line was enough to keep me going.
In addition, if the reader's understanding is above a basic level, some parts can seem a little too simplistic. Admittedly, much of the history is still fascinating and there was much here that was new to me, particularly about the people involved in creating some of the Maths that stumped me all those years ago. But some of the explanations seemed a little basic and lacking in something for someone with a little more interest and knowledge. If you're the kind of person for whom something like this would pique your interest and you want to know more, you'll have to go elsewhere to do so.
However, as a starter book into the history of Maths, this is a very well done book indeed. It touches enough on each notable person or concept to give an idea of what they or it did and then moves on. This allows for a very compact book that doesn't get bogged down by too much complicated details that would cause a reader with a relatively basic understanding to get confused or disinterested. It won't necessarily make Maths any easier, but it could make it a little more interesting for the reluctant or unenthusiastic student of the subject.
This review may also appear, in whole or in part, under my name at any or all of www.ciao.co.uk, www.thebookbag.co.uk, www.goodreads.com, www.amazon.co.uk and www.dooyoo.co.uk
This book wouldn't have helped with that, but it is an interesting look at Maths through the ages. The title suggests it covers the whole scope of Maths and it certainly achieves that. From prehistoric men counting on their fingers and making marks on animal bones to modern man with his computers and irrational numbers, there is nothing obviously missing from this story. The odd names and theories I remember, or which bought back memories, were all here alongside many more I'd either forgotten or never got around to memorising in the first place.
Given how complex much of Maths can be, I was surprised at how readable the book was. Chris Waring is a teacher of Maths and this does show in his ability to explain many of the concepts very simply. Admittedly, some of the formulas are a little too complex to be easily explained in words, but there are helpful tables and sections for these parts. He breezes through both concepts and history with the same easy style and everything is well explained, up to a point.
It is when the book reaches this point that it loses some of its effectiveness. There are several concepts explained where the book hints at real world applications, but not much detail is given. In the simpler areas of Maths, this is not a problem as many of the developments were due to Maths being used to solve a real world problem. But in the case of some of the more abstract processes, a little more explanation could have been useful. It may be that this is outside the scope of the history of Maths, but there were several points it would have been helpful.
In splitting the ages into areas rather than remaining strictly chronological in approach, at parts the book can be a touch confusing. Some developments followed naturally on from others, but if they were happening on different continents, as in a couple of cases, sometimes the next event in a chain is in a different section from the last. Although Waring always refers back, it did occasionally interrupt the moment to have to go back and remind myself of the previous development. Mostly, however, the through line was enough to keep me going.
In addition, if the reader's understanding is above a basic level, some parts can seem a little too simplistic. Admittedly, much of the history is still fascinating and there was much here that was new to me, particularly about the people involved in creating some of the Maths that stumped me all those years ago. But some of the explanations seemed a little basic and lacking in something for someone with a little more interest and knowledge. If you're the kind of person for whom something like this would pique your interest and you want to know more, you'll have to go elsewhere to do so.
However, as a starter book into the history of Maths, this is a very well done book indeed. It touches enough on each notable person or concept to give an idea of what they or it did and then moves on. This allows for a very compact book that doesn't get bogged down by too much complicated details that would cause a reader with a relatively basic understanding to get confused or disinterested. It won't necessarily make Maths any easier, but it could make it a little more interesting for the reluctant or unenthusiastic student of the subject.
This review may also appear, in whole or in part, under my name at any or all of www.ciao.co.uk, www.thebookbag.co.uk, www.goodreads.com, www.amazon.co.uk and www.dooyoo.co.uk
April 24, 2025
(30 November, 2021)
A quick recap of people and ideas relating to numbers. It skips a ton of stuff but, with all books of this type, it kind of has to. The math towards the end is tedious but still tolerable (I have always been more intuitive with numbers than actually good at math though).
While everything here is fine, it lack cohesiveness and reading it has no real flow (yeah,yeah, I know it's a history of numbers!). The most egregious thing here is that, somehow, it makes Gauss seem like a regular run-of-mill genius (if there is such a thing) instead of the brainiest brainiac a lot of us think he was. Enjoy!
A quick recap of people and ideas relating to numbers. It skips a ton of stuff but, with all books of this type, it kind of has to. The math towards the end is tedious but still tolerable (I have always been more intuitive with numbers than actually good at math though).
While everything here is fine, it lack cohesiveness and reading it has no real flow (yeah,yeah, I know it's a history of numbers!). The most egregious thing here is that, somehow, it makes Gauss seem like a regular run-of-mill genius (if there is such a thing) instead of the brainiest brainiac a lot of us think he was. Enjoy!
January 9, 2015
This is a fun light read for anyone who likes or is intrigued by numbers, calculations, and alike. Readers should set appropriate expectations. The book is less than 200 pages and covers quite a few centuries so nothing is terribly in depth, but there were enough times I paused and said "I did not know that".
January 4, 2018
I finished the book in a day, which tells you how you cannot put this one down for a moment. The passion of the author for math is very true. He exemplifies it with scientific scenarios and facts that came mostly new to me. To know how numbers grew from sticks to codes, this is exactly what you need to read.
May 13, 2016
quite nice introduction book to understand whole math history :)
September 13, 2016
An easy book to read, one that tells you clearly about things you have heard about.
December 11, 2016
Accessible.
July 26, 2018
Yet another book with some history and some mathematics.
November 3, 2023
Oldukça kısa sürede okunabilen, akıcı bir kitap. Matematikle ilgili önemli gelişmelere yer vermiş. Ortaokul ve üstü rahatlıkla okuyabilir.
August 9, 2024
A brief overview of the history of mathematics. High-level but entertaining, touched on many interesting concepts and made me nostalgic for my nerdy childhood.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews