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Asimov on Numbers
Essays selected from the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Sept. 1959-June 1966. Asimov discourses on things mathematical and numerical as only Asimov The Importance of Zero; The Only Two Numbers Computers Can Understand; The Asimov Series of Fractions; How to Make a Trillion Seem Small; What Infinity Really Means; The Story of Pi; Squaring the Circle; Why Imaginary Numbers are Real; Why We Should Forget Roman Numerals; The Logic of the Metric System; Why We Have Leap Years; Why a New Day Starts at Midnight; The Largest and Smallest Living Creatures; The Real Size of the Universe - in Protons; How Much Water the World Really Has; The Highest and Lowest Points of the Earth; Why the World Is Divided Into Islands.
249 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 1978
About the author
Isaac Asimov
4,428 books28.9k followersWorks of prolific Russian-American writer Isaac Asimov include popular explanations of scientific principles,
The Foundation Trilogy
(1951-1953), and other volumes of fiction.
Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.
Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).
People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.
Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.
Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...
Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.
Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).
People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.
Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.
Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
August 9, 2013
Though I'll admit that maths is not my strong point, and - beyond a few algebraic factorisations now and then - not my favourite pastime or topic either, I actually found this book thoroughly enjoyable. Asimov writes with a wonderful enthusiasm that is hard to not get drawn into, and combines this with a great sense of humour and the ability to explain clearly. I probably understand more about maths now than I ever did during highschool classes. Not for everyone, and I don't know how dated these concepts are, but I really liked this.
May 19, 2022
The Good Doctor has written many books as everybody knows, 500 or so. And he was cheating a bit. So this one is a collection of essays that have previously been published in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and then in collections of F&SF essays. And here he grabs some on numbers and published them again. Now, he updated some of the tables, so instead of mid 60s data we have tables with early seventies data. Which does not help much. And there is an index and some additional pages with some information loosely connected with the topic of the essay.
I am not complaining. I love reading him and any excuse is good enough. I would love to see the publication of his complete works. I would go buy them and read everything again.
Asimov was not an expert on mathematics and it is not surprising that these essays are not quite up to his usual standards. But they are nice enough. And what I particularly liked was the admission that he had forgotten everything about the Nine Tailors except for the expression ringing the changes. I have forgotten even that. (The only thing I remember about the book is that the tailors did not sew jeans.)
Asimov would start his S&SF essays with a personal anecdote. And this book contains my favorite one. In The Imaginary that isn’t he tells the story of a clash with a professor of sociology. Asimov was picking up a friend who attended a lecture by this professor. And the guy was telling his admirers after the lecture that mathematicians are mystics because they believe in numbers that have no reality. So Asimov felt he had to ask “What numbers?” - “The square root of minus 1.” “There is nothing mystical about it?” And then it started. The professor asked Asimov to hand him the square root of minus One pieces of chalk. And that could have been the end of the story. But Asimov agreed to do it provided he would get a half piece of chalk first. Professor breaks one and Asimov holds it to the audience and says “Wouldn’t you agree that this is one piece of chalk?” It certainly is not two or three. Now the professor comes up with the lame argument that a piece of chalk has a regulated length. And Asimov: “Now you are springing an arbitrary definition on me.” And even if he would accept it, were he be sure that it was a half and not 0.48? And then: “Can you really consider yourself qualified to discuss the square root of minus one, when you are a little hazy on the meaning of one half?” – I love that, even if it were a made up story. I must say though that maybe mathematicians were not wise in naming a kind of number imaginary. That was even worse than calling numbers irrational.
One of the essays that impressed me a lot when I first read it nearly half a century ago was the one where he discusses the different ways to define the highest mountain. This seems quite trivial today that you can define the height by the distance from the center of the Earth. And you would not end up with Mount Everest. But apparently Asimov came up with the idea first.
I am not complaining. I love reading him and any excuse is good enough. I would love to see the publication of his complete works. I would go buy them and read everything again.
Asimov was not an expert on mathematics and it is not surprising that these essays are not quite up to his usual standards. But they are nice enough. And what I particularly liked was the admission that he had forgotten everything about the Nine Tailors except for the expression ringing the changes. I have forgotten even that. (The only thing I remember about the book is that the tailors did not sew jeans.)
Asimov would start his S&SF essays with a personal anecdote. And this book contains my favorite one. In The Imaginary that isn’t he tells the story of a clash with a professor of sociology. Asimov was picking up a friend who attended a lecture by this professor. And the guy was telling his admirers after the lecture that mathematicians are mystics because they believe in numbers that have no reality. So Asimov felt he had to ask “What numbers?” - “The square root of minus 1.” “There is nothing mystical about it?” And then it started. The professor asked Asimov to hand him the square root of minus One pieces of chalk. And that could have been the end of the story. But Asimov agreed to do it provided he would get a half piece of chalk first. Professor breaks one and Asimov holds it to the audience and says “Wouldn’t you agree that this is one piece of chalk?” It certainly is not two or three. Now the professor comes up with the lame argument that a piece of chalk has a regulated length. And Asimov: “Now you are springing an arbitrary definition on me.” And even if he would accept it, were he be sure that it was a half and not 0.48? And then: “Can you really consider yourself qualified to discuss the square root of minus one, when you are a little hazy on the meaning of one half?” – I love that, even if it were a made up story. I must say though that maybe mathematicians were not wise in naming a kind of number imaginary. That was even worse than calling numbers irrational.
One of the essays that impressed me a lot when I first read it nearly half a century ago was the one where he discusses the different ways to define the highest mountain. This seems quite trivial today that you can define the height by the distance from the center of the Earth. And you would not end up with Mount Everest. But apparently Asimov came up with the idea first.
July 25, 2022
"And finally, when I'm all through sorrowing for myself, I devote a few moments to worrying about the world generally. What is going to become of Homo sapiens? We're going to smarten ourselves to death. After a while, we will all die of pernicious education, with our brain cells crammed to indigestion with facts and concepts, and with blasts of information exploding out of our ears." (9. Forget It!)
November 30, 2024
ok the first 3 essays were a delight and I will probably assign them in my classes (with caveats about asimov) but the rest was an absolute SLOG. I am not looking forward to his book on brains
August 3, 2008
Asimov on Numbers is a non-traditional compilation of Isaac Asimov's essays for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, collected by subject rather than by date of appearance. Of course, the articles focus on numbers, but not entirely on mathematics: "Forget it!", for instance, explains why some knowledge is better off no longer being taught in grade school, even if it had been vital at some point. This group of essays includes two of my all-time favorites, "The Days of Our Years" and "Begin at the Beginning," both concerned with the history of calendrical systems. However, "Skewered"--an attempt to appreciate the sheer magnitude of the largest number ever contained in a mathematical proof (at the time of writing)--was somehow overlooked, and that alone deducts a star from my rating.
March 18, 2012
A collection of articles from the 1960s on math, measurement, counting, or calendar. I was rather disappointed in this; I know a lot of it is out of date, but I read it to be entertained by that crisp, clear Asimov style. But for the most part, these pieces are frothy squibs that aren’t particularly revealing, or are (for me, anyway) just too confusing to enjoy. Most egregious are the latter articles which are more or less lists of the longest or deepest things, which in this Internet age is not rare information. And again, I expected Asimov to say something a little more profound than he does here --- but with his prolificacy, they can’t all be riveting.
April 3, 2011
Just had to add this. When I first heard of Google over ten years after reading this book, my first thought was: Did they mean Googool? And yes, they did ;-) Still use a lot of facts I read in this book as a kid today. Gotta love it... If you love maths, that is ;-)
September 10, 2009
Asimov writes so anyone can understand. This is a brilliant book on the magic and mystery of numbers.
August 18, 2012
A boring, dated mish mash of facts and concepts.
August 14, 2019
No one writes like Asimov, the physics PhD, who was comfortable with complicated science or science fiction. His various riffs on numbers are delightful. especially the one on Pi od 3.14159...
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November 25, 2020Book review, Asimov, Asimov on Numbers
This is a decent book about numbers hampered by its format, intent, and presentation. The main reason people give it less-than-great scores is because people expect it to be something other than what it is and are disappointed by it, and thus don’t appreciate its unique offerings.
Here is something you shouldn’t expect from this book; academic rigor. A rigorous workup of all classes of numbers. A rigorous classification of numbers and their properties. A rigorous history of how the Wester World came to the numbering system that it currently has. Here are some other things you shouldn’t expect from this book: lots of illustrations, graphics, charts, color, or any degree of eye-candy. The most you’ll get is the occasional picture of a place or person when mini-biographies are included.
Don’t expect focus. This is above all else Asimov’s musing on numbers, measurement, and arithmetic. The topics drift from here to there. The first half of the book discusses number classifications with musings on the insight of people from Euclid all the way to Cantor. The second half deals with measurement; dates, length, time, the metric system, etc. The 2nd half of the 2nd part lists a lot of measurements; the biggest this, the smallest that, apparently in order to teach future authors a sense of realistic scale. Who knew Asimov knew all sorts of scales when it came to the amount of water in ponds, lakes, oceans, planets, etc.? I openly admit to skipping the later parts.
The criticism leveled at the book (small pages, little in the way of illustrations, meandering, filled with trivial facts) are accurate. This book is a compilation of articles Asimov wrote to various magazines, which helps explain why it seems a bit cobbled-together into a patchwork of topics. Yet I’d also say that’s why I like this book.
This book is a great window into Asimov’s impression of our mathematical systems. I love his quick, witty insights. Why call the perimeter of a circle “circumference” which is Latin, instead of “perimeter”, which is Greek, much like “diameter”? Why does the metric system use Latin-rooted prefixes below the base unit, but Greek above? I love how he points out that the Greek root from which “kilo” descended actually uses a guttural “ch” sound (like in Chanukah or Bach), but the French decided to go with a hard “k” sound because that phoneme doesn’t exist in their language.
Asimov’s stories into the metric system and calendar (as well as alternatives to our current system) are rich with witticisms. Asimov points out that the early United States was the first to metricize (decimalize) its currency (as opposed to the British pence, pound, shilling, farthing, etc., which had various relations to one another). Yet it didn’t metricize its masses, lengths, and times. His stories of the calendar change are intriguing as well. Turns out Washington wasn’t born on Washington’s birthday, as his birthday was on the Gregorian, not Julian calendar. Since the Soviet Union was slow to adopt the Julian Calendar, it turns out Asimov lost 13 days when he came to America and his birthday wasn’t updated to reflect its movement from the Gregorian to Julian calendar.
I’d recommend this book to fans of Isaac Asimov who want his insights and musings on the way and method our ways of numbering and measuring came to be. If you came for a sterling defense of the imaginary number, exacting histories and biographies of number-related scientists, or the deeper implications of Euler’s Identity, you’ll be disappointed. If you stay to hear Asimov’s voice and witty sense of humor, learn a bit of history and interesting implications, and compare the calendar systems of the Western World, Islamic World, and Hebrews, you’ll be rewarded. If you want to stay till the end and learn about the largest bird, carnivore, lizard, fish, and a surprising amount of information elephants, well, let me know how that goes.
This is a decent book about numbers hampered by its format, intent, and presentation. The main reason people give it less-than-great scores is because people expect it to be something other than what it is and are disappointed by it, and thus don’t appreciate its unique offerings.
Here is something you shouldn’t expect from this book; academic rigor. A rigorous workup of all classes of numbers. A rigorous classification of numbers and their properties. A rigorous history of how the Wester World came to the numbering system that it currently has. Here are some other things you shouldn’t expect from this book: lots of illustrations, graphics, charts, color, or any degree of eye-candy. The most you’ll get is the occasional picture of a place or person when mini-biographies are included.
Don’t expect focus. This is above all else Asimov’s musing on numbers, measurement, and arithmetic. The topics drift from here to there. The first half of the book discusses number classifications with musings on the insight of people from Euclid all the way to Cantor. The second half deals with measurement; dates, length, time, the metric system, etc. The 2nd half of the 2nd part lists a lot of measurements; the biggest this, the smallest that, apparently in order to teach future authors a sense of realistic scale. Who knew Asimov knew all sorts of scales when it came to the amount of water in ponds, lakes, oceans, planets, etc.? I openly admit to skipping the later parts.
The criticism leveled at the book (small pages, little in the way of illustrations, meandering, filled with trivial facts) are accurate. This book is a compilation of articles Asimov wrote to various magazines, which helps explain why it seems a bit cobbled-together into a patchwork of topics. Yet I’d also say that’s why I like this book.
This book is a great window into Asimov’s impression of our mathematical systems. I love his quick, witty insights. Why call the perimeter of a circle “circumference” which is Latin, instead of “perimeter”, which is Greek, much like “diameter”? Why does the metric system use Latin-rooted prefixes below the base unit, but Greek above? I love how he points out that the Greek root from which “kilo” descended actually uses a guttural “ch” sound (like in Chanukah or Bach), but the French decided to go with a hard “k” sound because that phoneme doesn’t exist in their language.
Asimov’s stories into the metric system and calendar (as well as alternatives to our current system) are rich with witticisms. Asimov points out that the early United States was the first to metricize (decimalize) its currency (as opposed to the British pence, pound, shilling, farthing, etc., which had various relations to one another). Yet it didn’t metricize its masses, lengths, and times. His stories of the calendar change are intriguing as well. Turns out Washington wasn’t born on Washington’s birthday, as his birthday was on the Gregorian, not Julian calendar. Since the Soviet Union was slow to adopt the Julian Calendar, it turns out Asimov lost 13 days when he came to America and his birthday wasn’t updated to reflect its movement from the Gregorian to Julian calendar.
I’d recommend this book to fans of Isaac Asimov who want his insights and musings on the way and method our ways of numbering and measuring came to be. If you came for a sterling defense of the imaginary number, exacting histories and biographies of number-related scientists, or the deeper implications of Euler’s Identity, you’ll be disappointed. If you stay to hear Asimov’s voice and witty sense of humor, learn a bit of history and interesting implications, and compare the calendar systems of the Western World, Islamic World, and Hebrews, you’ll be rewarded. If you want to stay till the end and learn about the largest bird, carnivore, lizard, fish, and a surprising amount of information elephants, well, let me know how that goes.
April 8, 2024
This book is a must read ! Especially if you are in love with mathematics and more especially if you are not in love with Mathematics
And oh my ! The way Asimov explains concepts feels like it flows into me
This is my FIRST Asimov read, and I added all his mathematics related book into my list as soon as I realise its beauty
My main interest was Part I and II because I am not so much into Applications part
But both Parts were efficiently delivered by Asimov
As for Pre-requisite, I think you must have ! Otherwise book would not be enjoyable
Asimov talks about different Number System, Binary also, factorials and some series, talks about notation and some arithmetic of big numbers and infinities, about transcendental numbers and imaginary numbers
Though I just only didn't liked his imaginary part, all other was absolutely perfect
So yeah, I guess you should go for it !!
And oh my ! The way Asimov explains concepts feels like it flows into me
This is my FIRST Asimov read, and I added all his mathematics related book into my list as soon as I realise its beauty
My main interest was Part I and II because I am not so much into Applications part
But both Parts were efficiently delivered by Asimov
As for Pre-requisite, I think you must have ! Otherwise book would not be enjoyable
Asimov talks about different Number System, Binary also, factorials and some series, talks about notation and some arithmetic of big numbers and infinities, about transcendental numbers and imaginary numbers
Though I just only didn't liked his imaginary part, all other was absolutely perfect
So yeah, I guess you should go for it !!
August 18, 2025
My 26th book read from Asimov. I do dearly love the non-fiction books. Would I be looked down on if I said I liked his non-fiction more than his fiction? Somehow it's been two and a half years since I finished my 25th. No wonder I've felt out of sorts. I usually average over two Asimov books a year.
These collections of science essays are always enlightening. This book contained what is so far my favorite of all of his essays. It was called "One, Ten, Buckle My Shoe". The essay very clearly explained how binary worked and even showed me how to translate binary with simple math. There was also a great essay on the history of Pi and one on the ocean. I was like a giddy school boy telling everyone about how much gold there was in the ocean water if you could gather it all up together. Just amazing stuff from the great explainer.
These collections of science essays are always enlightening. This book contained what is so far my favorite of all of his essays. It was called "One, Ten, Buckle My Shoe". The essay very clearly explained how binary worked and even showed me how to translate binary with simple math. There was also a great essay on the history of Pi and one on the ocean. I was like a giddy school boy telling everyone about how much gold there was in the ocean water if you could gather it all up together. Just amazing stuff from the great explainer.
April 4, 2025
Asimov on Numbers is a 1977 collection of seventeen essays by the prolific Isaac Asimov. The essays were from a magazine. Asimov discusses subjects like the calendar and massive numbers.
Asimov doesn't shy away from using equations. He talks about the number e and pi and other transcendental numbers.
I enjoyed the book. Thanks for reading my review, and see you next time.
Asimov doesn't shy away from using equations. He talks about the number e and pi and other transcendental numbers.
I enjoyed the book. Thanks for reading my review, and see you next time.
February 27, 2026
Isnt bad , but the first essays are known if you are a little bit involved in math world. Even thoug is entertaining the way he narrates the concepts, sometimes feel like he goes for the rails talking about his life or pesonal experience.
Its known that Isaac Asimov is a science fiction writer so I wanto to give it a try to another book .
Its known that Isaac Asimov is a science fiction writer so I wanto to give it a try to another book .
April 21, 2020
The great Karl Sagan once called Asimov the greatest explainer of the 20th Century. I read this book my first year at Mt Mercy College and it sparked my interest in computers and mathematics. Asimov has a wonderful Writing style that makes the book very entertaining and informative.
November 9, 2020
An intriguing read that most definitely requires one's brain to be active. This is not a casual Saturday night read before you fall asleep, plan on having to pay attention and follow along with Asimov's mathematics the whole time.
March 18, 2022
I read this in highschool and i was hooked. A great book for the math/science enthusiast a fun and very informative read. It is one of my favorite books and definitely worth the reading and owning as a great information resource.
June 20, 2017
Reprints of his "number" essays from F&SF culled from his first 5 collections of such essays. I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the others.
December 22, 2017
I'm better a math because of Isaac Asimov! 😇
May 10, 2018
I'm pretty sure I've read this book.
April 12, 2021
A fun book exploring numbers and quantities. It was updated in the 70s, though is again horribly out of date.
March 18, 2023
Enjoyable way of making numbers and math easier to understand, especially approachable by non-technical readers.
November 13, 2024
Fun account on Mathematics and History, and just some of the oddities of Mathematics - great for a geek like me!
I read this book years ago, and now reread it...
I read this book years ago, and now reread it...
September 14, 2016
A good overview of many topics and areas of mathematics, made readable to the non-mathematically inclined. Asimov writes in a way that makes everything much more understandable.
May 3, 2015
It will be difficult to find a book that makes mathematics and numbers more entertaining than this one. Asimov uses stories, metaphors and comparisons to explain different numerical ideas. He explains how numbers and math have evolved over the ages, and states that perhaps math is simpler than it was before and it could be even simpler, if we agreed to discard outdated concepts like Roman numerals, and the English measurement system. Asimov also provides us insight into traditions, such as why Easter falls on a different date every year.
June 10, 2015
I really liked reading this book, I love math and brainteasers, and that combined with Isaac Asimov's clear writing style and sense of humor made for a very enjoyable experience. I especially liked how he explained the problem having to do with the scale and balls, as I have always wondered how to solve that problem, and his style made it easy to understand. Overall this was a very good, worthwhile book, and I would highly recommend it, even if you don't really like math.
July 21, 2022
Great collection of essays on a variety of math topics, written in a way that a layman can understand. Unfortunately, the author decided to stray into religion several times. For example, he states that the ages of the pre-Flood patriarchs in Genesis were stolen from Babylonian legends and that the Jewish seven day week with a day of rest, only came about in the sixth century B.C. from the Babylonians.
March 27, 2007
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and you thought robot mores were interesting, this book on the nature of numeration will fuck your shit all up.
when i hit the fifth chapter, i needed a break so my brain could catch up to my eyes.
this is one that can fit in your pocket and yet, expand understanding into the realm "derrr??" i mean in a fun way.
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and you thought robot mores were interesting, this book on the nature of numeration will fuck your shit all up.
when i hit the fifth chapter, i needed a break so my brain could catch up to my eyes.
this is one that can fit in your pocket and yet, expand understanding into the realm "derrr??" i mean in a fun way.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews