The Big Bang of Numbers: How to Build the Universe Using Only Math

by Manil Suri

An engaging and imaginative tour through the fundamental mathematical concepts―from arithmetic to infinity―that form the building blocks of our universe. Our universe has multiple origin stories, from religious creation myths to the Big Bang of scientists. But if we leave those behind and start from nothing―no matter, no cosmos, not even empty space―could we create a universe using only math? Irreverent, richly illustrated, and boundlessly creative, The Big Bang of Numbers invites us to try. In this new mathematical origin story, mathematician and novelist Manil Suri creates a natural progression of ideas needed to design our world, starting with numbers and continuing through geometry, algebra, and beyond. He reveals the secret lives of real and imaginary numbers, teaches them to play abstract games with real-world applications, discovers unexpected patterns that connect humble lifeforms to enormous galaxies, and explores mathematical underpinnings for randomness and beauty. With evocative examples ranging from multidimensional crochet to the Mona Lisa’s asymmetrical smile, as well as ingenious storytelling that helps illuminate complex concepts like infinity and relativity, The Big Bang of Numbers charts a playful, inventive course to existence. Mathematics, Suri shows, might best be understood not as something we invent to explain Nature, but as the source of all creation, whose directives Nature tries to obey as best she can. Offering both striking new perspectives for math aficionados and an accessible introduction for anyone daunted by calculation, The Big Bang of Numbers proves that we can all fall in love with math. 260 illustrations; two color design

Genres: Mathematics, Science, Nonfiction, History, Popular Science, Stem, India

384 pages, Paperback

First published September 20, 2022

About the author

Manil Suri is a distinguished mathematics professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Author of three acclaimed novels, including The Death of Vishnu, he is a former contributing opinion writer at the New York Times, for which he has written several widely read pieces on mathematics. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Reviews

[Mansoor · Rating 1 out of 5]

رطب‌ و یابس‌بافی‌های نویسنده کتاب را ملال‌آور کرده. مزه‌پرانی‌های خنکش هم مزید بر علت شده. عملا نمی‌شود خواندش

[UKDana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't read much non-fiction but when I do it tends to be science based. Having taught Maths at secondary school level (11 to 16 years old) for 35 years I was tempted by the claim that The Big Bang Of Numbers is for "maths aficionados and an accessible introduction for enthusiastic novices".

Author Manil Suri wants readers to stop thinking of maths as simply the arithmetic processes we are taught in school and use in our day to day lives. To view maths in a completely different way.

We are all familiar with the creation theories given by religion or physics. Manil Suri approaches creation from the perspective of numbers. He starts by simply asking where numbers come from? From a creation point of view this isn't as easy to answer as you would first think. If nothing exists numbers don't develop as a means of counting objects (since objects don't exist).

The creation of numbers initially is very abstract, however the author then leads the reader through a natural evolution of the number system. From natural (counting numbers) we develop integers (positive and negative numbers), on to rational numbers (fractions and decimals) and then irrational numbers (such as pi). The concept of imaginary numbers is introduced in a very accessible way.

Once numbers have been created we then move on to how geometry would develop. Where possible practical examples are given to illustrate ideas, I particularly liked the use of crochet to explain the hyperbolic plane.

From geometry we moved on to algebra. Not the "find the value of x" type of algebra from school but the language used to construct laws and patterns. These laws can then be used as building blocks to construct our universe.

Overall this is an interesting addition to the genre of popular science. More philosophical argument than mathematical text. You do not need an advanced maths qualification to get something out of The Big Bang Of Numbers, however you do need to be comfortable using numbers.

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[Sara Saab · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up! A little bit too voicey and in love with itself, but the survey of mathematical concepts was a gentle re-immersion in the material.

[Mishehu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite well-done, and generally well-written. A conceit of the book which other reviewers mention critically — numerous references to the pope as reader and fellow traveler of the author — merit the criticism. It’s an annoying and totally unnecessary conceit. Other than that, I enjoyed the book greatly. I wouldn’t say that I learned a great deal from it, but I thought the author took a very novel and interesting approach to the subject matter: the origins and development of mathematics. Well worth the read.

[Hans Van Wesenbeeck · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars, rounded up from 4.5

Despite fierce competition from the majority of titles lined up on my bookshelf awaiting their first read, I might want to read this book a second time, this time using it as a guide to delve deeper into the fascinating topics it presents. My engagement with this book was wonderfully complemented by listening to the BBC podcast series "A Brief History of Mathematics," which shares the same goal of making mathematics both engaging and accessible, but from a different angle by weaving through the lives and legacies of the mathematicians who propelled the discipline forward. The Big Bang of Numbers focuses more on the mathematical concepts themselves, exploring the beauty of mathematics with some anecdotal historical notes and applications to illustrate its points.

Regrettably, Goodreads does not accommodate fractional ratings. Faced with this whole number constraint, I found myself wishing to award this book a 4.5-star rating. I'd give it 5 stars for succeeding in brilliantly and bravely making light of what is sadly too often taught in school as a heavy and tedious subject, 4 stars for not being quite as elegant in its prose as the titles I reserve a 5 star rating for in the same genre, such as Richard Dawkins' "The Blind Watchmaker", a masterpiece which not only profoundly elucidates its subject matter but does so with delightful language finesse.

[Sofía · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay

[Adam Yaw]

Adam review a book on Goodreads when you finish it challenge (impossible). I blame this app/website’s absolutely atrocious ui but it’s also my fault. Eventually I’ll get to the like ten books I’ve also read this year.

This was a really pleasant and lovely read. Mostly not as esoteric and philosophical as I was hoping, but imo greatly achieved the goal it sets out to accomplish. The nature section was absolutely wonderful and gave me some banger fun facts

[Paul Sand · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not exactly what I expected.

I keep hearing that some scientists theorize that the universe we know and love is entirely a creation of pure mathematics. (There is, of course, a Wikipedia page about that.) Can I be excused for seeing this title in the library, and thinking that the book might be a dilettante-level explication of that interesting speculation?

Well, it's really not. The author, Manil Suri, likes math. (So do I.) And he tries to build up math from its foundations: first, the natural numbers, then integers, rational numbers, real numbers, and complex numbers. Then, using the visuals developed: geometry, analytic geometry, higher dimensions, the golden ratio, fractals, infinities, … Finally, "nature" is brought into the picture. He does a pretty good job of arguing for inverse-square behavior of simple gravity and electric fields.

Gripe: Poor Emmy Noether is relegated to a short endnote in the back of the book. She really did show how the big three physics conservation laws (momentum, energy, angular momentum) can be developed using (uh, relatively) simple arguments from symmetry. That's beautiful. It would have been a better book if she got a few pages in the main text, because that's the kind of thing I assumed Suri would have been talking about!

All this is tied together with an offbeat style that ranges from whimsical to daffy. A running gag involves Suri's NYT 2013 article, "How to Fall in Love With Math" which was denied the top spot on some NYT ten-most-discussed list by one of Pope Francis's pronouncements on homosexuality. So Suri promises/threatens to send Francis a copy of the book, and references what he imagines his reaction would be throughout. Sigh, fine.

This might be an OK book to give to a smart middle-schooler who is showing signs of being interested in math and science. (Or you can try One, Two, Three, … Infinity, by George Gamow, which is what got me started.

[Gulshan B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being a book on the subject of mathematics, and trying to explain our universe - starting from the proverbial primordial big bang, this book does deliver, even if it doesn’t quite nail the landing.

Numbers have been one of humankind’s greatest and most useful invention - ever. However, therein lies Mr Suri’s dilemma. He attempts to paint a narrative that uses numbers, ab initio, to create the rest of the universe, which is literally everything. The Big Bang of numbers happens in front of the avid reader’s eyes, and as you watch rapt and in thrall, the first number emerges - a round, symmetrical, nice (big!) 0, the zero. From there, using some really to follow and understand writing, but never losing sight of the initial premise and promise, the author takes us on a wild and imaginative wide, to witness the creation of naturals and integers, rationals and irrationals, wholes and fractions, real and complex. The journey then takes you to even more interesting and fascinating places - one where you see the birth of algebra, polynomials, and geometry. You see space, time and space-time coming into being. Of course, all this predates the actual big bang - the birthing moment of our universe.

Clearly, with such monumental and profound ideas, nothing short of grandiose can suffice and Mr Suri doesn’t disappoint. His frequent leaning on to H.E. The Pope makes for an amusing running gag, one that he returns to time and again. In fact, towards the end, The Pope comes in for more than just the joke, and I believe that’s where the book loses some of its sharpness and appeal.

The book does ask for some patience and a bit more than a little interest in mathematics, though nothing that a middle schooler can’t easily claim to. I must add here though that the last few chapters do take you to fantastical lands that leave the middle school curiosity behind, with fractals and infinities and cardinalities. Again, all in good faith and in all honesty, in my opinion it would be near impossible to explain all existence using numbers anyway, something that the author points out more than once, even if obliquely, while trying to tie the final knots on a mildly rambunctious journey.

The author clearly adores mathematics and believes in the numbers, and the book is sure to pique the interest, if not ignite the passion, of most who venture into it.

[Isaac Godman · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolutely fascinating experiment in maths and physics, tieing together so many aspects and explaining them eloquently and interestingly. I had a great time reading this and highly recommend it to anyone interested in maths, physics and how they combine.

[Dan Drake · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pretty good popular science book on the axiomatic construction of mathematics, and it does a pretty good job of taking the reader from the natural/counting numbers up through the complex numbers, n-dimensional geometry and so on. That said, for more adventurous readers, I'd really go for Number: The Language of Science or Are Numbers Real?: The Uncanny Relationship of Mathematics and the Physical World.

[Ricardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It was very cool to revisit many fundamental mathematical concepts with a new, fresh perspective. A math teacher would surely find a ton of ideas on this book to inspire his/her students. The book flows nicely from the simple to the complex using intuition and nature's examples. Recommended.

[Ryo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book for free in a Goodreads giveaway.

I'm usually not much of a nonfiction reader, but this book may have changed my mind about that going forward. Granted, I recognize that I'm probably in the minority. I was a math major in school, and though I never really went further than my undergraduate education in math, I still had some interest in it even after graduating. So I found this book really interesting. It tries to build up various concepts of math starting from basically nothing, starting with the natural numbers, and then it goes onto a surprising number of concepts, including geometry, polynomials, fractals, and even the cardinality of the real numbers. I read all of the footnotes and endnotes with interest, which is rare in a nonfiction book. Despite its relatively short length, it covers so many topics in an interesting and engaging way, even things like using crocheting to explain some hyperbolic geometry. I don't know how much I believe this concept of building up the universe and all of this math from absolutely nothing, since the author obviously knows advanced mathematics in its current state, but the way he takes the reader on an adventure starting with something as simple as the natural numbers was really effective. I don't think I had thought about the cardinality of the rational and real numbers since that real analysis class I took in college, but here it was, presented in an entertaining and digestible way. This probably won't interest anyone who wasn't already interested in math, but I was both entertained and educated by this book.

[Asher Early · Rating 4 out of 5]

A vastly different approach to math than I've experienced prior. Suri introduces the thought experiment of building the universe using math only (as opposed to theology, or physics, as most of our known origin stories do). In doing so, Suri reveals the deep intuition that underpins many of maths concepts, and the fascinating relationships that exist between its disciplines.

thoughts/takeaways:
- Much of math is built through the combination of axioms, thought to be self-evident facts/observations, into more complex ideas. As long as the axioms hold, the ideas that are built from them will as well.
- Much of math as seen in nature is an approximation of theory (Cloud boundaries and trees approximating fractals based on infinity).
- The world in which we live in is represented by mathematical models with specific parameters; however, there are many different models that could exist (non-Euclidean geometries such as the hyperbolic plane giving way to geodesics that aren't a "straight line")

[David Kirchman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps a more accurate title for this book would be "how to think like a mathematician." For much of the book, Suri builds a "universe" of a sorts, starting from the most basic, the natural numbers (1,2,3,4...), and ending with much more complicated ideas in math, such as different degrees of infinity as explored by Georg Cantor and his set theories. Throughout it all, the reader is challenged to understand math at its most fundamental level. The math is developed with a playful tone (hinted at by the title) and just when the reader's mathematical energy may be failing, Suri inserts light asides (he imagines response and reactions from the pope), discusses designs and patterns in nature as viewed by a mathematician, and provides short biographies of important mathematicians. One of the best books on the topic I've ever read.

[McKenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted more out of this book. I found it to be kind of insufferable. It's written in a way that is intended for people who don't necessarily understand math to understand the concepts presented, but there was a real lack of explanation behind the mathematical concepts. As someone who knows pretty much all of the math included in this book, I felt like it was too dumb downed for me but would not be approachable for the average reader.

I also just felt like the thematic relationship that was trying to be portrayed between theology and mathematics was just not a well developed thematic relationship and the argument was not developed enough.

Really interesting concept but really lacked the execution.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a mid range reader on mathematics and science, meaning that I have some knowledge but wouldn’t by any stretch call myself an expert, I enjoyed the author’s approach of conceptualizing math rather than digging into numbers and formulae, and I found myself most engaged by the discussion of eternities, but I must admit that the thread of metaphors that tie the book together, no doubt strengthened by those who wanted to market this book, is one of the things that ultimately dragged me down about it. Perhaps this book might’ve worked better for me as an audiobook, in that hearing the author’s method more as a lecture than reading it on the page might have given me a little more drive while getting through it.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mathematicians seem to have a irresistible urge to put their hat into the religion ring, despite being woefully ignorant. This is the second book I’ve read where mathematician (no doubt seeing himself as enlightened and proposing bold statements we all were too dumb to consider) explains that either Math explains God, or that God is a woman. Or both. This aside, this is a pretty good book. Don’t expect an actual big bang explanation though; particles are simply assumed. The math here is good. The pope jokes are pretty funny, even as a Catholic. The actual argument? Weak, at best. Still a fun read.

[Nick Ertz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well here's how the world became. The book doesn't concern itself with adding and subtracting or any commonly used math calculations. Rather, it builds the world of math from "first principles". In all, an entertaining look at math from the ground up. The book doesn't go deep into many themes, just enough to tease one. Nature is finally called in to build out the universe based on math's blueprints.
The book is the result.

[Paul Horstmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

How do you write a book covering the breadth of mathematics as it may (or may not relate to the world as we see it), all the while keeping the length manageable and interesting to the lay reader (who has a passing interest in the topic?) This book is the result. While I would have like more depth in certain areas and the author took a few leaps of faith along way, I believe he was successful in going from the null set to the cardinality of infinity. I recommend this text to anyone with a passing interest in mathematics and it's intersection with our universe.

[Liza ❤️❤️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok so basically I slotted through 60 pages, and I was like to mum I can't do no more I have to give up. So I put this down, but a week later I picked it back up and read 100 pages in a day. Bc it starts off SLOW, like a snail. But it does have new concepts at the end. They weren't new to me - like infinity, but reading about it again makes me acc understand it. But the physics stuff was new to me and its interesting to see it through a maths lens explains in basically toddler voice

[Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book I’ve been looking for. Math is supposed to describe the universe, but how? This book walks you through your elementary- and high-school arithmetic and math, showing you maybe for the first time how they build on each other and giving you just a hint of infinity. Fun, fresh, doesn’t talk down to math morons like me.

[mylesgoins]

[To-Be Read]
I hope this can give a good survey of math and some efficient pop-science ways of thinking about and explaining basic and advanced math concepts. And that it will encourage working through math books.

Added based on this review:
https://fivebooks.com/best-books/best...

[Lucas R · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am very passionate about math, and the book had some high points, however, I found that the concept was the most interesting part of the book. If you are already deep in the weeds of math, it is unlikely that you will find new information here. To me, it seems like it is more of a book for getting into some of the big ideas of math as a beginner, which is respectable, but not for me.

[Will Carlson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christmas gift from Willa.

Reminded me of my philosophy of mathematics class. I’ve never been a big math guy, but I don’t mind it nearly as much when it’s in philosophy form. I liked the passion of the author, even if he was a little corny at times. The whole thing was interesting to think about, and it didn’t make me feel too dumb.

[Emanuele Gemelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable book and very well written, considering the difficulty of the challenge. I have read many many books on maths and physics, and this one is absolutely one of the best. I’ll definitely pass it over to my teenager kid whom is beginning struggling with algebra

[Jeffreyp · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great pleasure to read and rediscover mathematics. Thank you, Mr. Suri.

You have to love the light-hearted tone of this book, both nostalgic and state of the art, leading unexpectedly to the horizons of science. 4.5 stars.

[Adeyemi Ajao · Rating 4 out of 5]

Building a universe from scratch using only math. Prose is far from perfect but, in principle, this is how math should actually be taught, with the understanding that all knowledge, from math to physics, chemistry, biology and ultimately consciousness, is unitary.

[Seamus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really interesting! It was bought for me (thanks Kelly, and her sister Laura for the recommendation) because I've been interested in math. It's an accessible and interesting book, really helpful for me in understanding some basic math and it's connections to science better.

[Rayfes Mondal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun math book about how to build up our universe from nothing. Playful banter between science and religion and how they aren't so incompatible. Ends with how iterative methods can create quite complex things including life.