- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc (Nov 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0195142373
- ISBN-13: 978-0195142372
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 11.9 x 1.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 799,317 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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First Sentence
Zero began its career as two wedges pressed into a wet lump of clay, in the days when a superb piece of mental engineering gave us the art of counting. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Zero began its career as two wedges pressed into a wet lump of clay, in the days when a superb piece of mental engineering gave us the art of counting. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I was given this - I wouldn't have bothered to read it otherwise.
It's more a history book than a maths book, so if you're a studying or practising mathematician this won't be much help as such.
What it does do is provide a complete history of mankind's mental and emotional battle to get its collective head round the concept of admitting to the existence of zero. Full of "well, would you believe that!" moments.
The thing that raises it from 3 stars to 4 is the bit at the end where the books discusses the question "What's zero to the power of zero?"
Worth getting for that bit alone.
It's more a history book than a maths book, so if you're a studying or practising mathematician this won't be much help as such.
What it does do is provide a complete history of mankind's mental and emotional battle to get its collective head round the concept of admitting to the existence of zero. Full of "well, would you believe that!" moments.
The thing that raises it from 3 stars to 4 is the bit at the end where the books discusses the question "What's zero to the power of zero?"
Worth getting for that bit alone.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
54 reviews
62 of 64 people found the following review helpful
The story of Zero
19 Jun 2003
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Two books discuss the concept of zero. They are "The nothing that Is: A Natural History of Zero" by Robert Kaplan (1999) and "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seiff (2000). The books tackle the same subject but are significantly different in their approach.
Both books recognize the difficulties zero caused to the Greeks and their successors. Kaplan emphasizes the mysticism of zero. His book describes the confusion and avoidance of "nothing" throughout civilized history. While there is a smattering of mathematical concepts, the book is mostly an essay revolving about nihilism. This seems somewhat strange as Robert Kaplan has "taught mathematics to people from six to sixty. He is the co-founder of The Math Circle, a program open to the public for the enjoyment of pure mathematics."
Seiff's story also includes descriptions of mankind's concern over "nothing" but emphasizes the solutions reached by mathematicians. The book is full of mathematical and physical concepts related to zero.
If one is interested in philosophy, read Kaplan. If Math is the desired area, read Seiff.
67 of 70 people found the following review helpful
Well Reasoned - A Great Read
16 Jun 2000
Format:Hardcover
I've recently read both Charles Seife's "Zero:The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" and Robert Kaplan's "The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero." They are at the same time very similar and very different. They each follow an almost identical line, presenting the evolution of zero chronologically, and they each make almost identical stops along the way. The difference is in how they treat the steps in zero's evolution which is conditioned by their differing metaphysical views. An illuminating example is how they each treat Aristotle's role in zero's history.
Charles Seife, from the beginning, reifies zero: the author accepts the misconception that zero is some sort of actually existing mystical force resting at the center of black holes. He doesn't step back to take a look at the concept as concept. Nor does he appear to keep in mind that mathematics is the science of measurement, or that time is not a force or dimension, but merely a measurement of motion. This distorts his perspective, from which he attempts to refute Aristotle's refutation of the existence of the void: for Seife, zero exists and is a force in and of itself. In Seife's hands, zero certainly is a dangerous idea!
Robert Kaplan, on the other hand, delves deeper. His work is informed by an obvious love for history and classic literature, and while this results in many obscure literary asides, one feels that this book takes part in the Great Conversation. As a result he steps back and takes a critical look at the true meaning and usefulness of the concept as a concept. Is zero a number? Is it noun, adjective, or verb? Does it actually exist outside of conceptual consciousness or is it exclusively a tool of the mind?
Both authors follow zero's role in the development of algebra and the calculus. As a math "infant", this reader, having read Seife's book first, found that the explanations of these two developments by Kaplan cleared away the haze, which Seife's book was unable to do. I found both books to be illuminating. Seife's book contains much valuable historical information. He did his homework. If one were to read only this book on the subject, one would have learned a great deal about the history of mathematics. But if I were to have to choose one to recommend, it would be Kaplan's book. It is more informed, more seasoned, more honestly inductive in its approach.
58 of 64 people found the following review helpful
get Seife's book instead
5 May 2005
Format:Paperback
If for some reason you're jonesin' to read a history of the number zero, I would hie thee away from this book. Read instead Charles Seife's peerless "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea," a very similar book (published around the same time, too) that is much more interesting and far more competently written.
Kaplan's book, while not atrocious, is nevertheless poorly brought off and demands a much stronger math background to enjoy -- despite what the blurb on the cover says.
I will admit, though, that, in addition to being a capable mathematician and scholar, Kaplan has organized and researched his tale well. Fatally, however, the guy can't seem to write in a natural, lucid way.
Here's a sample of the kind of opaque, gummy prose you're in store for if you tackle this book [p. 144]:
"Only selective forgetting of the past lets us move on, taking what was once dubious as the most banal of certainties, what was gained through struggle as our birthright. So with zero. The sermons it spoke in place-holding shrank to a letter of our thinking's alphabet, its volumes on solving equations to a sentence in mathematical primers."
And this is quite typical. Trust me: Seife is much more engaging, useful, and memorable. His book is considerably shorter than Kaplan's, however.
Kaplan's book, while not atrocious, is nevertheless poorly brought off and demands a much stronger math background to enjoy -- despite what the blurb on the cover says.
I will admit, though, that, in addition to being a capable mathematician and scholar, Kaplan has organized and researched his tale well. Fatally, however, the guy can't seem to write in a natural, lucid way.
Here's a sample of the kind of opaque, gummy prose you're in store for if you tackle this book [p. 144]:
"Only selective forgetting of the past lets us move on, taking what was once dubious as the most banal of certainties, what was gained through struggle as our birthright. So with zero. The sermons it spoke in place-holding shrank to a letter of our thinking's alphabet, its volumes on solving equations to a sentence in mathematical primers."
And this is quite typical. Trust me: Seife is much more engaging, useful, and memorable. His book is considerably shorter than Kaplan's, however.
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