Zero book pdf

Zero the biography of a dangerous idea book pdf
Why was zero invented
Zero book read aloud

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Zero - The Biography of a Dangerous Idea (Paperback)

Zero follows the number zero from its birth as an Eastern philosophical concept to its struggle for acceptance in Europe and its apotheosis as the mystery of a black hole. Here are the legendary thinkers who have battled over the meaking of this mysterious number - scholars and mystics, cosmologists and clergymen whose clashes over zero shook the very foundations of philosophy, science, mathematics and religion. There was a time when zero did not exist, the concept of zero is a relatively recent Eastern concept and for centuries there was a struggle over its very existence. For many cultures zero represented the void and it could prove to undo the framework of logic. It was seen as an alien concept that could shatter the framework of Christianity and science. Charles Seife's elegant and witty account takes us from Aristotle to superstring theory by way of Pythagorus, Descartes, the Kabbalists, and Einstein by way of Newton and Stephen Hawking. It is a concise tour of a universe of ideas bound up in the simple notion of nothing.

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Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea

By Charles Seife
Review by Octavian (Computer Science)

Can you imagine “nothing”? Focusing on this concept, even trying to imagine it, is hair-raising. It is a feeling of emptiness. You might be shocked to discover that the number zero is only recently a recognised part of the world we live in. In Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea you can go through the history of the symbol for “nothing” and its massive implications for mankind past, present and future. This apparently insignificant number has challenged people, from mathematicians to philosophers and theologians.

Containing accessible mathematical concepts, the book is not just a boring history lesson. What really struck me is the close connection between philosophy and sciences. The impossibility of people to comprehend zero (is it the lack of something? is it just nothing, void?), an entity that generates paradoxes (divide something by nothing and you get everything) almost put science evolution on hold. It is shocking!

I don’t want to spoil any part of the book or go in

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Nothingness is being and being nothingness… Our limited mind cannot grasp or fathom this, for it joins infinity. – Azrael of Gerona

Connections, connections, connections.

There are many things in life that have inconsequential beginnings: things that are only discovered by chance (and on curious whim). When nonchalantly sweeping past the library bookshelf and fingering the delicate spines of pristinely-kept books, I barely grasped the tremendous significance of the little stacks of paper. Together they formed an irreplaceable trove of knowledge- keys to new doors, new connections, and new worlds.

It was, therefore, pure chance that I should have picked up this little paperback from the little-visited mathematics section of our school library. Zero. It wasn’t the title that intrigued me, nor was it the unassuming cover. I wasn’t even looking for a book (we all know I have a backlog of books waiting to be read), but in my languorous sweep through the aisles, something compelled me to take it.

Of the dozens of books, I somehow picked out just the rig