| eBook ISBN: | 978-0-88385-987-2 |
| Product Code: | NML/6.E |
| List Price: | $50.00 |
| MAA Member Price: | $37.50 |
| AMS Member Price: | $37.50 |
| eBook ISBN: | 978-0-88385-987-2 |
| Product Code: | NML/6.E |
| List Price: | $50.00 |
| MAA Member Price: | $37.50 |
| AMS Member Price: | $37.50 |
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Book DetailsAnneli Lax New Mathematical LibraryVolume: 6; 1961; 165 pp
Large numbers have always been a source of wonder and many questions are raised about them. 'What comes after billions?' or 'How do the relative sizes of an atom and a man compare to the relative sizes of a man and the sun'? The author has answered some of these questions by explaining the arithmetic and the uses of large numbers in a way which introduces the reader to the horizons of modern mathematics. Using large numbers as a unifying theme and employing only the simplest materials, the author provides the reader with an understanding for numbers, their magnitude, and their growth. The reader is introduced to exponents, computation, number theory, and to the rapidity of growth of sequences. Several historical passages reveal mathematics as a living thing that grows and changes with the generations. Tables listing interesting and useful numbers in the physical universe are appended.
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Table of Contents
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Chapters
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Part I. Large numbers and their arithmetic
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Part II. Large numbers at work
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Appendices
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Reviews
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Once in a while a man can take a topic that is basically dull to most of us and turn out an interesting and useful book. Philip Davis has done that. Naturally, he runs all over the field of numbers, from number theory to residue theory, from the relaxation method of solving the heat equation to the fact that man is the geometric mean of the sun and the hydrogen atom. It is a book which all high school students can read a considerable part, and those in the upper quartile can possibly read it all.
J. L. Botsford, The American Mathematical Monthly
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Large numbers have always been a source of wonder and many questions are raised about them. 'What comes after billions?' or 'How do the relative sizes of an atom and a man compare to the relative sizes of a man and the sun'? The author has answered some of these questions by explaining the arithmetic and the uses of large numbers in a way which introduces the reader to the horizons of modern mathematics. Using large numbers as a unifying theme and employing only the simplest materials, the author provides the reader with an understanding for numbers, their magnitude, and their growth. The reader is introduced to exponents, computation, number theory, and to the rapidity of growth of sequences. Several historical passages reveal mathematics as a living thing that grows and changes with the generations. Tables listing interesting and useful numbers in the physical universe are appended.
-
Chapters
-
Part I. Large numbers and their arithmetic
-
Part II. Large numbers at work
-
Appendices
-
Once in a while a man can take a topic that is basically dull to most of us and turn out an interesting and useful book. Philip Davis has done that. Naturally, he runs all over the field of numbers, from number theory to residue theory, from the relaxation method of solving the heat equation to the fact that man is the geometric mean of the sun and the hydrogen atom. It is a book which all high school students can read a considerable part, and those in the upper quartile can possibly read it all.
J. L. Botsford, The American Mathematical Monthly
