- Hardcover: 192 pages
- Publisher: Bloomsbury US (Jun 21 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0802778127
- ISBN-13: 978-0802778123
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 14.7 x 2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 318 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#76,078 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #20 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Professionals & Academics > Educators
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"A must-read for anyone interested in the history of math, including undergraduates, mathematicians, and amateur historians." – Library Journal "The author…is adept at explaining esoteric concepts at the heart of old arithmetic problems, allowing readers to peer into the mind of a medieval Italian businessman." – The Wall Street Journal "A wonderful and vivid tale about the father of modern mathematics" – Shelf Awareness "Devlin illuminates one of the most remarkable and underappreciated episodes in cultural history… A surprising visit to a forgotten well-spring of modern thought." – Booklist "Three cheers for Leonardo Pisano… A wonderful book for history-of-science buffs." – Kirkus Reviews
Product Description
In 1202, a 32-year old Italian finished one of the most influential books of all time, which introduced modern arithmetic to Western Europe. Devised in India in the 7th and 8th centuries and brought to North Africa by Muslim traders, the Hindu-Arabic system helped transform the West into the dominant force in science, technology, and commerce, leaving behind Muslim cultures which had long known it but had failed to see its potential.
The young Italian, Leonardo of Pisa (better known today as Fibonacci), had learned the Hindu number system when he traveled to North Africa with his father, a customs agent. The book he created was Liber abbaci, the "Book of Calculation," and the revolution that followed its publication was enormous. Arithmetic made it possible for ordinary people to buy and sell goods, convert currencies, and keep accurate records of possessions more readily than ever before. Liber abbaci's publication led directly to large-scale international commerce and the scientific revolution of the Renaissance.
Yet despite the ubiquity of his discoveries, Leonardo of Pisa remains an enigma. His name is best known today in association with an exercise in Liber abbaci whose solution gives rise to a sequence of numbers--the Fibonacci sequence--used by some to predict the rise and fall of financial markets, and evident in myriad biological structures.
One of the great math popularizers of our time, Keith Devlin recreates the life and enduring legacy of an overlooked genius, and in the process makes clear how central numbers and mathematics are to our daily lives.
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Medieval Arithmetic: An Historical Perspective,
By
This review is from: The Man Of Numbers (Hardcover)
As some reviewers have already pointed out, this book really concentrates on history of mathematics rather than mathematics itself. In fact arithmetic is a better term to describe the types of problems addressed. The book's main focus is the impressive work of Leonardo of Pisa, also known by the nickname of Fibonacci, and his books (particularly Liber Abbaci); these were important contributions that illustrated how to solve important practical (mainly arithmetical) problems of the times. Although, the author asserts, none of Fibonacci's original works have survived the centuries, they have been transcribed - some of these transcriptions being still in existence today. They have also been borrowed from by some later (even some contemporary) writers. Consequently, the author uses a bit of forensics in an effort to determine whether the ideas/techniques presented in some of these later works were original or whether they came from an earlier source and if so, which one. It turns out that many of them likely came from Fibonacci. Very little is known about Fibonacci's life, but his achievements were ground-breaking and have left their marks.The author's writing style is clear, detailed, analytical and often quite engaging. I would classify this book as closer to a scholarly work than to a popularization aimed at a very broad readership. Consequently, I think that readers who are serious students of the history of mathematics would likely appreciate this book the most. Nevertheless, anyone can learn a great deal from reading this intriguing book.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.9 out of 5 stars (21 customer reviews) 34 of 38 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Even more important than originally thought,
By Ed Pegg "Math puzzler" - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Man Of Numbers (Hardcover)
A man went on business to Lucca, Florence, and then Pisa. In each city, he doubled his money, then spent 12 denari. At the end, he had no money. How much did he start with?This and hundreds of other math-heavy financial questions were asked in Liber Abaci, or "The Book of Calculation", published in 1202 by Leonardo of Pisa, who became better known as Fibonacci. The book is led to the European popularization of 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 -- the Hindu-Arabic number system. Why? It was faster than the Roman method. The many questions were aimed at merchants. It was profitable. The merchants who used the methods in Liber Abaci were able to beat their competitors, and this caused the new methods to see widespread usage throughout Europe. Now, to a modern reader, Liber Abaci's six hundred pages of detailed calculations for how to make money conversions, tariff fees, and business transactions with a variety of obsolete currencies may seem like a tedious read. To a merchant of the era, some subset of the pages gave exact instructions for how to make more money. The 13th century merchants of Pisa, Genoa, Milan, and Florence all took up the new mathematical system. At the time, there were other influential books for merchants. With Liber Abaci, they formed the initial core set for business math. Forensic analysis of the other books was done a few years ago, and it revealed that Fibonacci was the author of the other influential books, as well. Keith Devlin gives both the ancient and modern history. I had the privilege of seeing his presentation for The Man of Numbers at a recent math conference, and it was all a fascinating, gigantic story. For the Kindle, there is a shorter companion book by the same author: Leonardo and Steve: The Young Genius Who Beat Apple to Market by 800 Years. 31 of 36 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Don't buy the Kindle edition,
By Joachim Wulff - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
I recently bought a Kindle and this was the first eBook I bought for it. It was quite a disappointment. Although the contents itself is interesting (I would probably rate a printed version 4 stars), the fun was spoiled by the poor conversion to Kindle format. I'm not an expert on this matter, so I don't know if this is inherent to eBooks, or if it's just the editors' poor job.Most annoying are: - Transliteration of Arabic into Latin text is partially done with images, which cause line-breaks in the middle of words. The word 'Muhammad', with an underdotted 'h' occurs quite often and causes a lot of unnecessary white space. - Mixed fractions become ambiguous because there are is no space between the whole number and the fraction (and the numerator is in the same size font). So 112/13 can mean either 'one hundred twelve thirteenth', 'one and twelve thirteenth' or 'eleven and two thirteenth'. This makes following the examples quite a challenge and distracts from understanding them. Also: - Occasional references to page numbers. Kindle doesn't use pages. - In the beginning of the text the '2' in squared entities is not super-scripted. In later part this is done properly. - In the illustration that explains the use of symbols for digits in terms of angles in the graph, the symbol for '6' contains 7 angles. (This might be true for the printed edition too). In short: buy the paper version, it's worth reading (I agree with the previous reviewer). Even if the Kindle version is a bit cheaper, it's a waste of money. 15 of 18 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dog and fox solution is correct,
By Keith Devlin - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Man Of Numbers (Hardcover)
See my comment to Elwood Dodge's review where I give the complete solution. (Amazon requires I rate the book, but realize my rating is biased.)
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