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The art of more : how mathematics created civilization / Michael Brooks.

by Brooks, Michael, 1970-

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Pantheon Books, 2021.

Mathematics and civilization.

Mathematics -- History.

9781524748999 (hc.)

Alternate title:

How mathematics created civilization

1st American ed.

vii, 320 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.

"Originally published in London, Great Britain by Scribe, in 2021."

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: Why our skill with numbers is the greatest human achievement of all -- Numbers : how we founded civilisation -- Geometry : how we conquered and created -- Algebra : how we got organised -- Calculus : how we engineered everything -- Logarithms : how we launched science -- Imaginary numbers : how we fired up the electric age -- Statistics : how we made everything better -- Information theory : how we created the modern era -- Conclusion: Maths is a many-splendoured thing.

"For readers of Steven Strogatz's Infinite Powers and The Joy of x comes this illuminating exploration of the ways in which math-and the people who have mastered its inherent power through the ages-has shaped our world. In this captivating, sweeping history, Michael Brooks makes clear that mathematics was one of the foundational innovations that catapulted humanity from a nomadic existence to civilization, and that it has been instrumental in every subsequent great leap of humankind--from charting the movements of celestial bodies, to navigating the globe, to tracking the dissemination of viruses. And the trailblazing mathematicians who devoted their lives to taming numbers come to life in Brooks's telling. Here are ancient Egyptian priests, Babylonian tax officials, the Apollo astronauts, the hobbyist who cracked a mapmaking puzzle that had stumped both NASA and U.S. Geological Survey, and the MIT professor who invented the infrastructure of the online world. Their stories clearly demonstrate that the invention of mathematics is every bit as important to the human species as the discovery of fire. First page to last, The Art of More brings mathematics back into the heart of what it means to be human"--From publisher.

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