Math Without Numbers

Math Without Numbers

Summary

'The whizz-kid making maths supercool. . . A brilliant book that takes everything we know (and fear) about maths out of the equation - starting with numbers' The Times

'A cheerful, chatty, and charming trip through the world of mathematics. . . Everyone should read this delightful book' Ian Stewart, author of Do Dice Play God?

The only numbers in this book are the page numbers.

The three main branches of abstract math - topology, analysis, and algebra - turn out to be surprisingly easy to grasp. Or at least, they are when our guide is a math prodigy. With forthright wit and warm charm, Milo Beckman upends the conventional approach to mathematics, inviting us to think creatively about shape and dimension, the infinite and the infinitesimal, symmetries, proofs, and all how all these concepts fit together. Why is there a million dollar prize for counting shapes? Is anything bigger than infinity? And how is the 'truth' of mathematics actually decided?

A vivid and wholly original guide to the math that makes the world tick and the planets revolve, Math Without Numbers makes human and understandable the elevated and hypothetical, allowing us to clearly see abstract math for what it is: bizarre, beautiful, and head-scratchingly wonderful.

Reviews

  • Genius: an entire book about mathematics in which the only digits are the page numbers. . . fresh, delightful and extremely accessible
    Alex Bellos, Guardian

About the author

Milo Beckman

Milo Beckman is a maths prodigy from New York. His diverse projects and independent research have been featured in the The New York Times, FiveThirtyEight, the Huffington Post, Business Insider, the Economist, and others. He worked for three tech companies, two banks, and a US Senator before retiring at age nineteen to teach math in New York, China, and Brazil, and to write.
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