Free Delivery Over $100
|
|
|||
|
||||
Overview'Barrow explains nothing with great clarity, a lovely lightness of touch and enormous erudition' Spectator How do you begin to understand the concept of nothing? Where does it begin and where does it end? From the zeros of the mathematician to the void of the philosophers, from Shakespeare to the empty set, from the ether to the quantum vacuum, from being and nothingness to creatio ex nihilo, there is much ado about nothing at the heart of things. Recent exciting discoveries in astronomy are shown to shed new light on the nature of the vacuum and its dramatic effect upon the explanation of the Universe. This remarkable book ranges over every nook and cranny of nothingness to reveal how the human mind has had to make something of nothing in every field of human enquiry. Full Product DetailsAuthor: John D. BarrowPublisher: Vintage Publishing Imprint: Vintage Edition: New edition Dimensions: Width: 12.90cm , Height: 2.40cm , Length: 19.80cm Weight: 0.277kg ISBN: 9780099288459ISBN 10: 0099288451 Pages: 400 Publication Date: 05 July 2001 Recommended Age: From 0 years Audience: Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , General/trade , Professional & Vocational , Tertiary & Higher Education Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: To order  Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us. Table of ContentsReviewsThe startling story of the West's intellectual struggle with the concept of zero is told with admirable elegance and clarity * New Statesman * When it comes to explaining the trickiest ideas John Barrow goes the extra mile which helps you to understand when going on * Guardian * An entertaining and informative account of how the zero came into being in ancient civilisations such as the Babylonian and Egyptian...I am happy to report that nothing is full of interesting reading * New Scientist * Much ado about, well, nothing..Cambridge mathematician Barrow ( Pi in the Sky , 1992, etc.) has established a reputation as a lucid explicator of difficult numerical and cosmological problems. Here he turns to some of the most difficult of all, at least insofar as lesser minds can grasp: nothingness. His narrative begins, simply enough, with the development of the idea of zero in several mathematical traditions, including the Mayan, Babylonian, and Indian. These independent inventions, which early generations of scholars took to be proof of cultural contacts in antiquity, developed naturally, Barrow maintains, out of positional or place-value numbering systems. Once a positional system is introduced, he writes, it is only a matter of time before a zero symbol follows. Zero is altogether too simple for the world because, as the author points out, it cannot encompass the relative degrees of nothingness that more recent physics have postulated; for that, we need other null mathematical entities that embrace the concept of a set that has no numbers within it, and here and hereafter Barrow's lightly borne argument takes a somewhat more technical turn, leading into still more difficult concepts of quantum physics, many having to do with the origin and ultimate end of the universe. His depiction of that inevitable end, when everything slides gently into the vacuum that nature supposedly abhors and when new laws of physics override the ones we know, is intriguing - and quite beautiful. Still, readers with little background in mathematics will have their work cut out for them in following the author's analysis - an effort that the author amply repays..Elegant, learned, and far more accessible than much scientific discourse.. (Kirkus Reviews) Nothing is everything, therefore there is nothing it cannot be. Reading like an insoluble Zen riddle, this is also the premise of Barrow's latest tour-de-force in the world of mathematics. Tackling it more as a detective than the Cambridge research professor he is, he uses common examples and a style of writing found in thrillers to pull the reader through the chinks of reason into the greater reality which may or may not ultimately govern our world. Barrow's journey to uncover the origins of zero and the concept of, quite literally, nothing, starts with the Mayans, the ancient Greeks and the Phoenicians before touching on the Middle Ages on route to our times. In the process he lays open the fact that the development of mathematics is closely woven in faith, culture, organized religion, the concept of God and one's personal belief system. Whether he is busy explaining why Einstein needed to have space filled with either of just how Michelson measured the speed of light, Barrow brims with enthusiasm. It was Galileo who famously said 'Mathematics is the language in which God wrote the universe'. It has taken Barrow, however, to make it truly accessible. (Kirkus UK) The startling story of the West's intellectual struggle with the concept of zero is told with admirable elegance and clarity. - New Statesman Author InformationJohn D. Barrow is Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Director of the Millennium Mathematics Project at Cambridge University, Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the current Gresham Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, London. His principal area of scientific research is cosmology, and he is the author of many highly acclaimed books about the nature and significance of modern developments in physics, astronomy, and mathematics, including The Origin of the Universe, The Universe that Discovered Itself; The Book of Nothing, The Constants of Nature, The Infinite Book- a Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless, The Artful Universe Expanded, New Theories of Everything, and Cosmic Imagery. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
||||
