Numbers ─ A Very Short Introduction

Numbers are integral to our everyday lives and factor into almost everything we do. In this Very Short Introduction, Peter M. Higgins, a renowned popular-science writer, unravels the world of numbers, demonstrating its richness and providing an overview of all the number types that feature in modern science and mathematics. Indeed, Higgins paints a crystal-clear picture of the number world, showing how the modern number system matured over many centuries, and introducing key concepts such as integers, fractions, real and imaginary numbers, and complex numbers. Higgins sheds light on such fascinating topics as the series of primes, describing how primes are now used to encrypt confidential data on the internet. He also explores the infinite nature of number collections and explains how the so-called real numbers knit together to form the continuum of the number line. Written in the fashion of Higgins' highly popular science paperbacks, Numbers accurately explains the nature of numbers and how so-called complex numbers and number systems are used in calculations that arise in real problems.

Peter M. Higgins is currently Professor and Head of the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Essex University. He is a research algebraist but has written five popular mathematics books that bring mathematical matters to a wide audience, including Mathematics for the Curious (OUP, 1998), Nets, Puzzles, and Postmen (OUP, 2007); and Mathematics for the Imagination (OOP 2002), some of which have been translated into a variety of languages including Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Arabic. He is the inventor of Circular Sudoku, which has appeared throughout the world in magazines, books, the internet, and on handheld computer games.