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Arithmetic (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R659
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Arithmetic (Hardcover)
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Because evolution endowed humans with a complement of ten fingers,
a grouping size of ten seems natural to us, perhaps even ideal. But
from the perspective of mathematics, groupings of ten are
arbitrary, and can have serious shortcomings. Twelve would be
better for divisibility, and eight is smaller and well suited to
repeated halving. Grouping by two, as in binary code, has turned
out to have its own remarkable advantages. Paul Lockhart reveals
arithmetic not as the rote manipulation of numbers-a practical if
mundane branch of knowledge best suited for balancing a checkbook
or filling out tax forms-but as a set of ideas that exhibit the
fascinating and sometimes surprising behaviors usually reserved for
higher branches of mathematics. The essence of arithmetic is the
skillful arrangement of numerical information for ease of
communication and comparison, an elegant intellectual craft that
arises from our desire to count, add to, take away from, divide up,
and multiply quantities of important things. Over centuries, humans
devised a variety of strategies for representing and using
numerical information, from beads and tally marks to adding
machines and computers. Lockhart explores the philosophical and
aesthetic nature of counting and of different number systems, both
Western and non-Western, weighing the pluses and minuses of each. A
passionate, entertaining survey of foundational ideas and methods,
Arithmetic invites readers to experience the profound and simple
beauty of its subject through the eyes of a modern research
mathematician.
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