Numbers ─ Their Tales, Types, and Treasures

Did you grow up thinking math is boring? It’s time to reconsider. This book will teach you everything you ever wondered about numbers—and more.

How and why did human beings first start using numbers at the dawn of history? Would numbers exist if weHomo sapiens weren’t around to discover them? What’s so special about weird numbers like pi and the Fibonacci sequence? What about rational, irrational, real, and imaginary numbers? Why do we need them?

Two veteran math educators explain it all in ways even the most math phobic will find appealing and understandable.

You’ll never look at those squiggles on your calculator the same again.

Alfred S. Posamentier is dean of the School of Education and professor of mathematics education at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, New York. Previously, he had the same positions at the City College of the City University of New York for forty years. He has published over fifty-five books in the area of mathematics and mathematics education, including, most recently,Mathematical Curiosities: A Treasure Trove of Unexpected Entertainments (with Ingmar Lehmann).

Bernd Thaller is associate professor for applied mathematics at the Institute for Mathematics and Scientific Computing at the University of Graz in Austria. He is the author or coauthor of four books in mathematics.