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| Record 24 out of 124 |
 
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| Book Number | 000303209 |
| ISBN |
 0195128427 (cloth ; alk. paper)
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9780195128420
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| Main Entry |
Kaplan, Robert, 1933-
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| Title |
The nothing that is :. a natural history of zero / Robert Kaplan.
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| Imprint |
New York : Oxford University Press, 1999.
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| Descr. | 225 pages ; 19 cm. |
| Bibliogr. | Includes index. |
| Notes and bibliography available on the World Wide Web. | |
| Contents | The lens -- Mind puts its stamp on matter -- The Greeks had no word for it -- Travelers’ tales -- Eastward -- Dust -- Into the unknown -- A paradigm shifts -- A mayan interlude: the dark side of counting -- Much ado -- Envoys of emptiness -- A sypher in augrim -- The year, next year, sometimes, never -- Still it moves -- Entertaining angels -- The power of nothing -- Knowing squat -- The fabric of this vision -- Leaving no wrack behind -- Almost nothing -- Slouching toward Bethlehem -- Two victories, a defeat and distant thunder -- Is it out there? -- Bath-house with spiders -- a land where it was always afternoon -- Was Lear right? -- The unthinkable. |
| Abstract | "In this book, Kaplan shows how zero is a lens through which we can see the evolution of mathematics as our tool for understanding the universe." "Where did zero come from - and what, exactly, does it mean? The Nothing That Is begins as a mystery story, tracing back to ancient times the way this symbol for nothing developed, constantly changing shape, even going underground at times. The trail leads from Babylon through Athens, to India, then to Europe in the Middle Ages. Brought to the West by Arab traders, zero was called "dangerous Saracen magic" at first, but quickly made itself indispensable. With the invention of calculus in the seventeenth century, zero became a linchpin of the Scientific Revolution. And in our own time, even deeper layers of this thing that is nothing are coming to light: our computers speak only in zeros and ones, and modern mathematics and physics have shown that "nothing" can be the source of everything."--BOOK JACKET. |
| Subject - Lib.Cong. |
Zero (The number)
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| Holdings | All items |
| holdings (2) |
Gennadius Library
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| Holdings (5) | Only filtered items |
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