Erica Schippers - Zero Breaks the Universe, Including My Head

I'm re-reading Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife, Matt Zimet (Illustrator). At 256 pages, this book is surprisingly small for all of the information it contains, and that's not the only way that it is deceptive. The writing style is so friendly, accessible, and clear that it is easy to forget that many of the ideas in the book are very complex and sometimes very counter-intuitive.

Throughout the history of mathematics, zero and infinity, which are not the same thing but often produce the same problems mathematically, have simultaneously proved troublesome and provided large blinking red arrows to those places where otherwise sound mathematical and physical theories break down. This book follows the history of these two ideas from the early days of western mathematics, where zero wasn't even acknowledged as an acceptable concept, all the way through to modern day string theory and higher order multidimensional attempts to explain the places where the four-dimensional universe appears to collapse into incomprehensible singularity.

I'm not sure how accessible a read this would be to someone without a bit of calculus and physics in their background, but I will say that only a bit of knowledge in those areas will make this book a valuable investment of time. I got to the part about infinite sets that are larger than other infinite sets and had to go have a lie down until my brain adjusted, so in short my opinion of it is: this book is very good. It will make your brain hurt.

Comments

[Catherine]

Oh, that's sounds really good! Can I borrow it? I had the housewifely urge to go back to school recently, but instead of basketweaving or ancient history, I was toying with the idea of some higher math or physics. I guess that says geek all the way, eh? I'm not sure I remember any calculus, though...

[Erica]

Sure! Just remind me on Monday.