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“Frequently Asked Questions in Mathematics.” http://www.cs.unb.ca/~alopez-o/math-faq/
Odenwald, Sten. “Beyond the Big Bang.” http://www2.ari.net/home/odenwald/anthol/beyondbb.html
———. “The Decay of the False Vacuum.” http://www2.ari.net/home/odenwald/anthol/decay.html
Perseus Project. http://hydra.perseus.tufts.edu/
Slabodkin, Gregory. “Software glitches leave Navy Smart Ship dead in the water.” Government Computer News, 13 July 1998. http://www.gcn. com/gcn/1998/July13/cov2.htm
The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive. http://history.math.csusb.edu/
Weisstein, Eric. Eric’s Treasure Trove of Astronomy. http://www.treasuretroves.com/astro/astro0.html
Acknowledgments
A lot of people in my life are partly responsible, in one way or another, for this book. My high school teachers instilled a love of science and of writing; my college professors showed me the beauty of mathematics. Jeremy Bernstein and Kenneth Goldstein started my career of science journalism. My friends and colleagues at New Scientist—well, they put up with me, which is no mean feat.
Special thanks go to my agent, Kerry Nugent-Wells; the illustrator, Matt Zimet; and my editor, Wendy Wolf. Thanks, too, to the people who helped me whip the text into shape—Dawn Drzal, Faye Flam, and, of course, my mom and dad. (They’re gentle parents, but harsh critics!)
Index
abacus, abacists
Absolom, Karl
absolute zero
acceleration
Achilles and the tortoise (Zeno’s paradox)
Alembert, Jean Le Rond d’
Alexander the Great
algebra
fundamental theorem of
Al-Ghazali, Abu Hamid
algorists
algorithms
Al-Khowarizmi, Mohammed ibn-Musa
American Revolution
Analyst, The(Berkeley)
“Anatomy of the World, An” (Donne)
Anti-Duhring (Engels)
Arabic numerals
Archimedes
axiom of
“Sand Reckoner” of
area and volume, measuring of
Aristotle, Aristotelian doctrine
God’s existence proven by
India and
rejection of
vacuum as viewed by
astronomers
Atman
atmospheric pressure
atomism
Augustine, Saint
Azrael of Gerona
Babylonians
Bacairi
banking
base-10 system
base-20 system
base-60 system
Bede
Berkeley, George
Bernoulli, Johann
Bhaskara
Bible
Book of John
big bang
big crunch
binary counting system
binary numbers
black holes
space-time curved by
string theory and
Boethius, Anicius
Book of Numbers, The (Conway and Guy)
Bororo
Boyle, Robert
Bradwardine, Thomas
Brahmagupta
branes
Brief History of Time, A (Hawking)
Brunelleschi, Filippo
Bruno, Giordano
calculus
calendars
Egyptian
Mayan
Cantor, Georg
cardinal numbers
Cartesian coordinates
Casimir, Hendrick B. G.
Casimir effect
Cavalieri, Bonaventura
century, arguments over start of
Cepheid variables
Chandogya Upanishad
Chandrasekhar, Subrahmanyan
Charles, Jacques-Alexandre
Christianity
see also God
Churchill, Winston, proof that he is a carrot
cipher
circle
Cohen, Paul
complex numbers
complex plane
computer programming
Confessions, The (Augustine)
conic sections
continuum hypothesis
“Convergence of the Twain, The” (Hardy)
Conway, John
Copernicus
cosmic background radiation
cosmological constant
Counter-Reformation
counting and numbers
Indian
starting with zero
counting boards
cubic polynomials
Danzig, Tobias
dates
decimal (base-10) system
derivative, modern definition of
Desargues, Gérard
Descartes, René
Dickens, Charles
differential equations
differentiation
dimensions
in painting and drawing
Dionysius Exiguus
Dirac, P.A.M.
Discourse on Method (Descartes)
distributive property
division
by zero
Donne, John
Doppler effect
drawing and painting, dimension in
duality:
in geometry
in religion
E = mc 2,
Earth, position of
Easter, date of
Eddington, Arthur
Egypt, Egyptians
Book of the Dead
calendar of
geometry invented by
numerals of
Einstein, Albert
n E = mc2 equation of
probability and
relativity theory of, see relativity
singularities and
universe as viewed by
Elder Edda
electrons
Eliot, T. S.
ellipses
elliptic curve
energy, in vacuum
Engels, Friedrich
Epic of Gilgamesh
epicycles
equations