One to Nine

March 3, 2008
A frank acknowledgment that “anything I wrote was bound to resemble” Constance Reid's seminal From Zero to Infinity
doesn't stop mathematician and biographer Hodges (Alan Turing: The Enigma
) from boldly launching into his own rather disjointed explanation of the place of the numbers one through nine in mathematics and (primarily Western) culture. Pop culture references and political topics such as global warming, presumably meant to make terms like “quantum of existence” a little less scary to the novice, appear alongside subjects of more interest to math nerds (the author debunks the common assumption that mathematicians are male, overweight and perennially single). Some knowledge of mathematical vocabulary and history is necessary to fully appreciate Hodges's merry skipping from one subject to another—a single page mentions “Vonnegut's fiction... Plato's aesthetics, Euclid's pentagons, Fibonacci's rabbits the inspiration of Islamic art and its parallels in Kepler”—but even the most halfhearted former math major will find a lot of familiar topics, like Schrödinger's cat and the equivalence of 1 with 0.99999.... The result is not entirely satisfying to either numerophobes or numerophiles. 40 illus.

April 1, 2008
Oxford University mathematician and physicist Hodges ("Alan Turing: The Enigma") focuses in nine chapters on the nine integers from one to nine (although the first chapter also includes some necessary reflections on zero). Each chapter begins with comments on the characteristics of the integer in question and then meanders through a variety of related topics such as prime numbers, Sudoku puzzles, and applications to physics. Throughout, there is scattered an assortment of problems for the reader; Hodges rates the challenges on a scale running from "easy" to "fiendish" and "deadly." He leavens his well-written text with pleasant touches of humor. Most of the content should be comprehensible and interesting for readers, even for those who choose not to venture beyond the "easy" level of problems. Strongly recommended for both public and academic libraries.Jack W. Weigel, Ann Arbor, MI

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2008
Cartographer for the land of numbers, Hodges here maps out an exhilarating journey, converting the simple trip from one to nine into an excursion through enchanting territory, pausing at lookout points commanding stunning intellectual vistas. Before they even visit the philosophical quandary of One-ness, readers are already pondering that curious Indian inventionzerothat made possible the unexpectedly powerful system of place notation! As Hodges guides his readers through the familiar counting sequence, every number yields up astonishing surprises. Two, for instance, opens up the mystery of symmetryand the conundrum of symmetry-defying time. Five illuminates the quasicrystals that have revolutionized solid-state physics. And eight exposes the workings of byte-based computer logic. Regardless of the number in view, Hodges writes with wonderful lucidity, inviting general readers to share in treasures too often surrendered entirely to specialists. Proffering insights not only into scientific realms such as physics and chemistry but also into history and literature, this book will win over even readers who suppose they hate math.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)