The Universe in Zero Words

Preface 6 Introduction: The Abacist versus the Algorist 10 Part One: Equations of Antiquity 16 1. Why we believe in arithmetic: the world's simplest equation 20 2. Resisting a new concept: the discovery of zero 26 3. The square of the hypotenuse: the Pythagorean theorem 30 4. The circle game: the discovery of pi 40 5. From Zeno's paradoxes to the idea of infinity 46 6. A matter of leverage: laws of levers 52 Part Two: Equations in the age of exploration 56 7. The stammerer's secret: Cardano's formula 60 8. Order in the heavens: Kepler's laws of planetary motion 68 9. Writing for eternity: Fermat's Last Theorem 74 10. An unexplored continent: the fundamental theorem of calculus 80 11. Of apples, legends ... and comets: Newton's laws 90 12. The great explorer: Euler's theorems 96 Part Three: Equations in a promethean age 104 13. The new algebra: Hamilton and quaternions 108 14. Two shooting stars: group theory 114 15. The geometry of whales and ants: non-Euclidean geometry 122 16. In primes we trust: the prime number theorem 128 17. The idea of spectra: Fourier series 134 18. A god's-eye view of light: Maxwell's equations 142 Part Four: Equations in our own time 150 19. The photoelectric effect: quanta and relativity 154 20. From a bad cigar to Westminster Abbey: Dirac's formula 164 21. The empire-builder: the Chern-Gauss-Bonnet equation 174 22. A little bit infinite: the Continuum Hypothesis 182 23. Theories of chaos: Lorenz equations 194 24. Taming the tiger: the Black-Scholes equation 204 Conclusion: What of the future? 214 Acknowledgments 218 Bibliography 219 Index 222

Dana Mackenzie holds a doctorate in mathematics from Princeton University. After teaching mathematics at Duke University and Kenyon College for more than a decade, in 1997 he completed the Science Communication Program at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Since then he has been a freelance science writer, with articles appearing in such magazines as Science, Discover, American Scientist, Astronomy, and New Scientist. He lives in Santa Cruz with his wife as well as three cats and a dog

"Demanding very little prior mathematical knowledge, this is one of the best popular histories of mathematics in recent years. Dana Mackenzie's prose is lively and easy to read, and his mix of historical background and personal biographies of the main characters is engaging."--Eli Maor, author of The Pythagorean Theorem: A 4,000-Year History and e: The Story of a Number