Description

Book Synopsis

A revisionist, completely accessible and radically inclusive history of maths

''Lively, satisfying, good at explaining difficult concepts'' The Sunday Times

Mathematics shapes almost everything we do. But despite its reputation as the study of fundamental truths, the stories we have been told about it are wrong. In The Secret Lives of Numbers, historian Kate Kitagawa and journalist Timothy Revell introduce readers to the mathematical boundary-smashers who have been erased by history because of their race, gender or nationality.

From the brilliant Arabic scholars of the ninth-century House of Wisdom, and the pioneering African American mathematicians of the twentieth century, to the ''lady computers'' around the world who revolutionised our knowledge of the night sky, we meet these fascinating trailblazers and see how they contributed to our global knowledge today.

This revisionist, completely accessible and radically inclusive history of mathematics is as entertaining as it is important.

The Secret Lives of Numbers

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    A Paperback by Kate Kitagawa

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      Book details

      Publisher Penguin Random House Group
      Imprint Penguin Books Ltd
      Published 8/29/2024
      ISBN-13 9780241994351
      978-0241994351
      ISBN-10 0241994357
      Also in:
      Non Fiction Biography Biography: science, technology and medicine

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      A revisionist, completely accessible and radically inclusive history of maths

      ''Lively, satisfying, good at explaining difficult concepts'' The Sunday Times

      Mathematics shapes almost everything we do. But despite its reputation as the study of fundamental truths, the stories we have been told about it are wrong. In The Secret Lives of Numbers, historian Kate Kitagawa and journalist Timothy Revell introduce readers to the mathematical boundary-smashers who have been erased by history because of their race, gender or nationality.

      From the brilliant Arabic scholars of the ninth-century House of Wisdom, and the pioneering African American mathematicians of the twentieth century, to the ''lady computers'' around the world who revolutionised our knowledge of the night sky, we meet these fascinating trailblazers and see how they contributed to our global knowledge today.

      This revisionist, completely accessible and radically inclusive history of mathematics is as entertaining as it is important.

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