The universal history of numbers : from prehistory to the invention of the computer
Georges Ifrah ; translated from the French by David Bellos ... [et al.].
New York : Wiley, 2000-
xxii, 633 págs. : ilustraciones, mapas ; 22 x 25 cm.
ISBN: 0471393401 (pbk), 0471375683
Traducción de: Histoire universelle des chiffres. Paris : R. Laffont, c1994.
Incluye referencias bibliográficas (p. 601-615) e índice.
Reseña:
MathSciNet, 2000j:01006
Bull. A.M.S., v. 49 no. 1 (Jan 2002)
Contenido
- 1. Explaining the origins: ethnological and psychological approaches to the sources of numbers
- 2. Base numbers and the birth of number-systems
- 3. The earliest calculating machine
- -the hand
- 4. How Cro-Magnon man counted
- 5. Tally sticks: accounting for beginners
- 6. Numbers on strings
- 7. Number, value and money
- 8. Numbers of Sumer
- 9. The enigma of the sexagesimal base
- 10. The development of written numerals in Elam and Mesopotamia
- 11. The decipherment of a five-thousand-year-old system
- 12. How the Sumerians did their sums
- 13. Mesopotamian numbering after the eclipse of Sumer
- 14. The numbers of Ancient Egypt
- 15. Counting in the times of the Cretan and Hittite kings
- 16. Greek and Roman numerals
- 17. Letters and numbers
- 18. The invention of alphabetic numerals
- 19. Other alphabetic number systems
- 20. Magic, mysticism, divination, and other secrets
- 21. The numbers of Chinese civilisation
- 22. The amazing achievements of the Maya
- 23. The final stage of numerical notation
- 24, Part I. Indian civilisation: the cradle of modern numerals
- 24, Part II. Dictionary of the numeral symbols of Indian civilisation
- 25. Indian numerals and calculation in the Islamic world
- 26. The slow progress of Indo-Arabic numerals in Western Europe
- 27. Beyond perfection.
