Numbers: How Counting Changed the World (Inside Mathematics)

Did you know that the division symbol is actually a dagger? Or that something as simple as 1, 2, 3, nearly broke math for good? And what exactly is an imaginary number? Tom Jackson is our guide in this heavily illustrated voyage into the world of mathematics, from the origins of numbers to the invention of the abacus to the idea of the googolplex, a number so long it could never be written out. Along the way, Jackson introduces such colorful mathematicians as John Napier, the inventor of algorithms, who never went anywhere without his pet rooster; Leonardo of Pisa, who devised the Fibonacci sequence as a way to anticipate the growth of his rabbit farm; and Pythagoras, who founded a cult and just might have been a murderer.