Rating: 
Summary: A good history of nothing
Review: This book is very interesting. He talks about the developemt of the concept of zero through time. People hated it, people got killed over it. The greeks seemed to really be against it. It has to be said that some of the greek math guys were a bit weird. One of them had some kind of personal hatred of beans that eventually caused his death. The book is about the development of a mathematical concept but it is not as boring as that sounds. Seife is a witty writer and keeps your interest. He also provides some good mathematical proofs to show the importance of zero. If your looking for a gripping, suspenceful novel then this is not for you. However, if your looking for an informative thought provoking book that is written in a dry, witty style, then this is one for you. I was very happy with it.
Rating: 
Summary: Fills a Gap :)
Review: Apologies for the pun. I got this on Christmas Day, and finished it on boxing day. If you like a well researched blend of science and culture, you can read it on a rainy Sunday and probably will. I think most people could learn quite a bit from this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Promising idea, but unsatisfying and meandering book
Review: The first half of this book gives an interesting, but repetitive, history of the number zero and its religious enemies. The second half of the book discusses the problems zero introduces in physics equations, from the birth of the universe to its death. The author is obviously enthused about mathematics, physics, and history. He has some cool ideas, but this book is not that great. It meanders and repeats itself. Plus the author shrouds the real content in too many unfunny puns about zero and infinity.
Rating:
Summary: lucid, stimulating
Review: In my opinion, hands down the best "zero" book around. Lucid, illustrative, poetic, eclectic, informative, stimulating. Not only discusses zero in a very captivating, clear manner, but many areas relevant to it, such as transfinite arithmetic, the nature of e and pi and such. Easily one of the five best books I've ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Should be required reading in school
Review: I wish I had read this book back in high school or early college, back when I was struggling to see the point to the endless equations in calculus and understand some value to the seemingly endless required math classes. The work was dull and I was infused with a belief that I would never need to know one bit of it once I walked out the door after my finals. That last sentence is more true than false, but if I had read Zero -- and really got the sense of wonder behind calculus, I might not only have enjoyed the class, but also found reason to use it. Seife has the journalist skill of making the complex simple without eviscerating it. He also has the ability to take something so potentially dull as math and turn it into a fascinating examination of history, culture and life.
Rating:
Summary: A Brief History of Time for the Number Zero
Review: One of my favorite re-reads is A Brief History of Time. This book now tops that list. Seife provides many provocative thoughts from the religious aspect of zero to the pure mathematical aspect. Like Hawkins, Seife keeps the amount of math knowledge to a minimum; however, the reader should be familiar with the phrase, "as the limit approaches zero" from an intro to calculus class.
Rating:
Summary: A most interesting book!!
Review: Seife writes with a zeal that is bound to infect. Throughout the book, the writing is kept clear and interesting. The reader is taken right from the origins of mathematics and made to surf to today's mathematics in the most elegant, gentle and unconfusing manner. The book becomes even more fascinating when one takes into account the whole gamut of ideas touched by Seife: algebra, geometry, logarithms, calculus, art (!), complex numbers, pressure, heat, black holes, relativity, etc. all interlinked by a single idea. Just two minor points in an otherwise immaculate presentation: first, on p.124, we do not need L'Hopital's rule to determine 0^infinity because the latter is not indeterminate (it's always zero actually!!!); second, on p.132, it's more mathematically correct to say that 3 is a root of the EQUATION 4x-12=0 rather than the EXPRESSION 4x-12. Notwithstanding these, I was most impressed by Seife's book.
Rating:
Summary: a good history of the science of mathematics
Review: This is an excellent history of ideas in mathematics, not just zero but also its equally mysterious partner infinity. I suspect a lot of the culturally acceptable failings of people with mathematics is that the subject has been taught primarily without people, without history. This history of zero should be part of any mathematics course, as should Rudy Ruckers 'Infinity and the Mind' - curiously absent from the bibliography here. The fascination of Fermat's last therorem (and of the man himself), of genuises like Gauss (and, yes, it is good to note that there were problems that even he could not do!), of eccentrics like Erdos, will go a long way to motivating a study of mathematics. There are a couple of places where mistakes have crept into the text but it's fun to suspect these and then assure yourself that these are indeed mistakes. On the whole, however, I could not recommend this book enough. I do happen to have a mathematical background - it would be of interest to me to see how a mathematics novice would grasp the ideas in this book - my suspicion is that they would be carried along just like I was.
Rating:
Summary: "for dust you are to dust you shall return..."
Review: The author, Charles Zeife, is a science journalist. With great enthusiasm and energy he writes about the history of one of the greatest paradoxes of human thought: Zero. The first half of the book accounts the origin of number Zero, from its inception in Babylon (500 BC) when it was used as a "placeholder," a symbol to represent blank space on the abacus. In India Zero gained importance in the development of alebra, as well as its place in Hindu's religious concept of void. Zero as a "patent" number came into Western Civilization through Islam and mysticism (kabalists), breaking a long time barrier brought about by Aristotelian cosmology and the Church. The second half becomes more complex as Zero becoms the epicenter in the all-embracing theory of everything. The amount of topics covered is vast, just to mention a few: introduction of Zero into geometry with the coordinate system, origin of calculus, controversies between Newton and Leibniz, L'Hospital and Bernoulli, Berkely, introduction of limits, historical question of what constitutes light, formulation of quantum mechanics, uncertainty principle, general relativity, black holes, wormholes, string theory, big-bang cosmology, the question of how the universe will end, the everlastin duality Zero verus infinity... There is merit to Charles Zeife for his clarity and economy in popularizing mathematical concepts, for condensing all this informatiion in a 215-page book. Depending on the reader's level of knowledge in this subject, or his honest intention to understand what is been said, he might sometimes feel a bit confused because the author "turns corners faster than you can catch." If you are determined to go deep, the experience is great, you will literally feel you approach a black hole and your mind bends! On a philosophical level it is gratifying to become aware that mathematics does not run independent of religious beliefs of a culture, and how the concept of nothingness/infinity has revolutionized western thought. Scientits claim that Zero is the "the most civilized of cardinals," because it is only needed for "cultivated modes of thought." If the reader wishes to further cultivate this concept there is another book on this same topic: "Robert Kaplan's "The Nothing that Is.!" The paradox is as follows: "all that scientists know is that cosmos was spawned from nothing and will retun to the nothing from whence it came!" Sounds nihilistic, but it also reminds us of something we have all heard before: "for dust you are and to dust you shall return..."
Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable
Review: This book is a simple joy to read. I wished for more after finishing it. I've already gotten three of my friends to purchase it. It's full of clear explanations on the edges of science strung together by the elusive and ubiquitous number zero -- a dynamic read!
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