Zéro, la biographie d'une idée dangereuse

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  • 4.2 (5 ratings) ·
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Last edited by frstndlstlns
April 29, 2023 | History

Zéro, la biographie d'une idée dangereuse

  • 4.2 (5 ratings) ·
  • 60 Want to read
  • 6 Currently reading
  • 12 Have read

The Babylonians invented it, the Greeks banned it, the Hindus worshiped it, and the Church used it to fend off heretics. Now it threatens the foundations of modern physics. For centuries the power of zero savored of the demonic; once harnessed, it became the most important tool in mathematics. For zero, infinity’s twin, is not like other numbers. It is both nothing and everything.

In Zero, Science Journalist Charles Seife follows this innocent-looking number from its birth as an Eastern philosophical concept to its struggle for acceptance in Europe, its rise and transcendence in the West, and its ever-present threat to modern physics. Here are the legendary thinkers—from Pythagoras to Newton to Heisenberg, from the Kabalists to today’s astrophysicists—who have tried to understand it and whose clashes shook the foundations of philosophy, science, mathematics, and religion. Zero has pitted East against West and faith against reason, and its intransigence persists in the dark core of a black hole and the brilliant flash of the Big Bang. Today, zero lies at the heart of one of the biggest scientific controversies of all time: the quest for a theory of everything.

Publish Date
Publisher
Lattès
Language
French
Pages
284

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Previews available in: English French

Edition Availability
Cover of: Zero
Zero
2008, Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Electronic resource in English
Cover of: Zéro, la biographie d'une idée dangereuse
Zéro, la biographie d'une idée dangereuse
September 18, 2002, Lattès
Paperback in French
Cover of: Zero
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea
September 5, 2000, Penguin (Non-Classics)
in English
Cover of: Zero
Zero: the biography of a dangerous idea
2000, Viking
in English

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Book Details


Classifications

Library of Congress
QA141 .S4514 2002

The Physical Object

Format
Paperback
Number of pages
284
Dimensions
7.9 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
Weight
11.4 ounces

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL8913622M
Internet Archive
zerolabiographie0000seif
ISBN 10
2709622068
ISBN 13
9782709622066
Library Thing
16170
Goodreads
169912

Source records

Internet Archive item record

Links outside Open Library

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History

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April 29, 2023 Edited by frstndlstlns added people
April 29, 2023 Edited by frstndlstlns added copyright
October 21, 2021 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
September 9, 2021 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
October 15, 2009 Created by WorkBot add works page