Subject: [HM] Any views on 'Number from Ahmes to Cantor'?
From: David Wilkins (dwilkins@maths.tcd.ie)
Date: Mon Sep 18 2000 - 06:46:05 EDT
I have within the past hour come across a recently published book
'Number from Ahmes to Cantor', by Midhat Gazale/, amongst the
recent accessions to our departmental library.
I haven't of course had time to work through it yet, but I have
dipped into it (as one does) to see what it has to say about
such topics as the burning of the Library of Alexandria, and
the alleged drowning of Hippasus.
My initial impression is that this is the sort of book that one
could recommend with a clear conscience to the general reader,
in particular to undergraduates or mathematically interested
schoolchildren. (In particular, my impression from a superficial
examination is that the author is not in the business of passing
off doubtful and indeed already refuted anecdotes as historically
attested facts, or treat apparently semi-mythological figures as
through their reported sayings and doings are established historical
fact, as some books concerned with the history of mathematics at the
popular level appear to do.)
As such, the book may be of particular interest to the schoolteachers
who subscribe to this list, and to those giving courses at undergraduate
level who wish to give their courses a historical slant. Of course,
with only 297 pages one would not expect a detailed treatment of
most of the topics introduced in these pages.
Do subscribers to this list have views or opinions on this book that
they would like to share?
The book is copyright 2000, published by Princeton University Press,
and the Library of Congress publication data is as follows:
Gazale/, Midhat J., 1929-
Number: from Ahmes to Cantor / Midhat Gazale/
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-691-00515-X (cloth: alk. paper)
1. Numeration - History. 2. Number theory - History. I. Title.
QA141.G39 1999
513--dc21 99-36677
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David Wilkins
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