Adam Spencer's Big Book of Numbers

As Amanda Keller on the page cover says, 'even the page numbers will start to look fascinating once you read this book.'

Adam Spencer, well-known number nerd has published this amazingly interesting book dedicated to the numbers 1 - 100.

I was always good with numbers as a kid. I loved mental arithmatic, algebra and long division. But by Yr 11 the gloss had faded and my interest waned.

The truly delightful thing about the Big Book of Numbers is that it has rekindled my love of maths - basic maths, that is. Whenever Spencer roamed off into pure maths or higher maths territory he lost me, but I loved HIS enthusiasm for all thing numerical throughout the book.

Every numeral gets three pages of fun facts, information and quizzes - all told in Spencer's easy, humorous, self-deprecating style.

We learn that 4 is the only number for which the numbers of letters and the number itself match & that 73 is the smallest whole number with 12 letters in its name.
Spencer also devotes a whole page to the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon & we learn which 3 actors actually are the most connected. There's all kinds of curious information about Prime numbers, perfect squares, lunar months, sudoku, googolplexy & geometric shapes.

Geek heaven!

Spencer's joy in numbers is infectious - anyone with even only a moderate interest in numbers will finish this book agreeing with Spencer that numbers are indeed "simply beautiful."