Pythagoras' Legacy

As the famous Pythagorean statement reads, 'Number rules the universe', and its veracity is proven in the many mathematical discoveries that have accelerated the development of science, engineering, and even philosophy. A so called "art of the mind", mathematics has guided and stimulated many aspects of human innovation down through the centuries. In this book, Marcel Danesi presents a historical overview of the ten greatest achievements in mathematics, and dynamically explores their importance and effects on our daily lives. Considered as a chain of events rather than isolated incidents, Danesi takes us from the beginnings of modern day mathematics with Pythagoras, through the concept of zero, right the way up to modern computational algorithms. Loaded with thought-provoking practical exercises and puzzles, Pythagoras' Legacy allows the reader to apply their knowledge and discover the significance of mathematics in their everyday lives.

Marcel Danesi is Full Professor of Linguistic Anthropology at the University of Toronto and a Co-Director of the Cognitive Science Network of the Fields Institute of Mathematical Research. He has published extensively in the field of mathematical cognition and in the theory of mathematical puzzles. He also writes a blog for Psychology Today that explore the nature of the puzzling mind.

1: The Pythagorean Theorem: The Birth of Mathematics
2: Prime Numbers: The DNA of Mathematics
3: Zero: Place-Holder and Peculiar Number
4: Pi: A Ubiquitous and Strange Number
5: Exponents: Notation and Discovery
6: e: A Very Special Number
7: i: Imaginary Numbers
8: Infinity: A Counterintuitive and Paradoxical Idea
9: Decidability: The Foundations of Mathematics
10: The Algorithm: Mathematics and Computers