One, Two, Three

Absolutely Elementary Mathematics

De: David Berlinski

Narrado por: Byron Wagner

From the acclaimed author of A Tour of the Calculus and The Advent of the Algorithm, here is a riveting look at mathematics that reveals a hidden world in some of its most fundamental concepts.

In his latest foray into mathematics, David Berlinski takes on the simplest questions that can be asked: What is a number? How do addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division actually work? What are geometry and logic? As he delves into these subjects, he discovers and lucidly describes the beauty and complexity behind their seemingly simple exteriors, making clear how and why these mercurial, often slippery concepts are essential to who we are.

Filled with illuminating historical anecdotes and asides on some of the most fascinating mathematicians through the ages, One, Two, Three is a captivating exploration of the foundation of mathematics: how it originated, who thought of it, and why it matters.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Berlinski here discusses the ‘commons’ of mathematics: natural numbers, zero, negative numbers, and fractions…. The seamless integration of broader contextual ideas brings his writing to life." —Library Journal

“[A] tour de force by a mathematician who wants the intellectually curious and logically minded . . . to understand the foundations and beauty of one of the major branches of mathematics.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“With broad culture and wry humor, Berlinski takes a look at some basic concepts in math and the people who worried about them. A treat!”
—Gregory Chaitin, author of Meta Math!

“With wit and philosophy, with the clash of symbols and history, Berlinski displays the inner soul of simple arithmetic.”
—Philip J. Davis, professor emeritus of applied mathematics, Brown University

Exciting Histories, and Mathematical Proofs

The very beginning of this book is overly wordy, but if you can get past that it gives good insights to the development of the basics of mathmatics.

You learn about the stories of significant mathmaticians, and hear proofs that explain the fundamental aspects of math.

A lessor portion was when actual math was read.
It was sometimes difficult to follow when the actual equations are read. It would have been great if the narrator had slowed down. Even with that occasional difficulty, I feel like the time was well spent (while driving) since I feel it helped my mathmatical understanding.

I loved this book.

Learning so much about mathematics history throughout history.
The only improvement suggestion I would have is to say the mathematical formulas in a slower, more emphasized matter.
If the goal is for most people to imagine, or write the mathematical jargon there is no reason to accelerate the algebraic expressions.

Awesome read/listen

Love this book have read it a few times and listen to it at least twice.

1, 2, 3

This book was bought to help my son with his anxiety over math. He enjoyed it and has a better understanding of why we need math and how important it is in our everyday lives.

Would not recommend due to racist, misogynist, and able-ist tropes the author has used

I will say up front that I downgraded my rating on this book due to incredibly racist, misogynist, and able-ist tropes the author has used in his non-mathematical illustrations and descriptions. Dr Berlinski can be amusingly droll and dry-witted, but it did not come off well for him to use exemplars in this fashion. Had he been writing in the 1950s I might have found it forgivable, but the publication date on this book was 2011. Without the inappropriate tropes this would have been a solid 4 star book.
With all that as prelude, the education about mathematics that I received as a result of both reading along and listening to the audiobook was better than any math class I ever had in high school. I have always said that I am math illiterate because I wasn't taught well and this book proves that truth.
Here is one of those times when I actually said to my family, "well this would've been helpful to know when I was in ninth grade and failing algebra: "A word first about notation. The symbols a and b are often called parameters, and this in order to distinguish them from variables, such as x and y. Unlike the variables, which are variable, the parameters are intended to designate particular numbers. These symbols afford the mathematician an enhanced sense of specificity, as when an attorney, constructing a hypothetical case for the jury, says, Suppose A walks into a bar and gets into a fight with B. No one hearing him out is apt to wonder just who A and B might be, but there is nonetheless some presumption in favor of A and B as individuals. The variables x, y, and z, logicians say, range over all the numbers; the parameters a, b, and c, they add, designate some number or other. Sometimes parameters are used to hold some part of a mathematical expression tied to specific numbers, while the variables allow other parts to roam. The expression ax is like that, designating any number x and some number in a."