The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure

The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure
by Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Rotraut Susanne Berner, Michael Henry Heim

The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure
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Book Summary Information

Author: Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Michael Henry Heim, Rotraut Susanne Berner
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2000-05-01
ISBN: 0805062998
Number of pages: 264
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks

Book Reviews of The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure

Book Review: Rx for math anxiety
Summary: 5 Stars

I hate math. Anything to do with numbers has me ready to break out into hives. So it was with some trepidation that I opened this book, only to find that I had dived into a trove of fun and facts for all ages. Enzensberger takes us on a magical ride through the world of primary numbers, square roots (rutabagas, for those who don't like boring old roots), triangle numbers, exponents, permutations and other mathematical formulae, and shows how numbers can be as infinitely fascinating as they are infinite in themselves. The book is written for youngsters but it would be a great teaching tool for any math teacher from grades four through eight, and it's also fun for us grown-ups who would rather swallow a dose of castor oil than a math problem. If this book had been around when I was a child, it would have been a sure preventive for the terminal case of math anxiety I developed somewhere in the ninth grade. It's funny, original and informative. Makes me want to fool around with those Bonacci numbers some more...

Summary of The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure

The international best-seller that makes mathematics a thrilling exploration.

In twelve dreams, Robert, a boy who hates math, meets a Number Devil, who leads him to discover the amazing world of numbers: infinite numbers, prime numbers, Fibonacci numbers, numbers that magically appear in triangles, and numbers that expand without . As we dream with him, we are taken further and further into mathematical theory, where ideas eventually take flight, until everyone-from those who fumble over fractions to those who solve complex equations in their heads-winds up marveling at what numbers can do.

Hans Magnus Enzensberger is a true polymath, the kind of superb intellectual who loves thinking and marshals all of his charm and wit to share his passions with the world. In The Number Devil, he brings together the surreal logic of Alice in Wonderland and the existential geometry of Flatland with the kind of math everyone would love, if only they had a number devil to teach it to them.

Young Robert's dreams have taken a decided turn for the weird. Instead of falling down holes and such, he's visiting a bizarre magical land of number tricks with the number devil as his host. Starting at one and adding zero and all the rest of the numbers, Robert and the number devil use giant furry calculators, piles of coconuts, and endlessly scrolling paper to introduce basic concepts of numeracy, from interesting number sequences to exponents to matrices. Author Hans Magnus Enzensberger's dry humor and sense of wonder will keep you and your kids entranced while you learn (shhh!) mathematical principles. Who could resist the little red guy who calls prime numbers "prima donnas," irrational numbers "unreasonable," and roots "rutabagas"? Not that the number devil is without his devilish qualities. He loses his temper when Robert looks for the easy way out of a number puzzle or dismisses math as boring and useless. "What do you expect?" he asks. "I'm the number devil, not Santa Claus." (Ages 10 to adult) --Therese Littleton

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