Fanfare! One for US readers with an interest in science or math

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My Brilliant Friend – Elena Ferrante

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Brian Clegg

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Aug 7, 2014
Swindon, UK
I'm at it again - sorry! What's happened is I've had a hiatus of nearly a year with no books published, and now two have come out within weeks of each other. It's the downside of having publishers both side of the Atlantic with very different publishing schedules.

The new one, Are Numbers Real? is about the nature of math*, how it might have started (we develop our own number system using goats - who wouldn't?), how it diverged from the real world and how physics is now so driven by it that much of it seems simply to be playing with numbers. No mathematical expertise required - just an interest in this number thing.

I'm saying US readers, as it doesn't come out in the UK until February. Find out more here.

* Apologies to UK readers

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Great title. At school I was so dire at simple arithmetic, but did better at algebra; I was scared of numbers. I think I thought numbers weren't real...they were abracadabra until one day I thought, eh? What WAS my problem? And this trig thing was actually easy. And matrices were easy. Far easier than algebra.

But it is actually a massive question.

Numbers are as unreal and as real as words.
 
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My Brilliant Friend – Elena Ferrante

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