The nothing that is [[electronic resource] ] : a natural history of zero / / Robert Kaplan ; illustrations by Ellen Kaplan

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910656389703321
• Autore: Kaplan Robert <1933->
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Oxford ; ; New York, : Oxford University Press, 1999
• ISBN: 1-280-53045-6; 9786610530458; 0-19-802945-4; 1-4294-0474-4
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (238 p.)
• Altri autori (Persone): KaplanEllen
• Disciplina: 511.2/11; 513; 513.211
• Soggetti: Zero (The number)
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Includes index.
• Nota di contenuto: CONTENTS; ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; A NOTE TO THE READER; ZERO: THE LENS; ONE: MIND PUTS ITS STAMP ON MATTER; TWO: THE GREEKS HAD NO WORD FOR IT; THREE: TRAVELERS' TALES; FOUR: EASTWARD; FIVE: DUST; SIX: INTO THE UNKNOWN; SEVEN: A PARADIGM SHIFTS; EIGHT: A MAYAN INTERLUDE: THE DARK SIDE OF COUNTING; NINE: MUCH ADO; TEN: ENTERTAINING ANGELS; ELEVEN: ALMOST NOTHING; TWELVE: IS IT OUT THERE?; THIRTEEN: BATH-HOUSE WITH SPIDERS; FOURTEEN: A LAND WHERE IT WAS ALWAYS AFTERNOON; FIFTEEN: WAS LEAR RIGHT?; SIXTEEN: THE UNTHINKABLE; INDEX
• Sommario/riassunto: Explores history to find evidence that humans have long struggled with the concept of zero, from the Greeks who may or may not have known of it, to the East where it was first used, to the modern-day desktop PC, which uses it as an essential letter in its computational alphabet.