"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Unlike the so-called natural numbers like one, two, three and so on, the origins of zero are incredibly hard to pin down. Humans seem to have done quite well without nothing for tens of thousands of years: not even the Greeks, the master mathematicians of the Ancient World, had a symbol for zero. Or did they? Among the many delights of this book is the way Kaplan reveals the twists and turns in the story of the origin of the symbol for zero and his own suggested resolution of the mystery.
The struggle to do things with zero, such as divide it into other numbers, or use it as the ultimate fine-divider of other numbers--the key idea in the calculus--are brought alive by Kaplan, though without ever resorting to more than simple school algebra. His writing style does sometimes stray beyond the literary and into the florid but overall this compact little essay of history, mystery and maths should give you entertainment and mental stimulation in equal measure. --Robert Matthews
"So where did the familiar hollow circle that we use to denote zero come from? That's a story fraught with mystery, and Mr Kaplan tells it well, blending rival historical accounts with his own conjectures. Mr Kaplan is an erudite and often witty writer"
Wall Street Journal
Wednesday 10th November 1999
"Kaplan's tale of nothing is...an attempt to do for Zero what Dava Sobel did for Longitude. The effect is of a knowledgeable uncle suddenly prompted on a summer's afternoon to tell you all he knows on his favourite subject. There are digressions, all manner of literary allusions, enough erudition to prevent him inclining to one theory at the expense of another. Divided up among several speakers, the result would be the most congenial conversation. It seems that a significant piece of our mental universe comes from the number zero, after all."
The Sunday Times
Sunday 24th October 1999
"Robert Kaplan's The Nothing That Is: a natural history of zero - you'll wonder how we ever managed without it."
The Independent
Saturday 27th November 1999
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