Number Nine : The Search for the Sigma Code - Hardcover

Balmond, Cecil

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3791319337 ISBN 13: 9783791319339

Publisher: Prestel, 1998

Synopsis

In "Nine Fixed Points in the Wind", internationally renowned structural engineer Cecil Balmond travels into a semi-mystical world to unlock a secret of numbers that has never been told. Through the eyes of Enjil, the boy mathematician, he re-examines the arithmetic of his childhood and discovers behind it a remarkable new mathematical structure that we can all appreciate -yet that will intrigue scientists and mathematicians. The worlds of Enjil and that of the reader travel in parallel. As Enjil is challenged by a spirit to solve the riddle, "What is the fixed point of the wind?", the reader is introduced to strange coincidences in the world of numbers that appear to be predescribed in myth, legend and religion across the world's history. The key seems to be the number nine. On a journey of discovery, Enjil leads us deeper into an inner world in search of the solution. It describes a form - at first linear - then circular - until finally a beautifully spiralling mandala is revealed that links all the coincidences in a single structure and opens a gateway to discoveries beyond. Cecil Balmond is a man at the top of his profession making the most flamboyant ideas of the leading avant garde architects work. His research into form provokes new possibilities in architecture. Through his profession, he has gained a remarkable perception that is uniquely attuned to understanding the structures required within buildings at the cutting edge of contemporary architecture. Recently he chanced to rethink the arithmetic we all use. The results will delight all of us who remember struggling to learn our tables by rote. It is a new theorem of hidden numbers - but it is so simple.

About this title

Review

Balmond is a mathematical genius ... He has written a book, Number Nine, (a slim volume like Dava Sobel's bestseller, Longitude), tempting anyone who can do mental arithmetic to explore the world of numbers. -- The Times - Wednesday 2 December 1998 - Marcus Binney meets Cecil Balmond

First of allow me to congratulate you on a most inspiring book ... and thank you... for the book you have wrote. -- Reader from Haifa, Israel - 13 October 1998

Thanks so much for the wonderful book - mysterious and lucid and a great telling of this fantastic adventure. -- Reader's comment from architect at New Haven - September 1998

"Balmond takes us through a series of revelations about the anchor role played by nine in mathematical patterns. It is clear, accessible ..." -- Building Design 7th August 1998

"The answer to everything? It's actually nine ... number magic." -- The Sunday Telegraph 26th July 1998

"The narrative structure of a thriller." -- Building - 5th June 1998

"With wit and skill he (Balmond) manipulates figures like putty to show that his favourite number, nine, is very special indeed." -- New Statesman 18th September 1998

Charming, stimulating and thought-provoking. -- Review in Accounting and Business Nov/Dec 1998

From the Author

Why I wrote the book Number 9? My book, Number 9, is about how I see numbers working with their amazing patterns in our decimal system. In a number I see a numerate label attached to a great mystery. The simple digits have potency, as symbol and manipulator, and I wanted to map a picture of how that happens in our counting system. I filter the numbers, in an old Hindu approach,and look at how numbers organise themselves behind the face of arithmetic. The book works at several levels. The first layer is just numbers, it can be fun, but out of the numbers come patterns. Ultimately it is about architecture and engineering of the abstract. The book is meant to illluminate anyone from my teenage kids to grown ups without any mathematical pretensions. It is the hidden architype that I am trying to bring out. With this is a belief I have of how units assemble and get together in sequence to interact, of connectivities in us that somehow resonates with the working of our brain. It filters through to something deeper. (Taken from an interview with Ms Nina Rappaport to be published by Yale University News, January 1999 and later in Metropolis,New York)

Edition details

• Publisher: Prestel
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3791319337
• ISBN 13: 9783791319339
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 232