Number 9: The Search for the Sigma Code: In Search for the Sigma Code - Softcover

Balmond, Cecil

Softcover

ISBN 10: 3791340670 ISBN 13: 9783791340678

Publisher: Prestel, 2008

Synopsis

"Number 9" tells the story of Enjil, a boy mathematician who is challenged by a spirit to solve the riddle, 'What is the fixed point of the wind?' As Enjil searches for the answer, he and the reader embark on a journey through myth, legend and religion. Enjil's adventures lead readers to an appreciation of chaos theory, symmetry within asymmetry, classical ideas and modern impulses. Along the way Balmond redefines arithmetic for the lay person and opens the gateway to further discoveries.

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)

About this edition

• Publisher: Prestel
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 3791340670
• ISBN 13: 9783791340678
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 236