That is the magic of numbers
31st January 2010 by Felix
Malba Tahan "Beremís" world ", 320 pages, 19,90 €, Kein & Aber, ISBN: 978-3036955445;
I admit I always found mathematics very reluctantly. Neither did I understand what the teachers wanted to tell me. Little did I know anything much with all these integral and wasweißich bills. But I was always clear something is missing. Since "Beremís world I know was: can actually make math fun.
This ingenious, but totally underrated book has opened my eyes. The journey of the poor but zahlenbegabten shepherd boy Beremís along the Tigris to Baghdad, where he solves all manner of puzzles is a pleasure. Inspired by oriental storyteller tells Malba Tahan and other basic kinds of curiosities of the great mathematicians of history.
Besides that I have learned a lot about the rich treasure of Islamic sciences and how they inspired his colleagues in the West for centuries. Not for nothing are our numbers of Arab origin.
Fascinating as the boy playfully explains how to split a legacy of 35 camels, three brothers, and even four-digit numbers simply calculates the square root. The much-cited magic of numbers gets a whole new appeal.
"Beremís World" is a classic. It was published in Brazil before the age of 26, and 1992 in German on Patmos. Nice that the small but fine Swiss & Publisher No, but the "journey through the universe of mathematics" has now made available again.
The author Malba Tahan way, is not Oriental, but a Brazilian mathematics professor named Júlio César de Mello e Souza (1895-1974), who published next to books on mathematics, and successful novels and short stories. For best-selling author Paulo Coelho, he was a role model.
Rating: *****
