Boxed set containing three paperback volumes. Readers should note that volumes 1 and 2 now replace the original first volume in this series.
Georges Ifrah, a maths teacher, gave up his job and travelled around the world to assemble the complete answer to the question: where do numbers come from?
Here it is, the whole art and science of numeration from Cro-Magnon man to the electronic spreadsheet; from Scandinavia to China, via the classical world, Mesopotamia, the Arab lands, India, China, South America. The metric system. The binary system. All the methods, many of the false starts. Not to mention the intriguing question: how did they manage all those centuries without a zero? The luminous text is aided at every turn with clear explanatory figures and tables.
