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Zero (mathematics)/Bibliography

There are several popular books on (the history of) "zero" which make interesting reading but have to be taken with care as can be seen from the reviews.

  • Robert Kaplan, The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero.   Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000.
Critically reviewed by:
Philip J. Davis, Embedding Zero in Exposition, Book Review. SIAM News (September 17, 2000) [siam.org]
Ivor Grattan-Guinness, Much ado about some thing, Book Review. Nature 401, 645-646 (14 October 1999) (doi:10.1038/44273) [nature.com]
Andrew Leahy, The Mathematical Association of America. [maa.org]
Brian Blank, Book review. The College Mathematics Journal, Vol.32 No.2, March 2001, 155-160. See pp. 158-160 [pdf]
Keith Devlin, Natural History, Dec, 1999. [bnet]
John Derbyshire, The conquering zero. October 1999. [newcriterion.com]
Richard Pinch, Much ado about Nothing. Magazine issue 2228 (04 March 2000) [newscientist.com]
J. Kingston Pierce, All for Naught. [January Magazine]
  • Charles Seife, Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea. Viking Penguin, New York, 2000.
Critically reviewed by:
Brian Blank, Book review. The College Mathematics Journal, Vol.32 No.2, March 2001, 155-160. See pp. 157-158 [pdf]
Steven G. Krantz, What's So Special About Zero? Book Review, SIAM News (September 17, 2000). [siam.org (pdf)]
Keith Devlin, Natural History, Dec, 1999. [bnet]
  • John D. Barrow, The Book of Nothing. Pantheon: 2001.
Critically reviewed by:
John O'Connor, Nothing to it! Book review. Nature 410, 748-749 (12 April 2001) (doi:10.1038/35071152) [nature.com]

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Martin Gardner, The Significance of ‘Nothing’, in: The Night is Large. (1996).

What is the origin of zero? How did we indicate nothingness before zero?
  Scientific American (January 16, 2007), answer based on Kaplan's book (see below). [Scientific American]

Bill Casselman, All for Nought. Feature column at [ams.org]

Gwalior in India The temple is dated to 876 A. D What the Gwalior tablet shows is that by 876 A. D. our current place-value system with a base of 10 had become part of popular culture in at least one region of India.

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