Empire of the Sum: The Rise and Reign of the Pocket Calculator - Couverture rigide

Houston, Keith

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0393882144 ISBN 13 : 9780393882148

Editeur : WW Norton & Co, 2023

Synopsis

From the author of Shady Characters, the hidden history of the pocket calculator and the inventors who brought it to life

Starting with hands, abacus and slide rule, humans have always reached for tools to simplify math. Pocket-sized calculators ushered in modern mathematics, helped build the atomic bomb, took us to the bottom of the ocean and accompanied us to the moon. The pocket calculator changed our world, until it was supplanted by more modern devices that, in a cruel twist of irony, it helped to create. The calculator is dead; long live the calculator.

In this witty mathematic and social history, Keith Houston transports readers from the nascent economies of the ancient world to the First World War, where a Jewish engineer calculated for his life at Buchenwald, and into the technological arms race that led to the first affordable electronic pocket calculators. At every turn, Houston is a scholarly, affable guide to this global history of invention. Empire of the Sum will appeal to math lovers, history buffs and anyone seeking to understand our trajectory to the computer age.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Keith Houston is the author of Shady Characters and The Book. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Mental Floss, BBC Culture and on Time.com. He lives in Birmingham, England.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: WW Norton & Co
• Date d'édition: 2023
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0393882144
• ISBN 13: 9780393882148
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 384
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible