Count Us In

Find out why maths really is for you, for your children and for your grandchildren, and why it’s a natural part of your cultural heritage.

Mathematics, like language, is a universal experience. Every society counts and is empowered by its ability to count and to measure. The mathematical processes developed within various cultures differ widely, and Count Us In explores these cultural links, drawing examples from the author’s personal experiences. The process of counting, like the process of communicating with words, is common to all societies worldwide but, just as there is a rich variety of languages, so too is there a rich variety in methods of counting and of recording numbers – methods that have developed over centuries to meet the needs of various groups of people. The narrative of this book takes the form of a collection of short stories based on the author’s personal experience, linked together by a number of sub-themes.

As a popular book on mathematics and on the personalities who created that mathematics, there are no prerequisites beyond the reader’s rudimentary and possibly hazy recollection of primary-school mathematics and a curiosity to know more.

Figures and platesAcknowledgementsForeword1 More cabbage, anyone?2 Meeting of minds3 Nothing will come of nothing4 Setting the Recorde straight5 Neither a borrower nor a lender be6 Amazing Mayans7 What do you reckon?8 Prairie power9 Putting down digital roots10 Areas of (mis)understanding11 Cracking the code12 Does mathematics have a gender?13 How to make maths real for all of usAppendixAnswers to PuzzlesNotes on ChaptersFurther Reading