Think of a Number
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Cover Story
This issue’s cover illustration is from Simon Bartram’s Up for the Cup! due to be published in September. Simon Bartram is interviewed by Martin Salisbury. Thanks to Templar Publishing for their help with this May cover.
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Think of a Number
If you put Johnny Ball and DK together, what do you get? Fabulous maths and stunning pictures. The style is chatty and easy, and we get lots of gorgeous snippets of history, anthropology and fact. The Faiwol in Papua New Guinea use body parts for names of numbers, so 40 is one man and right eye. You need 9 letters to write the number 49 in Roman script, and long division was a no-no. One glass of water contains about 8 septillion molecules. You can do quizzes with trick questions: ‘A man has 14 camels and all but three die. How many are left?’ You can learn about the maths of great mathematicians – Pythagoras, Al Khwarizmi, Fibonacci, Fermat, Euler… Find out about magic numbers, chaos, probability, and the art of maths. You can learn mind-boggling magic maths tricks. This is a wonderful book for any child with an interest in maths, it’s accessible, and you can dip in and out deliciously. SE
