Keith Houston

Empire of the Sum: The Rise and Reign of the Pocket Calculator (eBook, ePUB)

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice

The hidden history of the pocket calculatora device that ushered in modern mathematics, helped build the atomic bomb, and went with us to the moonand the mathematicians, designers, and 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 World War II, 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.

---

Dieser Download kann aus rechtlichen Gründen nur mit Rechnungsadresse in A, D ausgeliefert werden.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: W. W. Norton & Company
• Seitenzahl: 384
• Erscheinungstermin: 22. August 2023
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780393882155
• Artikelnr.: 66009985

Autorenporträt

Keith Houston is the author of Empire of the Sum, Shady Characters, and The Book. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Mental Floss, and on BBC Culture and Literary Hub. He lives in Linlithgow, Scotland.