The lore of large numbers

Front Cover......Page 1
The Lore of Large Numbers......Page 4
Copyright Page......Page 5
CONTENTS......Page 8
Preface......Page 12
 1. Numbers in the World......Page 16
 2. The Principal Uses of Numbers......Page 17
 3. The World of Numbers......Page 19
 4. Writing Numbers......Page 21
 5. Powers and Exponents......Page 30
 6. The Names of Really Large Numbers......Page 33
 7. The Law of Exponents......Page 37
 8. Scientific Notation......Page 39
 9. How Large Is Large?......Page 41
 10. Approximate Numbers and Orders of Magnitude......Page 43
 11. Approximate Computation......Page 45
 12. The Rough Art of Estimation......Page 48
 13. Small Numbers......Page 52
 14. Why Negative Exponents?......Page 55
 15. The Large and the Small......Page 57
 16. Division by Zero: The Road to Paradox......Page 62
 17. The Long Long Trail of π......Page 66
 18. The Long Trail Continued: Computing Machines Meet Normal Numbers......Page 77
 19. Back Over the Trail......Page 86
 20. The Personality of Numbers......Page 93
 21. Casting Out Nines; The Number Theory of Residues......Page 105
 22. The Hardest of the Simple Problems......Page 114
 23. Infinities Beyond Infinity: The Growth of Sequences......Page 126
 24. Atomic Numbers, Astronomical Numbers, and Where Is Man?......Page 136
 I. Some Selected Magnitudes in Science......Page 141
 II. Weights, Measures, and Equivalents......Page 148
 III. Formulas for Measurement......Page 154
Answers to Selected Problems......Page 156
Bibliography......Page 174
Back Cover......Page 0