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 Go
fiGURE! fR
AC
S
OL

tA
G

LS
GOO

inf
i

ni
ty
BR

nt
Ai

EA
SERS
 Author Johnny Ball
Senior editor Ben Morgan
Senior art editor Claire Patané
Designer Sadie Thomas
DTP designer Almudena Díaz
Picture researcher Anna Bedewell
Production Emma Hughes
Publishing manager Susan Leonard
Managing art editor Clare Shedden
Consultant Sean McArdle
REVISED EDITION
Senior editors Fleur Star, Sreshtha Bhattacharya
Senior art editors Spencer Holbrook, Ranjita Bhattacharji
US editor Allison Singer
Editorial team Agnibesh Das, Antara Moitra, Sheryl Sadana
Assistant art editor Kshitiz Dobhal
Senior DTP designer Harish Aggarwal
DTP designer Sachin Gupta
Jacket designer Surabhi Wadhwa
Jacket assistant Claire Gell
Jacket design development manager Sophia MTT
Producer, pre-production Gillian Reid
Producer Vivienne Yong
Managing editors Linda Esposito, Kingshuk Ghoshal
Managing art editors Philip Letsu, Govind Mittal
Publisher Andrew Macintyre
Publishing director Jonathan Metcalf
Associate publishing director Liz Wheeler
Design director Stuart Jackman
First American edition, 2005
This edition published in the United States in 2016 by
DK Publishing, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014
Foreword copyright © 2005, 2016 Johnny Ball
Copyright © 2005, 2016 Dorling Kindersley Limited
DK, a Division of Penguin Random House LLC
15 16 17 18 19 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
001—290014—January/2016
All rights reserved.
Without limiting the rights under the copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
Published in Great Britain by Dorling Kindersley Limited.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN: 978-1-4654-4385-4
DK books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk for
sales promotions, premiums, fund-raising, or educational use. For details, contact:
DK Publishing Special Markets, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014
[email protected]
Printed and bound by China
A WORLD OF IDEAS:
SEE ALL THERE IS TO KNOW
www.dk.com
“ I didn’t do all that well in school, but I did love math. When I left
school, I found that I still wanted to know more, and math became
my lifelong hobby. I love math and all things mathematical.

Everything we do depends on math. We need to count things,

measure things, calculate and predict things, describe things,
design things, and solve all sorts of problems—and all these
things are best done with math.

There are many different branches of math, including some you

may never have heard of. So we’ve tried to include examples and
illustrations, puzzles and tricks from almost every different kind of
math. Or at least from the ones we know about—someone may
have invented a completely new kind while I was
writing this introduction.

“
So come and meander through the weird and wonderful world
of math—I’m sure there will be lots of things that interest you,
from magic tricks and mazes to things you can do and
make. To get you started, just think of a number.
The thought could take you anywhere…
Contents
Where do NUMBERS come from?

MAGIC numbers

SHAPING up

the world of MATH

World News .................................... 8 Mayan and Roman numbers ............ 18
How did counting begin? ................10 Indian numbers ............................. 20
You can count on people .................12 Nothing really matters .................... 22
Making a mark ...............................14 A world of numbers ....................... 24
Work like an Egyptian ..................... 16 Big number quiz ............................ 26

Magic squares ................................ 30 Prime suspects .............................. 40

Nature’s numbers .......................... 32 Pi ................................................. 42
The golden ratio ............................ 34 Square and triangular numbers ....... 44
Big numbers ................................. 36 Pascal’s triangle ............................. 46
Infinity and beyond ....................... 38 Mathemagical tricks ....................... 48

Shapes with 3 sides ........................ 52 Cones and curves ........................... 64

Shapes with 4 sides ........................ 54 Shapes that stretch ......................... 66
Shapes with many sides .................. 56 Mirror mirror ................................ 68
The 3rd dimension ........................ 58 Amazing mazes .............................. 70
Soccer balls and buckyballs ............ 60 Puzzling shapes ............................. 72
Round and round .......................... 62

Take a chance ................................ 76 The art of math ............................. 84

Chaos ............................................ 78 Top tips ........................................ 86
Freaky fractals ............................... 80 Who’s who? .................................. 88
Logic ............................................ 82

Answers ....................................... 92 Index ........................................... 96

Where do NUMBERS come from?
“ Numbers help us in so many
ways. We don’t just count with them,
we count on them. Without numbers
we wouldn’t know the time or date. We
wouldn’t be able to buy things, count how
many things we have, or complain about
how many things we don’t have.

So numbers had to be invented.The story

of their invention is full of fascinating twists
and turns, and it took people a long time to

“
hit on the simple system we use today.

Now numbers are everywhere and

we need them for everything. Just imagine
what the world would be like if we didn’t
have numbers...

7
 Price
••••••••••
this many coins
world
Date: Late summer but not quite fall

Huge Woman has some babies ,

crowd A woman in India

has given birth to lots Sally Armstrong
a woman giving birth
to a baby and another

wins
of babies at once. and another, this
The babies are all Although it’s common woman gave birth to
about the size of a for a woman to give a baby and another

lottery
small pineapple, and birth to a baby and another and
doctors say they are and another, and there another and another
doing very well. are sometimes cases of and another.

Jack Potter

The winning balls for

Soccer team scores
Saturday’s national
lottery were red, red,
blue, yellow, yellow,
and white.
A huge crowd of
jackpot winners arrived
at lottery headquarters
on Sunday to claim the
prize, forming a line
that stretched all the
way across town.
The total prize fund
is currently several
housefuls of money. The
fund will be handed out
in cupfuls until all the
money is gone.

Sheeza Wonnalot was among

the lucky jackpot winners.
8
 news Full tV Listings on the page
before the page before the page
before the last page

World Weather by Windy Gusts

Sunny but not Really sweltering,
London especially warm
rio drink lots of water

Rainy and cold Wet and warm but

Paris enough for coats
Delhi not too warm
Gold medals went to Ima
Hot enough for Sydney Cold and cloudy—
New York long-sleeves weather Springyleg and Harry Foot.
T-shirts

Munich
Freezing cold—
wear a warm hat
tokyo Lots of rain expected,
take your umbrella
Olympic
lots and lots of goals Athletes
Johnny Ball Win
England won the soccer
World Cup yet another
time yesterday when they
Gold
beat Brazil by several Sonia Marx
goals. They took the lead
after a little while when Ima Springyleg won
Rooney scored from quite a gold medal at the
far out. He scored again Olympic games yesterday
and again after the with a record-breaking
midway point. Official high jump. She beat the
attendance was “as many previous record of very
as the stadium holds.” high indeed by jumping
a bit higher still.
Soccer results Also at the Olympics,
Spain: a lot of goals Harry Foot won gold and
Italy: not quite so many broke the world record
Colombia: no goals for the short sprint,
Nigeria: some goals when he beat several
Germany: a few goals other runners in a race
thailand: the same few goals across a medium-sized
Mexico: tons and tons of goals field. Silver went to
Sweden: even more goals Jimmy Cricket, who
finished just a whisker
behind Foot. A veteran
extra! athlete, Cricket has now
India babies won at least several
—and another! Olympic medals.
9
 Where do numbers come from?

How did counting begin?

When people first started counting, they almost certainly used
their hands. Since most people have ten fingers to count with, it
made sense to count in tens, and this is how our modern counting
system (the decimal system) began.

Why use hands?

Fingers gave people a handy way of counting even
before they had words for numbers. Touching fingers
while you count helps you keep track, and by holding
fingers in the air you can communicate
numbers without needing words. The
link between fingers and numbers
is very ancient. Even today, we use
the Latin word for finger (digit)
to mean number.

What’s base 10?

Mathematicians say we count in
base ten, which means we count in
groups of ten. There’s no mathematical
reason why we have to count in tens,
it’s just an accident
of biology. If aliens
with only eight
fingers exist, they Members of the
probably count
in base eight. Pirahã tribe
Did cavemen count? in the Amazon
For most of history, people actually had
little need for numbers. Before farming was rain forest don’t
count past two
invented, people lived as “hunter-gatherers,”
collecting food from the wild. They gathered
only what they needed and had
little left over to trade or hoard,
so there wasn’t much point in
counting things. However, they
may have had a sense of time from
watching the sun, moon, and stars.
10
 How did counting begin?

If people only had 8 fingers

and thumbs, we’d probably
count in base eight

Can everyone count?

In a few places, people still live as hunter-gatherers.
Most modern hunter-gatherers can count, but some
hardly bother. The Pirahã tribe in the Amazon rain
forest only counts to two—all bigger
numbers are “many.” In Tanzania,
the Hadza tribe counts to three.
Both tribes manage fine without
big numbers, which they never
seem to need.

So why bother?
If people can live without numbers,
why did we start counting? The
main reason was to catch cheaters.
Imagine catching 10 fish and asking
a friend to carry them
home. If you
Some ancient couldn’t count,
your friend could

cultures used steal some and

you’d never know.

their hands What’s worth

counting?
to count in Even when people had invented counting

base five and gotten used to the idea, they probably

only counted things that
seemed valuable. Some
tribal people still do this. The
Yupno people in Papua New
Guinea count string bags, grass
skirts, pigs, and money, but not
days, people, sweet potatoes, or nuts!
11
 You can count
on PeoPle
HandS and feet
The tribes of Papua New Guinea have
Head and shoulders
at least 900 different counting systems.
In some parts of Papua New Guinea, tribal
Many tribes count past their fingers and people start counting on a little finger and then
so don’t use base ten. one tribe counts cross the hand, arm, and body before running
toes after fingers, giving down the other arm. The Faiwol tribe counts 27
them a base 20 system. body parts and uses the words for body parts as
Their word for 10 is numbers. The word for 14 is nose, for instance.
two hands. Fifteen For numbers bigger than 27, they add one man.
is two hands and one
So 40 would be one man and right eye.
foot, and 20 is one man.

Start
Here!

12
Counting on your hands is fine for numbers up to ten, but what about
bigger numbers? Throughout history, people invented lots of different ways of
counting past ten, often by using different parts of the body. In some parts
of the world, people still count on their bodies today.

in the sixties Making a point

The Babylonians, who lived in Iraq about Counting on the body is so important to some tribal
6,000 years ago, counted in base 60. They people that they can’t count properly in words alone.
gave their year 360 days, which is 6 × 60. The Baruga tribe in Papua New Guinea counts with
We don’t know for sure how they used their 22 body parts but uses the same word, finger, for the
hands to count, but one theory is that they numbers 2, 3, 4,
used a thumb to tap the 12 finger segments 19, 20, and 21. So
of that hand, and fingers on to avoid confusion,
the other hand to count they have to point at the
lots of 12, making 60 correct finger whenever
altogether. Babylonians they say these numbers.
invented minutes and
seconds, which we still a handy triCk
count in sixties today. hands are handy for multiplying as
well as counting. Use this trick to remember your
nine-times table. First, hold your hands in front of
your face and number the fingers 1 to 10, counting
from left. To work out any number times nine,
simply fold down that finger. For instance, to
work out 7 × 9, fold the seventh finger.
Now there are 6
fingers on the left
and 3 on the
right, so the
answer is 63.

13
 Where do numbers come from?

Making a mark
For hundreds of thousands of years, people
managed fine by counting with their hands. But about
6,000 years ago, the world changed. In the Middle
East , people figured out how to tame animals
and plant crops—they became farmers.

Babylonian numbers
About 6,000 years ago, the farmers in Babylonia
(Iraq) started making clay tokens as records of deals.
They had different-shaped tokens for different things...

... so an oval might

stand for a sack
of wheat...

... and a circle might mean a jar of oil. For two or

three jars of oil, two or three tokens were exchanged.

When a deal involved several tokens, they were wrapped

together in a clay envelope. To show what was inside, the trader
made symbols on the outside with a pointed stick. Then someone
had the bright idea of simply marking clay with symbols and not
bothering with tokens at all. And that’s how writing was invented.

14
 Making a mark

, South Americ
pu a

i
Qu
once farming started, people ... or knots in string.
began trading in markets. They had to In Iraq, they made marks in
remember exactly how many things they lumps of wet clay from a river.
owned, sold, and bought; otherwise people When the clay hardened in the
would cheat each other. So the sun, it made a permanent record.
farmers started keeping In doing this, the farmers of Iraq
records. To do this, they invented not just written numbers but
could make notches in writing itself. It was the start of civilization—
Ish
an

sticks or bones... o and it was all triggered by numbers.

g

Bo
ne f a
rom Afric

4000–2000 bce
The first symbols were circles and cones like the old
tokens, but as the Babylonians got better at sharpening their
wooden pens, the symbols turned into small, sharp wedges.

For a one they made a mark like this:

To write numbers up to nine, they simply made more marks:

2 was 3 was 4 was

When they got to 10, they turned the symbol on its side...
... and when they got to 60, they turned it upright again.

So this is how the Babylonians would have written the number 99:

99

15
 Where do numbers come from?

Work like an Egyptian hairsbreadth

(the smallest unit)

in
ch

The ancient Egyptians farmed the thin ribbon

of green land by the Nile River, lm
s

pa
which crosses the Sahara Desert. 7

The Nile used to flood every summer, Egyptian numbers

washing away fields and ditches. Year cubit weren’t suited to
doing fractions,
after year, the Egyptians had to mark out their fields so the Egyptians
anew. And so they became expert surveyors and divided each unit
palm
into smaller
timekeepers, using math not just for counting but for units. One cubit
measuring land, making buildings, and tracking time. was made of
7 palms, for
To measure anything—whether it’s time, weight, or instance, and a
palm was made
distance—you need units. The Egyptians based their of 4 digits.
units for length on the human body. Even today, many
people still measure their height in “feet.”
foot
yard

Egyptian numbers

Egyptians counted 1 The hieroglyphs were stacked up in piles

in base 10 and wrote 10 to create bigger numbers. This is how
numbers as little pictures, the Egyptians wrote 1,996:
100
or “hieroglyphs.” Simple
lines stood for 1, 10, and 1,000
100. For 1,000 they drew a 10,000
lotus flower; 10,000 was a
finger; 100,000 was a frog;
100,000
While hieroglyphs were carved in stone, a
and a million was a god. 1,000,000 different system was used for writing on paper.
16
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