Review_Author: Dusty Twister
Book_Author: Hans Magnus Enzensberger
Book_Title: The Number Devil, A Mathematical Adventure
Reference: 1997, New York, Metropolitan Books
Date: 3/2/00
Time: 12:29:45 AM
Remote Name: 141.151.20.246
The Number Devil takes mathematical principles and patterns, principles and patterns that may have seemed dull or confusing, and makes them simple and fun. A math book that is truly for all ages, it not only comes with a story line, but covers a whole variety of things. The basic plot of the book is that of a small boy, named Robert, who is sick of dreaming of being swallowed be giant fish or sliding down endless slides. He does not like math very much, and who can blame him, when at school, he receives problems like "If two pretzel makers can make 444 pretzels in 6 hours, how long does it take 5 pretzel makers make 88 pretzels?" His answer is...who cares? Well one night that all changes, when the Number Devil drops by for a visit. Suddenly Robert starts looking forward to his dreams and what the Number Devil has to show him. The Number Devil starts with explaining addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and by the end of the book has gone through geometrical principles, the square root of -1, Bonacci Numbers, Pascal's Triangle, basically the works. The author is somehow able to explain this mathematics in a way that is so easily understandable and simple, and yet goes in depth into every subject he undertakes. Since everything and every explanation is directed at Robert, and is done in a type of a fairy tale, the story and math principles are easy to follow, and the book is definitely a page turner. The relationship between the Number Devil and Robert is constantly strained, especially when Robert does not believe what the Number Devil is telling him. An example is when the Number Devil tries to show Robert that 3/3 is .99999… and that it equals one because the nines never end. Robert persists in his disagreement that it is not completely one and the Number Devil made an endless number of nines that float to the sky from his walking stick. Roberts’s response is “Stop! Please stop! It’s making me sick.” The Number Devil responds, “A snap of my fingers and they’re gone, but not until you admit that the chain of nines behind the zero, if it goes forever, will turn out to be equal to one.” The book also goes into some of the history of mathematics, for instance the origin of zero, and also gives explanations of how mathematics interacts with nature. What was especially interesting, was how mating patterns of rabbit couples, followed the pattern of Bonacci Numbers. All in all, I would recommend this book for any age group or background, not only because it is packed with possibly new information, but it also can be insightful into how better to teach children, how to grab their attention, and make what you're saying more interesting for them. I would also highly recommend for this book to be used in the classroom, for any level of mathematics for that reason.