Benjamin Wardhaugh

Counting by Benjamin Wardhaugh is a captivating exploration into the very essence of numbers and their profound impact on human civilisation. This innovative book takes readers on a spellbinding journey through time, delving into the origins, development, and cultural significance of counting. From primitive tally marks to modern digital algorithms, Wardhaugh deftly unravels the mysterious relationship between numbers and the...

An astonishingly readable and informative history of the greatest mathematical bestseller of all time … The writing is vivid and the stories are gripping. Highly recommended. — IAN STEWART, AUTHOR OF SIGNIFICANT FIGURES Elements of Geometry by Euclid was a book that changed the world. In this sweeping history, Benjamin Wardhaugh traces how the ancient Greek text on mathematics—often hailed...

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO COUNT? WHY ARE HUMANS THE ONLY SPECIES ON EARTH THAT CAN DO IT? WHERE DID COUNTING COME FROM? HOW HAS IT SHAPED SOCIETIES ALONG THE WAY? AND WHY DOES IT MATTER? Counting is an innovative, erudite, world-wrapping journey through humanity’s marvellous ability to impose numbers on things. Acclaimed historian and mathematician Benjamin Wardhaugh draws on...

Thomas Salmon (1647-1706) is remembered today for the fury with which Matthew Locke greeted his first foray into musical writing, the Essay to the Advancement of Musick (1672), and the near-farcical level to which the subsequent pamphlet dispute quickly descended. Salmon proposed a radical reform of musical notation, involving a new set of clefs which he claimed, and Locke denied,...