{"product_id":"huge-numbers-richard-elwes-9781541605923","title":"Huge Numbers: A Story of Counting Ambitiously, from 4 1\/2 to Fish 7","description":"\u003cb\u003eHow humanity's long pursuit of ever-larger numbers broke the boundaries of mathematics and propelled us into the Information Age \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e What if, every time you wanted to write down 1,000,000, you had to draw a picture of a god? And what if that number were the biggest you had a symbol for? If you were doing math in ancient Egypt, those were the rules: anything bigger broke math. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e As mathematician Richard Elwes shows in \u003ci\u003eHuge Numbers\u003c\/i\u003e, this is the strange story of math. Even today, writing down some numbers is beyond us: try it with all the zeroes in a googolplex, or an outrageous alien number like TREE(3). Safer not to try: even harnessing every particle in the universe, you wouldn't come close. But this book is no mere bestiary of numerical monsters. It shows how, by hunting down and studying ever-bigger numbers, arithmetic has reshaped human thought and made our modern era of science and computation possible. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Where many math books celebrate abstract algebra or ineffable infinities, \u003ci\u003eHuge Numbers\u003c\/i\u003e is both more practical and far weirder. It reveals a world where most numbers remain out of reach until we discover how to chase them down and tame them, and so remake our world again.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Richard Elwes\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1541605926\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781541605923\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Basic Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/28\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 368\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover","brand":"Richard Elwes","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":47424787742975,"sku":"9781541605923","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_6e3cf766-c548-405f-9916-4665a08a1040.jpg?v=1761532524","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/huge-numbers-richard-elwes-9781541605923","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}