Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero PDF
Preview Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero
T HE NO T H I N G T H AT IS R O B E RT K A P L AN T HE NOTHING T H AT IS A Natural History of Zero Illustrations by Ellen Kaplan OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 20OO OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogota Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Paris Sao Paulo Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Copyright © 1999 by Robert Kaplan Illustrations copyright © 1999 by Ellen Kaplan Originally published in the United Kingdom by Allen Lane/The Penguin Press, 1999 Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kaplan, Robert, 1933- The nothing that is: a natural history of zero /Robert Kaplan p. cm. Included index ISBN 0-19-512842-7 1. Zero (The number) I. Title QA141.K36 1999 511.2'11dc21 99-29000 9 8 7 6 5 43 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper To Frank Brimsek 3 hours 51 minutes 54 seconds How close to zero is zero? BRITISH DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER JOHN PRESCOTT CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS x A NOTE TO THE READER xii ZERO THE LENS I ONE MIND PUTS ITS STAMP ON MATTER 4 TWO THE GREEKS HAD NO WORD FOR IT 14 THREE TRAVELERS' TALES 28 FOUR EASTWARD 36 FIVE DUST 50 SIX INTO THE UNKNOWN 57 vii SEVEN A PARADIGM SHIFTS 68 EIGHT A MAYAN INTERLUDE: 80 THE DARK SIDE OF COUNTING NINE MUCHADO 90 1 Envoys of Emptiness 90 2 A Sypher in Augrim 93 3 This Year, Next Year, Sometime, Never 103 4 Still It Moves 106 TEN ENTERTAINING ANGELS 116 I The Power of Nothing 116 2 Knowing Squat 120 3 The Fabric of This Vision 129 4 Leaving No Wrack Behind 137 viii ELEVEN ALMOST NOTHING 144 I Slouching Toward Bethlehem 144 2 Two Victories, a Defeat and Distant Thunder 160 TWELVE IS IT OUT THERE? 175 THIRTEEN BATH-HOUSE WITH SPIDERS 190 FOURTEEN A LAND WHERE IT 195 WAS ALWAYS AFTERNOON FIFTEEN WAS LEAR RIGHT? 203 SIXTEEN THE UNTHINKABLE 216 INDEX 220 ix
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